2010 BMX Sooner Nationals

I'm finally getting around to writing about this race, which occured in late January. Jacob and I took a father/son weekend and left momma and baby behind. I love them dearly, but must admit that the weekend away was a blast :-)

It was about a 7-7.5 hour drive from Houston, which isn't so bad. We've gotten used to making road trips with the baby, so traveling without him all of sudden seems like a breeze. Jacob is a pretty good traveler for an 8 year old and not too overbearing with the "are we there yet" but he does have his moments.

We arrived in Guthrie on Friday afternoon, Jan 22 and headed out to the track for our practice sessions. Practice is segregated by age groups. I went first and then Jacob got his 25 minutes on the track. The track was really nice. I heard one of the pros complaining about a little bumpiness. I was thinking, well where do you ride because our outdoor track is extremely bumpy. The indoor National tracks are always pristine as they usually make them with rodeo dirt and groom them to near perfection. Jacob and I both dug it. I loved the track because it wasn't too difficult like so many tracks can be. It was extremely ride-able and fun, which we both liked.

Jacob raced the pre-race on Friday night, just to feel out some of the competition and get more track time. There were 5 riders including him in the pre-race in 8 intermediate; he got 1st place and a huge trophy (national trophies for the top three are always huge).

The Sooner National races started on Saturday. Actually they treat Saturday and Sunday as two totally separate races. So its not like you are qualifying on Saturday for the race on Sunday type of thing, rather Saturday is National #1 and Sunday is National #2. While the whole weekend was incredible, Saturday was extra awesome for Jacob. He raced two classes, 7/8 mixed open, which consists of 7/8 year old boys and girls in both the novice and intermediate class and he race in the 8 Intermediate class, which is just 8 intermediate boys. There were approximately 13 riders or so in each class. Jacob wont 1st place in both classes in the qualifiers and then got 2nd in 7/8 mixed open and 1st place in 8 Intermediate, which is the class that counts. He got beat by an 8 year old girl in open class that was every bit as big or bigger than Jacob and just as fast. Those girls are really fast! I told him there was absolutely no shame, he had a good race and just got beat. The 1st place in 8I was incredible. The whole National was streaming live on the internet by go211.com. Here is a video of Jacob's 1st place win. He's the one.... well in first place :-) And no the head shaking is not normal and something we are working to stop, which will only speed him up more. Not sure how he rides with his head floppin' around like that :-)


http://www.go211.com/u/abasoonernationals2010/videos/20342

Jacob ended up with two 3rd place wins on Sunday, which we are still extremely proud of. He did make some mistakes and I think he understands what they are as he was in 2nd both races and literally let a rider pass him in both main events almost at the finish line, which he could have avoided had he peddled a little harder at the end. Oh, your being too hard on him you might say, well the video tells all friends... you can't stop pedaling until you cross the finish line ;-) He did awesome and we are extremely proud of him.

So how did Shane do at his first national? Well I didn't qualify for the main on Saturday but I was extremely proud of where I fell in the pack of experienced riders. Sunday was interesting. There were 17 riders in my class, which is 36-40 cruiser. I qualified to the semi final by winning against two other riders in my second moto. I raced 5 other really fast guys in the semi; four of us were going to the main event. Here's how it unfolded... gate drops and one guys chain busts, so he's out, but I didn't realize this until after the race. As we approached turn one, the 2 riders in front of me got tangled up and went down, I ended up running in to the back of them and also went down. All I was thinking was... get up, get up, get up... this is your opportunity to get one of the four spots. As I got up and back on my bike, I saw one rider still on the ground, one of the riders from the crash (one of the local riders from Houston that I know) had got back on his bike and was in front of me and then two riders heading down the track that got past the crash. I was peddling as hard as I could to regain speed and it finally dawned on me that there were only four of us left. At that point, I still wasn't sure what happened to the 6th guy and then I was told at the finish line that he busted his chain. I had qualified for a main event at a National! Friends, nothing mattered at that point. I didn't care what happened in the main, I was just happy to be there :-)

I got lane 5 in the main and had a really good gate against some really fast guys but my front tire hit another rider's back tire as we entered the first jump. You see the outside riders were all converging to the middle of the track as everyone wants the inside line in to turn one. I was being extremely bullish and wasn't going to back down. I was like I am headed this way and you can't have this spot, but he was already just enough in front of me that I clipped his back tire and almost went down. My clip shoes came unclipped from the pedals as I tried to stay upright. I didn't end up crashing, but when something like that happens, it's race over. You can't catch up unless the other riders crash or something. I ended up passing one rider at the end of the race to get 7th, but reality he had shut it down because he didn't care whether he got 7th or 8th. I cared however. I wanted the extra points. Nationals points count as triple district points. So I got 90 points instead of 60; works for me :-) Wow, it was really fun. I mean 17 riders, only 8 in the main event. It felt really good. Just for kicks you can see how fast these old guys are. I'm in the very back coming out of turn one and you can see how my near spill really slowed me down. If I hadn't gone done I probably still would have been in 7th or 8th but at least with the pack :-)

http://www.go211.com/videos/20400

The guy to the left of Jacob with the #1 on his jersey is the current National #1 AA Pro, Randy Stumphauser. The starting gate is in the background.

