Another fun track day!

Jake and Dan are still working on getting Jake's 250F running, so the boys are sharing Tom's 125 when we go to the track. That makes it hard for me to get any reading and writing done while we are there since there is always one boy sitting and talking with me, but we have fun.

There was a race over the weekend, so there was a dead campfire and some lost toys at our spot when we arrived at 9am. Tom decided to keep this car as a mascot. Jake has named him Arsee.

Jake was a little tired. Getting up early and loading the truck in the morning instead of the night before was a bit too much. We won't try that again.

Jake requested that I walk out and take some pictures and videos of him riding to put on his Hookit page. Tom tried to take some last time but they didn't come out well. Tom is just too distracted to focus on the camera. Jake took some great ones of Tom though.

Tom led me out to the middle of the track where I wouldn't get run over but could take better pictures. He showed me a way to get there without crossing the track, which makes me nervous. Always thinking of his Mommy's safely, that one!

I get so excited watching them ride! Tom was racing another guy on the smaller track. It was funny because I glanced over and saw him and knew right away that he was putting all his effort into staying in front of the guy. I stood up and walked over to watch. It looked just like the pros! I didn't get any video of it though because I was too worried about him crashing to think about the camera.

Tom thought it would be hilarious to roost me with dirt as he rode off. I should have deleted his pictures! Luckily I have a video of that. Proof that it was premeditated!

Tom's last lap time.

Jake's last lap time.

I was seriously impressed by their track skills today. They were clearing jumps they had only rolled before and their lap time was improved a lot. Money is not wasted on track days! Jake flew of a huge table top and amazed me so that I yelled out to him like a true Motocross Mom.

And then, after three hours of riding, they have to change clothes, cool off a bit, and load the truck. The loading has gotten a lot better as well. They have developed a system so as not to irritate each other. Of course, that system was thrown off by loading the truck this morning before we left, but thanks to Jake's "long suffering" and easy going personality, no blows were thrown. Just a few stern looks and shaking of the head.

When we got home, they showered and had dinner, and then Tom and I ran off to rehearsal at Theatre29! It was a VERY long day!

Orchid Festival

On Sunday morning, we met my Mom and Grandpa at Carrow's for breakfast. I thought the Mexican restaurant in town was slow...wow! This took the cake! But the food was good and we had plenty of time to relax and talk.

On the way back to the house, I saw the sign for the Orchid Festival at Gubler's. I didn't know it was THIS weekend! So when my Mom got to our house, I asked if she would like to take Grandpa there. Let's just say it was a good idea. The man loves plants! I've been meaning to go to the annual festival for years, but kept forgetting about it until it was too late.

I won't bore you to death with all the pictures of flowers I took, but you can get the idea.

I had no idea there were that many different kinds! And I found out that vanilla is bean from an orchid. We wandered around looking a flowers for over an hour. The greenhouse is shady and cool inside, so I could have stayed all day. We checked out the rest of the festival and had a glass of wine, then headed home. It was just perfect!

Tom's 14th Birthday

Let me first say that I cannot believe this guy is 14 years old! I swear I was just getting him a sippy cup and begging him to nap with his brother and I. But alas...

He asked me to get donuts for him on his birthday. He stumbled out of his room early in the morning, rubbing his bed head hair, and asked me if would be possible for me to run into town and get some for him. How could I resist?! Jake and I flew!

We had our family over to celebrate with a taco bar and general chaos. I'm terrible about taking pictures at parties! Sorry! I really need to work on that.

He got a bunch of awesome gifts including this big bag of candy!

They had loads of fun terrorizing their oldest cousin!

A special request of Jello Poke Cake was lit by the birthday boy himself after they all played with matches in the kitchen for half an hour.

We had a boat load of fun! My brother and his family were there. My Dad and Step-Mom. AND my Mom and my Grandpa were spending the weekend with us, so it was extra special.

So there you go. Another birthday in the bag. Tom said it was the best ever...again. He loves to have people over, especially Uncle John. Uncle Worship is putting it lightly.

Our First Race Day

It wasn't really a race day for us though. We decided since Jake's bike is not operational that we would wait to actually enter a race. Tom wasn't excited about that really, but Jake really wants to have their first race together, so he agreed to wait a bit. I thought it might help my anxiety about entering if we went for a dry run to the opening of the series. We went as if we would be racing but didn't bring bikes.

We got up at 4AM. The boys set their alarms so they would get up two minutes before me because they think that is funny. Cooler packed, loaded up and we were out the door at 5:45. We took the bug...just for fun! Besides, it's smaller and easier to park in a small space.

We arrived at 7:45 and there was line of trucks with bikes and gear just like I expected. Perfect. We found a place to park the bug, no problem. If we were racing, it would have been better to get there about an hour earlier. Talked to some people. Went over to the Registration Desk. There were still people signing up for today's race, perfect. This series you can sign up online before hand, so then you only have to check in when  you get there. 

The boys checked out the board for the practice schedule. Jake was brilliant and took a picture, so we were always aware of who was practicing and where. We saw their class practice a few laps. We all stood by the fence and watched as all the classes took their turn at practice. Each group gets a few laps to be ready.

And then a hush fell on the area as practice ended and everyone was at the Registration Desk getting the race schedule. We went to the bug for some lunch.

The first race on the Main Track started while we were eating. Holy Cow! Those guys fly!

After the first race started, the boys went over and talked to the people at Registration about signing up. They gave them a magazine, stickers, and a form. They told them what class they would be in and how many people were in that class today. Not many. Most of the riders are either little or adults in the beginner class. Teens are usually in the advanced classes because they are kids of dirt bike riders and have been riding since they could walk. That eased my mind a bit. The riders are more spread out and less competitive in their class. That doesn't mean that the boys will stay there though!

