Grand Junction Motor Speedway

Since Grand Junction Motor Speedway has quickly become one of my favorite places to go, we decided to go back and hit up a club race for more practice in the shifter kart! It was a blast, the people there are ridiculously nice and welcoming.  I ran mid pack but had some crappy starts (shocker) and had to work my way up.  I ended up making some really great passes which I am happy about and ended 1st in S3 class and 5th overall.  Not too bad since I was following behind the number 1 S2 driver Sabre.  (She's completely awesome).  We didn't take a whole lot of pictures but I did take my new favorite picture of Adi with her Papa at a rest stop before the Colorado border.

Adi helping Papa drive the motorhome!

Ali and Dave's Wedding

July 7th I had the honor of being a part of the most amazing wedding.  My best friend from high school Ali married her fabulous fiance Dave in Deer Valley.  The wedding was so beautiful and so much fun I'm so happy I could be there to help these two celebrate! The rehearsal dinner was a blast getting to know other wedding party members better and the wedding itself was so touching (I was the boob crying the whole damn time).  And the after party... DAMN! (That's really all I can say about that!)

Ben and Super Baby running with me to a last minute dress fitting in the hotel!

Me and my Chici (and her bOObs!) at the rehearsal dinner (haha love you Mel)

Me and Ben at the rehearsal dinner (soooo yummy!!)

Ali and Dave giving the sweetest speeches at the rehearsal dinner

Wedding Day!!! Getting ready with the gorgeous bride!

Love this! Ali kept peeking out the windows and balcony to see if it was going to rain! 

Watching the clouds roll by... the rain stopped just in time! So perfect!

Brandace, Ali and me!

Hair dooooo- always good to document these things ;)

A few of the girls getting ready for show time!

Before the wedding Ali and Dave did a "first look" It was so so sweet.  Shocker: I cried!

Terry and Mara walking their girl down the aisle

See, what a boob! I probably ruined all the pictures because I had to look away and cry

Oh good, I smiled in some!

Ali and I found something very funny apparently :)

Mr. and Mrs.!!!!!!

Of course Adi got all dressed up for the big event!!

Girls, girls, and more girls!

Baby cakes... so much excitement for a three month old!

The old crew! Love this to death!

Everyone in the wedding party was introduced by the DJ and we walked in... we then took shots :)

It was NOT planned... but a tunnel was suddenly made for bride and groom... hilarious

Spontaneous tunnel

Which then erupted into a spontaneous dance party for a couple minutes

And much later in the evening... Ali danced with M.J.... AMAZING!

BEST.  WEDDING.  EVER.  Congrats Ali and Dave!

Three Months Old and getting mobile!!!

Well, Miss Adi Grace turned three months June 28.  She weighed about 10.5 lbs (on our unreliable bathroom scale) and was 23.5 inches long! She's grown so much already.  She entertains us constantly with her goofy toothless grin and giggle.  

Playing Superman with Daddy on her 3 month b-day

Tummy time which quickly ends in back time cause she rolls so much

Letting her tongue air dry

Getting better at sitting up

Just cooing and chattering away 

Pre-roll session

More tongue air drying

Adi's three month accomplishments include:

• Rolling over (on Father's Day!)
• Sitting up with just a little support
• Giggling and laughing
• Lots of smiles
• She LOVES bath time
• She likes to pet Ozzy and grab his tail
• She sleeps through the night in her crib (she slept through the night last month too but now she's in her crib and out of the bassinet)
• She loves to play Superman with Daddy she smiles and drools on him
• She sticks her tongue out constantly and lets it air dry
• She is a little chatter box of cooing sounds

We just can't get enough of this little kid!! Happy 1/4 year kiddo!

