The Drive and Thanksgiving Day

On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving (yes, I am just now getting around to writing about Thanksgiving), we drove to Tulsa, OK for two reasons. One, so Jacob could race in the BMX Grand Nationals, which is the final and biggest race of the year, and two, to see family. We are lucky enough to have family to stay with and to not have to stay in a hotel which, lets face it, is no fun with a baby. It took us about 9 hours to get there. Shane, the boys and I stayed at my cousin Davena's house in Jenks, which is about 20 minutes from the arena in downtown Tulsa. Jacob got to spend lots of time with his cousins, Zach (9) and Sydni (7). My parents and my brother Randy, who flew in from Denver, stayed at my Uncle David Lee and Aunt Debbie's house in Haskell, which is about 30 minutes from Davena's house. They were kind enough to drive in every day to see us.

On Thursday, Shane took Jacob to two separate practice sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each practice session lasted only 15 minutes. He was able to make it around the track about 5 times. In between his practice sessions, we did manage to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with our family. Davena did an awesome job preparing a meal for all of us and didn't need my help much at all. She looked so calm whereas I would have been all stressed out cleaning and cooking for that many people. I promised myself that I would try to do better next Saturday when we have Christmas here....yeah, right :)

Jacob was signed up to race the Race of Champions (ROC) on Friday. Only the top 10 riders in the state in an age group are invited to race that day. He raced two separate classes... 7/8 mixed open and class. Mixed open were 7 and 8 year olds (boys and girls) in the novice and intermediate class. Class is just all 8 intermediate boy racers. There were two moto's (or two chances to get in to the main event). Unfortunately, this was our first time and we got a little confused and he missed his second moto in the mixed/open class and did not advance in that class as a result. We were so bummed and will not make that mistake again. So then we only had class left. There were a total of approximately 40 8 year olds in the 8I class. Jacob advanced through quarter and semi finals and made it to the main event! We were so excited and proud that he made it to the main. He came in 8th place. Only 3 riders on our team made it to the main for the entire ROC on Friday. This was a huge accomplishment and the highlight of our weekend.

Here are some pictures of the track:

The starting gate

The track...starting gate is upper left and finish line is to the left of that by the orange JBL sign.

We are lucky in that our team manager designs and builds tracks for the ABA and he did so with the grand's track. All teams have a pit area that they can hang out in, cook in, keep pets in, etc. We had a great pit area and went back and forth between the pit and the track to eat and rest. Here are some pics of our pit area:

Thor/Stmpo pit area

Another view...see all the bikes?

Jacob, Shane and Rayne