This is their very excited look. Really. They are pretty wound up about entering. And now we are too! We had an awesome day watching all the practices and then the first round of races. The kids are adorable! They are my personal favorite. The Dads all walk them up to the starting gate with the kids on the bikes and then hold them up until they take off. They round the corner and then here come the Dads running across the track to cheer them on and pick them up if they fall. I wish I had got a video!

Jake wouldn't let me take a picture of him being cute. But Tom would!

So now we are all fired up about racing! I'm amazed that what I thought was complete chaos last time we watched a race, was pretty organized once I knew what was going on. The races and practices all went up on time, no sitting around waiting. It was great! I can't wait to be there for a real race. Tom and Jake are very excited. Ooh! And they put transponders on each bike so they know exactly what their lap times were! Now there will be no doubt who is faster. I just can't wait to hear that argument!

The only downside was that two kids did get hurt during a race. No big deal, they walked off the track. But on the main track there was a paramedic called. We couldn't see what was going on but a guy said he saw it happen and it was pretty bad. That my biggest fear is that they will get hurt badly. I can't stand it when my babies are hurt! But they are invincible, you know? I can't protect them forever. The only consolation I have is watching them talk about riding makes them both light up. So if you ever meet us somewhere and my sons aren't socializing much, just ask them about dirt bikes...they won't shut up!

Things We Do

Here's something exciting! Jake has been working on his YZ250F. Here he is cleaning some part of the engine. More parts are arriving every day which means there are excited trips to the post office and UPS/FedEx arrivals greeted by happy boys.

Tom decided that the quad needed some preventative maintenance which resulted in even more parts being ordered. This time it was the carburetor. Tom says that they will be the death of him. I did take some video and warned not to use offensive language because I was recording for posterity.

These kinds of things also happen here. This is Tom researching the Bill of Rights. And Jake reading the Constitution. It started because I'm taking a class online and was playing a game, which Jake took over and was playing on his computer all afternoon. Tom played LawCraft and deemed it lame because there weren't enough choices and it seemed pointless. The Supreme Court one made him angry. We've had some awesome conversations around here the last week or so.

Hiking/Geocache in Big Bear

The high in Big Bear was forecast to be only 78 degrees, so of course we had to head up there and get some hiking done! I rushed around the house trying to get some things done before we left. Study, dishes, laundry, showers, pack a lunch, start dinner in the crock pot...in other words, I started to get stressed out and irritable rushing around like that. The boys called me on it, so I slowed down. Who cares what time we get there, darn it?!

Our first stop was the Discovery Center in Fawnskin to get a new Adventure Pass for the San Bernardino Forest. I get an annual pass every year, because many of the picnic areas and places to play in the snow require one and it's kind of a pain in the butt to find one the day we plan on doing something up there. Sometimes the place we want to stop is only half way up the mountain, so we'd have to drive all the way up, get a pass, then drive back. So I got one today because we were just planning a picnic and hike to an area right near the Discovery Center. It took thirty minutes with two people in line ahead of me. :/ And then they tried to convince me three different times why I didn't want to get one. Seriously.

On to the fun! We went to the Cougar Crest Trail because it has a bunch of geocaches on it AND it has a nice picnic area. The trail is five miles total, but we only made it half way. Next time we'll get an earlier start!

My geocache app wasn't working when we got up there but we brought our stuff just in case it fixed itself when we got up the trail.

We saw this through the trees and were compelled to leave the trail and find out what was up there!

Tom tried to convince Jake that it wasn't safe to explore these concrete slabs, but it looked fine to Jake. After Jake jumped around on it for a bit, Tom figured it was good for him too, although he would not walk out to the edges.

Many Spider Man poses had to be photographed!

Thanks to Tom's awesome foresight, we had plenty of water and a backpack to carry it in this time! There were also lots of shady places to rest. We met lots of people with dogs, explored off the trail a bit (thanks to a new app that showed us where the trail was, no one was worried about getting too lost), and found some pretty neat looking trees.

The app finally started to work! I really love doing this. I'm planning on buying a few "trackables" so that we can watch where they go online. AND there is an awesome pack I need to get that has a scan-able tracker on it so other geocachers can log YOU as a find!

There wasn't much in these finds, so we left some extra things for others to find.

Tom noticed that this lichen on the trees was "blooming". It looked like something out of Labyrinth, like they were eyes that might follow us as we walked by!

I love these old twisted trees. There aren't a lot of large or tall trees up here. We think it's because of the lack of rain in this area and rocks just under the surface here.

Jake pretended to get lost while Tom and I looked for a cache. He hid and played "Marco Polo" with us. Sometimes you find very strange things in caches. Like this bottle of eye drops. Really?

This was at a 1.5 miles and things started to get a little silly! We decided we had had enough and headed back down the trail at this point.

We added a rock here for the "Lonesome Gods".

Before hitting the road we took a water break while I mapped where we went on my AllTrails app. Very cool. Tom was examining the two feathers he found while we were walking. I love watching how that boy's brain works.

On the way home we stopped at the summit to find one more cache. It was a hard one and Tom was the winner of this contest!

We also stopped at a monument that we've seen a thousand times but never remembered to stop at. It proved to be pretty cool.

This is why they call it "Old Woman Springs Road"!

And we had to wait until Tom read every word of the sign. Jake found an old shoe and decided to bring it home with us.

So we got home around 4pm and the pot roast in the crock pot was just about ready for us to eat. Another perfect day!