New Pictures of Bryce

Bryce was not the least bit cooperative when I took him to get some pictures taken at JCPenney's recently. He refused to smile and would start to crawl to me when put down. I didn't spend much money as I really want his million dollar smile and might try again at another picture place soon. Here are some of the better ones:

What's Bryce doing these days?

Update on Bryce: Bryce started crawling correctly (he was doing the inchworm and frog jump before) a couple of weeks ago. He is also pulling up on everything and into everything. Each day I baby proof a little more but we have some major things to do very soon. He is happy just playing at the bottom of the stairs now but already bringing his knee up like he wants to climb to the next step.

He is still very unpredictable as far as sleeping and his moods. He is a very serious baby and will stare down anyone who dares to stare back at him. I love to see the differences in the boys personalities and can't wait to see how Bryce's changes as he grows. I can tell he will be the child that cries like crazy when I drop him off at Mother's Day Out (but that's not for another year +). He used to be just fine when left at the church's nursery. Not anymore. He has had a couple of bad weeks lately and that just breaks our hearts.

He says "Mama" and "Dada". He loves to terrorize the cats (both are great with him and haven't bitten, hissed or jumped on him...yet). He likes to climb all over Sadie. She is great with him too. He loves when Shane takes a break from work and comes to play with him downstairs. He just can't crawl to him fast enough and holds out his arms to be picked up.

Here are some recent pics of him. You will notice that he is finally getting some hair.

If that's not a happy face, I don't know what is :)

Hiding under the kitchen table...he will crawl over the chair bars

I love that smile

More Pics from our CO Trip

We decided to head down from the mountains and spend New Years Eve at Randy's home in Denver. We told him to go out and just pretend we weren't there but he decided to spend the evening with us. We wanted to get a head start on our drive the next day which would be a long 12 hours in the car from his house to Wichita Falls, and it was. If we had left from the mountains it would have been closer to 14 and you just never know what the weather conditions are going to be in the mountains.

Here is Houston, we spend New Year's Eve outside with our neighbors lighting fireworks and firepits. In Denver, or at least in Highlands Ranch where Randy lives, I didn't here a single firework. I guess the snow and really low temps kind of put a damper on that.

Here are a few more pics from our trip:

Shane and Jacob going up the gondola lift at Keystone....must be really cold to cover every inch of your body!

Jacob in the trees....his favorite place to ski

Jacob bundled up and ready to go

Bryce and Jacob hamming it up for the camera at Randy's on New Year's Eve

My boys

There are some more pics for me to share that are on my mom's camera. I believe I may be in one or two and will post those asap.

We made it home safely on Saturday. Jacob returns to school on Wednesday. I am trying to get Bryce back to some sort of schedule. He is very mobile now so baby proofing is high on my priority list. He started pulling up to his feet just this last week.

We realized that it may be a while before we get to go back to Summit County. Since our condo is sold, I told shane it would be better for him and Jacob to do some sort of package ski deal and check out some other ski areas as Bryce won't be skiing for a few years. Then, we can make it a family trip. We will really miss our home away from home :(

In 3 weeks, believe it or not, we are getting in the car and driving to Guthrie, OK, just north of Oklahoma City for the Sooner BMX Nationals. UGH, a 10 hour drive!!! I am tired of driving trips but looking forward to watching Shane and Jacob race.

Hugs to all,
The Cauley's

Christmas in Colorado

We left on Wednesday, the 23rd, and drove to Amarillo with my parents, where we spent the night. A major cold front blew through on the way there and we woke up to snow and ice on the ground. On Thursday, we drove to Denver to spend Christmas Eve with my brother Randy. On the way there, Shane was dodging big tumbleweeds flying across the interstate and watching out for ice patches on the road. We ate out at a mexican restaurant that night and had breakfast Christmas day out too. Then we headed up to the mountains.


You may remember how hard a time Bryce had with altitude sickness last summer. That is one of the reasons we drove and then spent a night in Denver, giving him even more time to acclimate. He did great with the exception of a head cold. I took him to the doctor once while we were there to make sure he didn't have a sinus infection or ear infection and his oxygen levels were great so what we did worked.


You may also remember that we sold our condo. This trip we rented a house through http://www.vrbo.com/. It was a beautiful home. Randy came up and spent time with us too. Shane and Jacob ski'd lots and my parents, Bryce and I hung out a lot at the house. Shane and I both came down with sinus infections, as did my dad, and got on abx on Saturday. I felt lots better after a couple of days and was able to enjoy the rest of the trip.

