Kuipers Visit

We had the great pleasure of having my grandma Kuipers come to South Carolina to visit for a couple days. A big thanks to my parents for making the trip also, so Grandma and Morrie could come down to the Carolinas for a visit. 

Not only did they visit the Polnicky family in South Carolina, they also got to visit with Amber and her family for a couple days. 

My grandma always talked about how she wanted to come see where her grandkids lived one day. And that day finally game!! I’m glad things worked out the way they did and the whole Kuipers clan could come visit us.

Their trip was short, but all very worth it!! We are so grateful to have had this time together!! Making great memories!! 

WE LOVE YOU!

Reach ‘26

Year 3 of Reach for McKaila!

Super Saturdays already start for her in March, then when school gets out, it’s 3 weeks straight of art!!

She may be missing out on some pool days, but she’s most happy when she’s in reach creating new and amazing things. And she is truly talented. Courtney and I are amazed daily at what she shows us what she’s working on. 

Once again, this year, McKaila won the t-shirt drawing contest. McKaila mentioned that as soon as they said the theme “sight, sound, stage, SUMTER” she knew exactly what she wanted to draw. And it turned out amazing. 

Thank you to all that clicked on that like/love button on Facebook!!

She has come so far in all things art in the last 3 years, especially in her human drawing. She never was completely happy with how her human drawings were, so this year, she really concentrated on it and wow!! Just wow!! She’s truly talented!!! 

Reach this year, reached new levels. The art was amazing. The singing was amazing and the theatre kids, they sure did put on a great performance. It was hilarious. 

I’m so happy that Sumter has a wonderful program like reach. It’s been so great to watch all these kids the last few years grow into what they are today!! 

Race Weekend

 It’s race weekend in Charlotte!! 

Unfortunately, we won’t be attending the race. Super bummed, but at least we can still go to all the shops and the track to shop at all the haulers.

As we were getting into Charlotte, it came over our phones that Kyle Busch had passed. That immediately made the whole rest of the weekend pretty somber. Can’t say we’re fans of Kyle Busch as a driver, but off the track,  we thought he was a pretty good guy, so it did hard. It’s hard not to think about what his wife and 2 very young kids were feeling in those moments and continue to feel. 

Going into the race weekend, I had all the race shops written down and what time their events were. With Kyles passing, most of those events were cancelled, but the shops remained opened. 

All the race shops had something out memorializing Kyle in one way or another. It was great seeing that even though all the drivers race for different teams, in the end, they are all family. 

The events that are usually are being held during race weekends, the drivers are doing XM interviews and signing autographs. It’s a bummer not to be able to see your favorite driver, but we get it. To our surprise when we got to RFK racing, the drivers wanted to address the crowd. They didn’t take any autograph signings, they just felt compelled to talk about Kyle and what he meant to NASCAR. It had to be hard going in front of all the fans there, but they did it and I’m glad we were there for it. It really shows what a great sport NASCAR is. 

The hardest race shop to go to was Spire Motorsports. Kyle’s last win was in the truck series just days before, racing for Spire Motorsports. His winning truck and trophy were on display and all us fans stood there in disbelief,  that just days ago, he was in that truck racing.

Our couple days in Charlotte went by way too fast, but we had a great time. We were thinking of Kyle and his family throughout our time there and continue to. It’s still so strange not seeing Kyle out on the track, but I’m sure his presence is always felt among the garage area and out on the track.

R.I.P. KYLE BUSCH