Button Willow Raceway SKUSA race

June 22-23 was another SKUSA race at Button Willow Raceway.  I really struggled with this track and didn't have a lot of success.  A lot of people also seemed to struggle though so just completing each lap was apparently an accomplishment that weekend.  On practice in the morning of race day I spun and backed (very quickly) into a nice dirt wall.  I got pretty bad whiplash that I'm still struggling with a month later! Yuck! Adrenaline is a magical medicine though that kept me going until the last few laps of the 20 lap main.  By lap 17 my neck and shoulder seized up so bad it took everything in me to even lift my arm to up shift.  Each shift knocked the wind out of me.  Not a great experience but I survived.  Anyway... it was a... weird... weekend to say the least so we didn't take a lot of pictures.  Here is Little A getting a taste of the wheel :) and one with tuner Mike.

Utah Kart Championship Race 2

Saturday June 16 was round 2 of Utah Kart Championship at MMP.  Not a big turn out for the TAG class but still a fun race.  I also ran the shifter kart for the first time.  I started in the very back of the Spec light and Spec heavies because it was my first race and I didn't want to get in anyone's way.  I was faster than all the Spec heavy driver (which I should have been) and faster than one Spec light.  Not a bad start I suppose.  I was only 1.2 seconds off of one of the top drivers.  Lots more practice needed but tons of fun! We didn't take any pictures on race day but here's Adi on practice day... 

She's wearing her Mighty Midget racing shirt.  Maybe I'll invent a racing clothing line for little girls since everything is boys so she has so wear a skirt so she looks like a girl. :) Cute little A.

New York, New York

Wow, am I behind or what?! Life has been so busy but on top of that our computer crashed... not once... not twice... but three times!! We lost everything but THANKFULLY I backed up all our photos to my phone.  7,000 photos roughly saved... like I said, thankfully! So many memories would have been lost! Our next purchase was an external hard drive to save these important things.

Anyway, June 2-9 was our trip to New York!! Before we even left Salt Lake airport, Adi met her first famous person... Faizon Love (best known for Couple's Retreat, Elf, Blue Crush, and Bruce the Bear in Zookeeper).

Mama, Adi and Faizon at SLC Airport

 We were so nervous about taking Adi on a plane at just two months old... we didn't want to be "those" people with the screaming child the whole flight.  She did AMAZING though! She slept pretty much the entire flight and didn't cry more than 30 seconds the whole time.  We are so lucky!!

Adi slept almost the entire flight!

Landing in New York! It was so late, baby was sleeping!

We got in at about midnight and then had to wait for a very clueless car service to get us to our friend's Ali and Dave's apartment.  We didn't arrive until 1:30 and went to bed close to 2 am.  Poor A's sleep schedule was a bit messed up!

Welcoming view!

When we finally DID get to Ali and Dave's we were welcomed by the most AMAZING view of the city.  They have the iconic view people would die for and a HUGE deck to enjoy it on!

This was the view out our bedroom window when we woke up in the morning, WOW!!!

Mommy with A

Daddy with A

After lots of picture taking of the amazing view, apartment and deck we had a New York bakery style breakfast.  Delicious! Then we set out to walk the Brooklyn Bridge into the city to start exploring! 

Brooklyn Bridge Walk

 First we found the Hershey's Factory with Adi sized bottles of syrup... it was too funny not to take a picture.  Ben was not amused with me but oh well.

Adi size!

Next we went to time square and met the Naked Cowboy.  He sang to me... I think he liked me :)

Naked Cowboy

Us in Time Square

 We took one of those tour buses to ride around the city and see everything and make a game plan for the week.  There's just so much to see and do! We saw some amazing things as we drove around the city.  One of our favorites was the Flat Iron building... pretty awesome to see.

Flat Iron Building

The Next Day was really rainy so we took our tour bus around for a second day, but took shelter below deck and made it a museum day.  Here's one shot we took while the rain was sort of taking a break on the evening Brooklyn tour. 

