Bowling

We planned a trip to the bowling alley this morning with some CC friends.  When we arrived at the bowling alley every lane was filled with a field trip from a local school.  They said the kids were about to leave and in 30 minutes there would be lots of lanes available.  We went down the road to McDonalds to pass the time.  

 Ben, Mollie Grace, and Annie weren't the only ones that ate.  They just got their food first.

 Mollie Grace ended up with the highest score on her lane!

 I love how excited these girls were when someone bowled well.  I'm not sure whether Mollie Grace or Lucy Kate was bowling here.

 Ben got a strike.

 Annie tricked me into letting her bowl.  As I was putting on my shoes this morning, she came into the closet and said, "Do I look big?"  I said, "You look very big!"  She got really excited and said, "That means I'm big enough to bowl!"  So I let her bowl.  Her other little friends Emmaline, Harris, Jonah, and Bailey bowled too.  Those were the slowest balls ever rolled down a lane.  Some of them stopped dead at the pins and another one just stopped mid-way down the lane.  I think it was "thrown" by Emmaline.

Talladega

This picture was on the Talladega Speedway Facebook page yesterday with several pictures from the Kids VIP Experience.  This is Austin Dillon taking a selfie with some of the kids.

Mother's Day

Opening my Mother's Day cards and gifts.  Mollie Grace made me a paperbag puppet.  I also got a stand mixer from everyone.

Randomness

 Mollie Grace was proud of the monster she created with Legos.

Annie the bunny with her bunny friends.

Baseball

We got home about eight last night.  We're back to our normal routine today -- school work, laundry, and a baseball game this evening.  Ben walked to first and stole a couple of bases to get to third.  He made it home on a base hit from a team mate.  They won 14-5.  It took 1 hour and 20 minutes to play two innings!  I am thankful that each team can only score 7 runs per inning and that there is a 1 hour and 15 minute time limit. (They don't immediately stop at 1 hour and 15 minutes but don't start another inning if they have played past that time.)

 Ben on third waiting to run home.

 Guess what Mollie Grace and Annie did during the game?  We stopped by the bathroom and washed hands and faces before getting in the car.

Oak Mountain Lake

On Sunday while the guys were at the race, the girls played at the lake at the state park.  

 This is what I told them they could do.  Wade in the water and play in the sand.

 And then it got wilder.

 And eventually it became this!

 Mollie Grace found a worm.

 These clothes will never be the same again.  Mollie Grace asked why I didn't bring them swim suits.  I replied that it was 50 degrees and raining when we packed on Thursday.  I didn't expect it to be warm enough to get in the water (it was too cold for me anyway).

Building a sand castle.

 We also hiked a couple of a short trails along the side of the lake.  They liked throwing pine cones in the lake.

 After they got dry and clean clothes on we played Queen of the Castle in "our backyard" as Annie called the area around the fire pit behind our trailer site.  I was the Queen on Nature.  Notice the decorations Mollie Grace added to my hat.

 We wanted a fire but John had taken the firewood so we gathered up sticks and got a nice fire going.

The pile of sticks that we gathered up to keep it burning after dark until John got back with the wood.

Kid's VIP Experience

For Ben's birthday he got pit passes for Talladega.  We had already made plans for the entire family to attend the Xfinity race and to camp at Oak Mountain State Park for the weekend.  A couple of weeks before the race I got an e-mail about a Kids VIP Experience for kids under 12 that had upgraded pit passes.  Ben only had regular pit passes but asked to pay for the upgrade himself so that he could do the VIP Experience.  

There were several things kids could do but they could only choose one and it was first come first serve.  The options were 

• Reserved Kids VIP area at the Drivers Meeting red carpet
• VIP hot laps in Grand Marshal car
• Reserved Kids VIP area at Driver Introductions
• Guided tour of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Garage
• Photo opportunity in Gatorade Victory Lane before the GEICO 500

Some of the options were definitely better than others so John and Ben left the campsite at 7 a.m. to get there as early as possible (the tent opened at 8 a.m.).  They weren't sure what they wanted to do so John asked what would get Ben closest to the drivers and he was given one of about 15 spots in the reserved kids area at the Drivers Meeting red carpet.  We thought this would just be watching the drivers pass by on their way to the meeting.  It turned out to be much better.  About 20 drivers stopped and signed autographs.  Kyle Busch was not in the group but Ben was very excited about the drivers that he did get to meet.

 Standing by Bill Elliott's car that recorded the fastest lap in NASCAR at Talladega in 1987.

In Kyle's pit box.

 Dale Jr.'s pit box.  They said it was full of people.

 

 Kevin Harvick

 Erik Jones

 Matt Kenseth

 Jeffery Earnhardt (Dale Jr.'s nephew)

 Daniel Suarez

 David Ragan

 A. J. Allmendinger

 Landon Cassill

 Ricky Stenhouse Jr (who's from Olive Branch and won the race)

 Clint Bowyer

 Denny Hamlin

 Chase Elliott

 Trevor Bayne

Obviously Danica Patrick

 Ryan Newman

 Ty Dillon.  There were other drivers that signed Ben's book that John did not get pictures of including Jimmie Johnson.

 Joe Gibbs (who Ben asked to sign his hat).  Joe Gibbs owns Kyle's car and several others.  He is also a Super Bowl winning football coach.

 Ben's autographed hat.  He plans to retire it.

 They also attended driver introductions.  This is Kyle being introduced.  The man in front of them booed Kyle.

 Denny and Joey Logano riding around the track.

 They stayed on Pit Road too long and had to ride out on a tram through a tunnel located under turn 4.  They got to their seats just as the race was starting.

 The race starting.

 Denny leading.  He won the second stage.

Kyle and Denny on the front row.  Kyle finished third after a last lap pass.