Derby Action the complete story! Or at least what I have time to tell!

I know you are all dying to find out what happened at the derby on Friday! Well if you weren't there you missed an awesome show! But lets start at the beginning:

For approx. 8 months, Brady has been working on a car so generously donated to him by a friend.( Thanks Ryan we will get even later.) He has spent countless hours making sure that it ran perfect, making his own gas tank, welding doors, removing glass, and probably giving it a daily pep talks for the "Big Game" they were about to enter. To say the least, this car has had more quality one on one time with Brady than I have. But as my Dad says "Leave him alone and let him enjoy his hobby." I did for the most part! To be honest I was just as nervous for the big day as he was. Others would constantly remind me of the danger, which was always in the back of my mind, but I was more nervous that maybe I was a bad luck charm and history would repeat itself and his car wouldn't run or he would get stuck and all his work would have been for nothing.
I left for SL a few days earlier for DR. appointments for the kids, and would call nightly to make sure all was going well. On Thursday night Brady brought the car, and on Friday started making the final preparations. This included painting the car which the boys had been looking forward to since this whole project started! So we put on painting shirts and let them dive in! They painted EVERY nook and cranny and would have painted the interior if we had let them! Brady made racing pin stripes and I did the lettering. At least the car looked good! Brady's brother Wade came to help give the car a little tune up. They worked on the car and sent me for some Carburetor cleaner. By the time I had gotten back somehow they had blown the motor and the sick feeling in my stomach returned when Brady said "I don't think it will run. I will have to change out the motor and their is not time." I felt TERRIBLE, and said something I think I will regret, Brady wished he had gotten it on tape for future evidence. I said "You have to run I will be disappointed if you don't." Now what he doesn't understand is that I didn't want to bring the car home to wait another year with it decorating my back yard. He had gone to all this work and now wasn't able to reap the reward. With that in mind he decided to run the derby for as long as his car would last!!
Fast forward to Friday night, I am enjoying myself at the derby of course watching the cars but even more than that I was enjoying watching all the drunk rednecks, make complete fools at of themselves. Just imagine a girl in 6" high heels with at LEAST 3 beers down and on her 4th trying to climb down the bleachers. HILARIOUS! Brady was in the 3rd heat and to my surprise his car made it into the arena!! He moved rather slow and I could tell his car was overheating but he played it smart and WON HIS HEAT!!!!! The only problem for me was that now I had to sit and worry for the final.
Wade came to bail Brady out and help him in the pits. His sponsor didn't have a pit crew for him and he couldn't have done it alone. (Thanks Wade, and Thanks Sara. I owe you BIG time) They got the car ready and Brady drove in the final with a car running much better!
I don't know if it was the adrenaline or a minor lap in judgement but during the final Brady decided to go for a hard hit back to back with another car. It was so hard it pushed the back of the wagon all the way up to the back tires in ONE hit. A crowd pleaser, a wife's heart attack. He was ok but it ended up being his last hit because their was too much metal around the tires to move.
Thus ended the SL Derby for this year. Brady was pleased to have done so good he is talking about next year. Just when I thought I had him convinced to give it up for a while:( Oh well, as long as he doesn't oppose any hobbies I might take up. I will have to think of a good one!!!

Summer Activities

Since summer time is upon us; I am sure so many of you are planning your summer vacations, having BBQ's, swimming and enjoying the lazy days of summer. What are we doing you ask? Not working on our family vacation, Not BBQ-ing, NO lazy days of summer for us. This house is getting ready for what Brady considers a Highlight of summer. What every red-neck insane family is preparing for! He is spending every spare waking minute (and probably dreaming about) his derby cars for the SL county Fair!!

I don't really understand the thrill behind this hobby. He spends HOURS in the garage stripping the car, welding, cutting, trying to get the thing to run, re-wiring, hammering, changing tires, and painting this BABY of a car. It would make anyone who restores these cars SICK to see. Yet he does it MOST of the time with a smile on his face, singing along with his "Derby Tunes" (Jimmy Buffet "Cheese Burger in Paradise") as happy as a kid at Christmas. I have decided rather than fight him on this (He knows that those death traps make me nervous) I will join him in the building process. Maybe knowing how "Safe" he has made it will help with my sick feeling I get everytime he drives in the derby. (NO BRADY THIS DOES NOT MEAN I WILL DRIVE ONE JUST WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU.)

He is beginning to brain wash our children in the thinking that this is a normal activity for families to do together. I can't tell you how many Family Home Evenings and Male Bonding times have happened with my boys in welding helmets, handing tools to Dad and having the time of their lives!!

They will ask almost every weekend if there is a derby for us to go to; almost as if Saturday night derby's are as regular as Church on Sunday. It is just what we do in the summer.

Come the middle of August we will load up the cars on the trailer, and head to the Fair to enjoy 2 full days of snow cones, cotton candy, stinky animal pens, venders with over priced items to sell, and as much red-neck entertainment as we can handle. Brady will be sick to his stomach with excitment and I will be pulling my hair out keeping the boys entertained and happy. We will come home with a car half crushed, (he will want to use it in another derby) tired cranky children, and if we are lucky (really, really lucky) maybe even a little prize money!!

If you are lucky enough to go to the derby watch for Brady's cars. They will be the ones with Shine Auto Body and Pain on them.