Sunday, May 28, 2017

Coca-Cola 600

It was a very hot day in Concord, NC, but even with sweat dripping down our faces, we were all excited to go to the race. It was grandpa and grandma's first time going to a NASCAR race, and we were excited to show them what it was all about. 

We wanted to get to the race a little early, so we could walk around the fan zone. It was so hot that, we didn't stay in the fan zone for too long, but it was long enough for us to see Big and Rich come out and say a few words after their concert they held there. 

After walking the fan zone for a bit, we went to our seats. We still had a while before the driver introductions started, but it was fun to watch everything come together. We have always gotten to the race just as the race was just starting, so I really wanted to make sure we got there early enough to see everything this time! Thankfully, our seats were in the shade or else it wouldn't have been too fun sitting there.

Being able to see the driver intros and watching them each drive by waving was very cool to watch. The kids really enjoyed seeing them in the back of the trucks waving to the crowd. 

And then my favorite part of the start of the race, seeing Channing Tatum. He was the grand marshal for the race. He filmed a movie here last year that includes some of the drivers in the movie, so no better person to be the grand marshal for the race, then Channing.






Pace Car




The craziness of race day







Hello Dale JR.

Hey there, Jimmie Johnson

Danica sporting her red, white, and blue shoes for the race


Drivers, start your engines







Storms are coming into the area, so please take cover!

At lap 143 the drivers were signaled to go to pit road and get out of their cars, while the announcer was telling the fans to please get out of the stands and please take cover because of lightening in the area. So, the fans all left their seats and took cover under the grand stands and waited for the rain to stop. I believe the rain delay in all was about 2 hours. It didn't seem that long at all, and it was fun watching the jet driers come out on the track to dry it. 








With the rain delay, that meant that the race ran later then usual. I believe the end time was 12:30ish. Logan fell asleep a couple times, McKenna also fell asleep, and McKaila cuddled up with Grandma, but we still all had a fun time! 

The race winner was Austin Dillon, which it was his first cup win, which was very exciting to see. But coming to the second to last lap Jimmie Johnson was the leader, but he ran out of gas, which gave Austin the opportunity to take over and win his first cup race. 



Saturday, May 27, 2017

Fun In The Sun

We knew we were going to have a busy Sunday, with going to the race, so we decided to have a water day at home.  

These kids love the water and were very excited about pulling out the pool for the first time this year. They couldn't even wait to get into it, so they jumped in before the pool was full of water. 

We also decided to bring out the slip and slide. The kids have never been on the slip and slide so they were very excited about trying it out for the first time. They didn't exactly know how to do it and slid on their knees, but whatever works. Daddy even tried showing them how to do it a few different times!






After a very hot day out in the sunshine, we had to end it with some s'mores! The kids have been asking to make s'mores on the fire for a while now, but what better time to do it then Memorial Day weekend!



Friday, May 26, 2017

Dirt Track

My parents were able to get some time off of work and come into town to watch the Coca-Cola 600, so when they made it into town, we went out to dinner and then decided to do some driving around. 

We ended up in Concord, by the track and noticed there was some dirt track racing going on. So, we decided to park and go sit on the hill and watch for a little bit. We couldn't see much of the track, but it was fun watching the little bit we could see along with watching the kids go crazy running around on the grassy hill.

Have to say it was a great way to start off Memorial Day weekend!







Saturday, May 20, 2017

Road To The Races

We started our busy weekend with the NASCAR hauler parade. 

It started in downtown Concord and made it's way up to the speedway. 

We got there a little early, so we parked by a big grass area and let the kids run around until we started hearing the haulers and police officers coming. 

The kids then rushed to the sidewalk and were so amazed at how big the haulers were. While they haulers drove by, the drivers would honk the horn which was very loud. Logan didn't know how to react to it at first, but then after a couple, he loved it. 







On Friday, we wanted to try and get to the All-Star qualifying, but by the time we got there, it had already started, so we decided to pass this year and hopefully next year we will be better prepared to attend. But, even though we didn't get the chance to see qualifying, we did get the chance to walk around and see all the fun Fanatics booths without tons of people walking around. 



Saturday morning, it was time to go back to the speedway and go see Lightning McQueen. Logan was so excited to see Lightning McQueen. We did get there early so we did some walking around before getting into line. We checked some little cars and checked out the M&M's display. The kids got some free M&M's and skittles and McKaila took a picture with the M&M guy. 





It was a very hot morning/day and we didn't want to be waiting in line longer then we needed too, but once we saw that people were starting to line up, we headed right there. We probably sat in line for an  hour before they started letting people in. They weren't going to open until noon, but I believe since it was such a hot morning, they let people come in early. 








It was so much fun to see Lightning McQueen,  Cruz Ramirez and Jackson Storm in person! Logan really loved it, and showed that until they wanted to take pictures of the family. Then he didn't look happy or excited at all. We even got to see a sneak peak of Cars 3 and some Cars extras. That part was great because we got to sit in an air condition trailer truck. It was nice to cool off for a little bit, that's for sure. 

After letting the kids play around in the Cars area, they had coloring pages to color, you could play with cars, win some free prizes, we walked around a little bit more and decided to watch some of the Monster Energy trucks drive around and be crazy and while we were watching that, Kurt Busch (#41) came up on stage where they were filming NASCAR Trackside live. 


It was an awesome fun morning/afternoon at the speedway. It sure was hot, but even with it being hot, the kids did so awesome. They didn't whine or complain about it at all. So, we went to the mall, explored the Disney Store a little bit and shared some smoothies.