In which the only person who lapped Brad was Sean

We spent a very windy Sunday in June at the mini-bike races at the Abbott Sports Complex.  It had been awhile since I had been to a dirtbike race and it was fun, as usual!  (Brad was a good sport about the whole "getting lapped by Sean" thing.  Sean is freakishly fast.)

Our little mechanic

These are just a few of the pictures that our favorite Auntie brooke took for us as a Father's Day gift to Brad.  We snuck his dirtbike and a few tools out into the yard and bribed Willa (with cookies) to sit on it.  No bribery was necessary for her to poke at it with the tools though.  She LOVES to help Brad fix things.  The other day, he was laying underneath the bobcat, working on it.  So she layed underneath her tricycle and worked on it, too.  (And yes, I did say bobcat.  It is STILL in our driveway, broken.)  Today we were driving in Brad's truck and he had a part to a boat in a box.  She saw the part sticking out of the box and said "boat."  She saw Brad take the broken part off of the boat and recognized that this was the same part for the boat.  That is one smart cookie!

Before the sun went down

 Its the Luth's and the Petermann's!

In which I attempt to ride a dirtbike.  Note Willa on the pink Ninja:)

 

Every day starts off innocently enough

The first ever celebration happened at the mini farm on Sunday and it was...um...a success?!?  No one was killed?  No, I'm sure no one was killed.  That is all I'm sure of. 
We didn't quite get the to-do list finished, but we did hit all the important things like food, clean floors, and keg.  Didn't get all the way done with the trim painting or trimming the dogs nails but we'll get there.  The night started off with some dirtbike riding and food.  Brad and Sean did jump the smoke bomb, which was visually stunning.  I believe there is a video on YouTube.  I'll try to find it.  I even took my first spin around the track.  It was ugly but it got done.  I prefer the yard, where there are no hills.  After the sun went down, things took a turn for the "inappropriate" a.k.a. the fireworks got a little dangerous and shortly thereafter the keg ran out.  So that is when the little ones went to bed.  Willa at Grandma and Grandpa's and baby Jackson borrowed her crib.  But Willa didn't leave before a little country music dancing with her parents, swimming with Jackson, riding a pink Ninja, petting some frogs, and spending some quality time with her Auntie brooke and Uncle Chris.  (That makes them sound like a couple.  Which they are not.  They just happen to be 2 of her favorite people.)  Many, many thanks to everyone who came to help us break in the mini farm.  I apologize if you were in any way burned or if my husband shot you with a parachute.  I do recall saying (more than once), "Why is my yard on fire?  Could someone please put out the fire in my yard?"  But I don't ever remember being too concerned about the fires so yes, the night was a success.  I think that 4th of July parties may just become annual for us. 

PS:  YouTube video located, click link above.  Major excitement:)  I will share more pictures when mom, the photographer, gets her pictures to download properly.

Ready, set, ride

I must admit that my mind was completely blown on Sunday. Remember when I was told that the track would be completed by Sunday evening? IT WAS!!! I didn't think it could happen by the looks of it when I returned home from work that morning. It was a big muddy mess of dirt piles. After just a few hours of Sean and the Magic Bobcat, it now looks like one of the sweetest mini-bike tracks I have ever seen! Ok, that's not saying much as I've only seen a few, but I heard the same opinion from much more credible sources than myself. In fact, I think I even heard "best in the Midwest". Wow! I'm pretty excited for Brad to be able to enjoy it and get it all broken in. Sean R has got some maaaad track building skills. As soon as the rain let's up for a solid 24 hours and the mud dries out, I'm sure there will be a fest of pictures of happy riders!

Never question our priorities

Diving right in to the first project on the list of anyone doing a major home renovation has got to be...the dirtbike track.  Ha!  Just kidding!  That turned up about 79th on my list, but 1st on Brad's so we averaged it out and it came immediately following pulling some weeds, starting a mini-garden, and fixing the toilet paper dispenser thingy.  Not even kidding.  But, it is kind of a cool process and I am so glad that we have the space for it, so I will try to stop my whining and complaining.  Now, if only it would stop raining!  The above picture is the before shot of the location of the track.  It was the giant garden of the previous owners.  Man, that sucker was huge and overgrown!  So, we decided to do a small, raised bed garden on the opposite side of the yard (pictures to come) and use this space for the track.  Now would be the perfect time for Brad to guest-blog so that this post would be more technical and accurate but that will probably never happen, so I will relay what I have witnessed happening in the process thus far.  It goes like this:
1.  Talk a lot about Bobcats.
2.  Find someone who has a Bobcat.
3.  Bring home the Bobcat and talk about it some more.
4.  Give Allison's parking space to the Bobcat.
5.  Drink beer.
6.  Have Sean come and drive the Bobcat all over and make some mounds of dirt.
7.  Drink beer.
8.  Have Sean, Ben, Nick, Darren, Travis, etc come over and look at the dirt mounds. 
9.  Have the aforementioned individuals attempt to ride a dirtbike on the dirt mounds. 
10.  Drink beer.
11.  Break the first Bobcat.
12.  Have 6 motorcycle mechanics look at the Bobcat and determine they can't fix it.
13.  Drink beer.
14.  Rent a Bobcat.
15.  Use the rental Bobcat to push the broken Bobcat out of the way.
16.  Drink beer.

So, that is where we are at this morning.  I have been promised that this project will be done this evening.