Boo at the Zoo

Sunday evening we went to Boo at the Zoo with the Onkens!  Boo at the Zoo suggests having the kiddos dress up in their costumes when they come.  I figured why not, they will only be able to wear them this year, so the boys dressed up in their Halloween costumes.  I took some pictures at the house before we loaded up in the car.

The weather was beautiful.  It was a nice cool night at the zoo.  Nolan enjoyed the carousal ride, the straw maze, and funnel cake.  Carter and Emmett were along for the ride.

Nolan made a Dinosaur build-a-bear around the age of one, so we decided to have Carter make one at the zoo.  Carter chose the zebra all my himself!  Carter really liked all of the hearts and kept trying to eat them.  We decided to name the zebra, Boo, since were were attending Boo at the Zoo.

I took some pictures of Boo this morning, since I forgot to last night.  Bill and I decided he needed a Cardinals hat, since the Cards are going to the World Series!!

Grab your shovel, it's a spoon!!

Growing up, my dad and I would go back on our farm to the persimmon tree and grab a couple and bring them back to the house to cut open.  According to folklore, you can predict the weather for the coming winter season by evaluating the kernel inside of the persimmon seed.

- If the kernel is spoon-shaped, lots of heavy, wet snow will fall. Spoon = Shovel!
- If it is fork-shaped, you can expect powdery, light snow and a mild winter.
- If the kernel is knife-shaped, expect to be "cut" by icy, cutting winds.

I wanted to do this with Nolan, so on Sunday Nolan and I jumped on the Kubota and went back to the persimmon tree and brought a couple of fruits back.  This is what a persimmon looks like, in case you were wondering.  The persimmon kind of reminds me of a pumpkin when it is cut open and the seeds are like pumpkin seeds, but extremely hard to open!!

There they are, the two spoons!!  Papa opened others to make sure as well and he had spoons too.  Sounds like lots of snowmen will be made again this year!!!

JL Motorsports

We arrived at Clay County Speedway after about an hour and a half in the car.  The boys slept the whole way. We had a blast watching James race.  What an adrenaline rush!!! I was very intrigued by the whole process from start to finish.  I  may be biased, but James does an excellent job racing, all I could think of when he was rounding the dirt corners was, "turn right to go left" from the Cars movie! Of course, Nolan thought the race was the coolest thing ever and he already idolizes James.

This is James' first year driving a Non-Wing Sprint Car, which can go up to 140mph!!  The first race is called the heat race, which determines placement for the feature race.  I thought the heat was an exciting race, but everyone kept telling me to wait until the feature.  During downtime, we went to James' trailer, which was heated and loaded with food!!

Since James' car doesn't have a starter, it has to be pushed by the four wheeler onto the track.  Another track car then pushes each car to crank the drive shaft, which in turn fires the engine and makes the car go.  I grew up using the push start method, but it was usually because the starter was broke. :)

After the heat race was completed, James' placed well enough to start in the 4th spot for the feature race.  There are other cars racing during the downtime, which is when James and his crew would make adjustments to his car.  I took some snapshots while some adjustments were being made.

The boys had fun in the trailer while waiting for the feature race.

It was finally time for the feature and Carter was having a meltdown because it was bed time.  Bill stayed in the heated car with Carter, who fell asleep in 2 minutes, while Nolan and I went with the rest of the crew to watch the race.  The feature consists of 20 laps.  As the warm up laps were finishing up, the green flag waved and the cars took off.  Not even a few seconds into the race a car hit the wall and the race had to be stopped.  

After the car was hauled off the race resumed, James made a quick maneuver and put himself in first place!  After several more laps a different car's wheel fell off, and another car flipped after hitting the lost wheel. The race was delayed again.  Finally after two wrecks, the race resumed.  It was a nail biter!!  James held first place for quite awhile, but an experienced driver took first place with only a few laps left.  James ended the feature in 2nd place, which is amazing since it is his first year driving this car!!

With Nolan and Carter being quite a bit older next year, we will definitely be attending more races next season.  Congrats Jimmy!!

Sensory Overload!!

This past weekend Bill, Nolan, Carter, and myself ventured back home to participate in many activities.  There were so many things going on, I will have to make numerous posts!!  What originally brought us back home was Jaron's Senior Night football game.  This was Carter's first football game as well.  Both Nolan and Carter had fun at the game, but we only stayed until half time because it was chilly and Nolan was going to stay the night at Grandma Donna's.  Carter loved the band and Nolan enjoyed cheering on Uncle Jaron.

Like I said, Nolan stayed the night at Grandma Donna's Friday night, so Carter was the one who helped Papa do the chores in the morning.  It was chilly, so I put Carter in a snowsuit!  He could barely walk, but at least he was warm and cozy.  It started to warm up later on in the day, so I took Carter out to enjoy some fresh air and take some snapshots of him as well. 

Around midday, Nolan and Bill came back to the farm.  Bill has been wanting to shoot Nolan's Henry Golden Boy gun ever since Nolan first received the gun as a gift from Papa when Nolan was only 3 weeks old!  Bill and Papa wanted to make sure it was sited in correctly.  I was really nervous, but allowed Nolan to take a couple of shots with the assistance of Papa and Bill.

After shooting a couple of rounds, Papa took Nolan for a ride in the combine.  Papa has been begging me for a couple of weeks to bring Nolan up, so he can go for a ride in the combine.  Saturday I gave in and let Nolan help Papa harvest the corn.  I remember climbing all over the combine like it was a jungle gym when I was little, so I know Nolan had a good time.

It was time for Nana and Papa to head to James' race.  Saturday was James' last race of the season and Bill and I have been wanting to take Nolan for quite some time, so we decided what the heck now or never.  We loaded up and followed Nana and Papa to Clay County Speedway in Flora, IL to watch James race for the first time!!