Rainy evening in Brooklyn, looking back at the city

 The next day was an incredibly busy one looking back at all the pictures! First we went back to the heart of the city to go to Ali's dress fitting (well I did that, Ben and Adi had no real interest in dresses).  We saw Saint Patrick's Cathedral while we were waiting to go into Saks.

Outside the Cathedral

After the dress fitting we went to Rockefeller Center and went to the "Top of the Rock".  The views were incredible!!

Looking at the Empire State Building from Rockefeller

Us at the Top of the Rock (Adi was on Ben's belly most of the trip)

Ben and A

 After the Rockefeller Center we stumbled upon a Lego Store and of course had to go in for Ben! We had some fun photo opps in the store.

Ben feeding A to the giant dragon that wrapped around the store.  She wasn't pleased.

The "Big Apple".  Get it?

We did more wandering but this post is going to get waaaaay to long so I'll shorten things a bit.  But I have to include our stop to FAO Schwartz.  While Adi wasn't big enough to play the giant piano yet, I did find her next big present... holy race car anyone? 

Ferrari! Yes please!!

Next stop: (The main point for our journey across country) Yankee Stadium!!! The Yankees were starting a three game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.  We originally booked so I could see Johnny Damon... stupid Ray's didn't pick him up again this year.  Oh well, still an amazing set of games.  

They might as well have Pearly Gates 

Batting Practice

A did so great watching the games!! She attracted quite a bit of attention in her adorable hat.

First Yankee Game!

Ben packed on some poundage! (About 10.5 to be exact)

 Yankee's won the first game.  It was a blast!
The next day we went to the Natural History Museum.  It was fun to wander around.  A slept through a lot of it but had wide eyes at the giant animal and dinosaur exhibits.  See size matters.

Outside the Natural History Museum

Next, we went to Central Park and wandered around for quite a while.  What an amazing calm in the middle of the biggest city in America! It was beautiful and so great to see.  

Ben and his bundle all shaded up

Crazy to be in such a calm place and see the city

After Central Park was Yankee Game number 2!! Of course the Yanks pulled out another win for us! They had several home runs in both games we watched.  We also went to the Yankee Museum inside the stadium.  We saw some incredible famous signatures including Babe, Mickey, Jeter and of course my FAVORITE Johnny Damon!!

Pre game: Us at the last game we went to

 The next day was our super American-Patriotic Day.  We went to the Police Museum.  It was really amazing to see all the history in such an amazing city through the eyes of the Boys in Blue.

Adi's first (and last!) mug shot!!

Next we went to see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island.  We also went to Ellis Island but I'm not including any pictures of that.  

Liberty Ferry view

With our amazing friends (and Adi's god-parents) Drew and Kristi

Last stop of the day was the 9/11 Memorial Site.  What an incredible experience.  The museum was very moving and sad to see but I'm so happy we went.  The waterfalls they made are beautiful. 

Our last day was probably my favorite because it was so relaxed and fun! We slept in and then rode the subway into the city to Grand Central Station.  It was really fun to see this very active and busy terminal in motion! We ate at the amazing Juniors so we could have their AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING cheesecake.  It was, well, AMAZING! 

After that we wandered around a park in Brooklyn near Ali and Dave's apartment.  We napped and hung out until our gracious hosts got home from work.  Then we took Ali and Dave to the famous pizza place Grimaldi's for dinner.  Having beer and pizza with two incredible people was such a great way to top off the vacation! We took a scenic walk back to their apartment and couldn't help but take a bundle of pictures while the sun was setting.  It was such an awesome evening!

Wandering back home we saw this guy making HUGE bubbles

Me with our awesome hostess Ali!

Little Family with the New York setting sun!

See the building in front of Ben and Adi... with the lights strung on the balcony.  Yeah, that's Ali and Dave's apartment where we stayed.  It is a miracle I got Ben off their deck at all.  It was so fabulous.

Ben walking back with Adi

Great way to end the trip and night.  Beer and great people with the most amazing view!

Ben with A

Good bye New York!