We ate at our favorite restaurants and just enjoyed the snow and the mountains. During the day the temp was usually in the teens or 20's. At night, it would get to around zero degrees or less. I was worried Jacob wouldn't be able to handle the cold temps on the mountain, but he did great. His skiing has improved a lot and he just about has paralleling down. The boys ski'd at Keystone all but one day, when they went to Breck to meet up with some friends of ours.

Here are some pics of our trip:

Randy and Jacob on the ski lift

Shane and Jacob eating lunch at the mountain house

Shane and Jacob's miniature snowman

Shane and Jacob on top of Keystone mountain...you can see Lake Dillon in the back ground

Mimi and Bryce...isn't he precious in his puppy dog hat????

One day, Shane and Jacob went to Breckenridge to ski with our friends, the Shui's. They spend 2 weeks every Christmas at Breck. I drove up with Bryce to meet them for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Kenosha. It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to get there due to 2 car accidents and
just plain ole' traffic. It should have taken me just 20 minutes. I was a little frazzled when I got there to say the least.

Daniel, Valerie (Daniel's girlfriend) holding Bryce, Bingiee, Cara, Nike, Shane, Jacob and me

Christmas with the Cauley's

We celebrate Christmas with Shane's dad's side of the family the Sunday before Christmas. This year, we went to Shane's dad's house. We had great food, opened presents and spent time catching up with family. We look forward to this every year.

Here are some of the pictures that we took:

Nanny (Shane's grandmother) and Thomas (Shane's dad)

Aunt Christy (Shane's sister) and Bryce

Farrah and Tommy (Shane's brother)

Alicia, Dave, Chaz and Lynda....Alicia is Lynda's daughter, they live in Pensacola where Dave flies for the Navy(???).

This is Bryce's favorite position...on his side with his leg up

Shane cutting up the turkeys that he fried

Grandpa holding Chaz and Bryce

Jacob and Bryce with Caden who is 3 years old

Chaz, Jacob and Bryce....Chaz was born in March and is 2 months older than Bryce

Christmas Day...Lunch

For lunch on the 19th, we had a traditional Christmas meal. My parents came, Shane's mom and Rich came, Shane's Uncle Butch and Aunt Dee came and my cousin Elan, her 2 kiddos, Daniel and Joy, and my Aunt Mary came. You might remember that Joy was born just 3 days after Bryce. We love to get them together to see what they do and compare. Mostly they just looked at each other. Bryce likes to grab ears and he did this a few times to Joy.

We enjoyed our huge lunch and then opened some presents. Then we had dessert, of course :)

Here are some pics from that day:

Elan holding Joy, Mom (Mimi), Dad (PawPaw), Aunt Mary with Daniel, me holding Bryce, Shane, Uncle Butch, Aunt Dee with Jacob in front of her, Rich (Pop) and Gail (Nana)

Bryce has figured out that when the red light starts flashing on the camera, he is to smile. We love playing with him and the camera. He almost always smiles for that red light :)

Bryce and Joy....looks like Joy has something funny to tell Bryce

Daniel, Aunt Mary, Elan and Joy

Jacob and Daniel.....this Nerf toy has been a hit.

Bryce and Joy

Christmas Day

We left for CO on the 23rd, so we celebrated Christmas on Saturday, the 19th. We got up that morning and opened presents with the boys. It was just like any other Christmas day except that this Christmas was very special because Bryce was with us. It is so neat to be able to experience all of the baby first's again and opening presents is a big first.

We didn't want to set up our big 9 foot tree since we were going to be gone Christmas day so we borrowed my parents 3 foot tree and set it up on a table. The small tree took some getting used to in our big 2 story living room. The cats were still able to have some fun. and enjoyed taking naps underneath it and playing with the ornaments. UGH! I remember Boo climbing up inside the 9 foot tree last year and breaking many ornaments. It was nice to not have to mess with that this year. It was especially nice to not have to chase Bryce away from the tree constantly.

Jacob's big present from us was a boombox. Now I get to hear loud thumping coming from his room, which is above the kitchen. He loves to play his electronic drum set through the boombox. He also got some video games and movies and some other toys from us. Bryce got a ball popping toy and some stacking cups from us. We didn't spend too much on him as we knew family would and a 7 month old doesn't need too much.

As soon as presents were opened, we started preparing for our Christmas meal. Shane fried 2 turkeys and I cooked some sides.

Here are some pictures from our morning:

Jacob helped Bryce open his presents but all Bryce really cared about were the bows.

I know...we just coudn't resist putting the bow on his head :)

Two bows...he's really having fun now

Bryce and Sadie

Every year, Sadie gets a bone for Christmas. She expects it and will look through gift bags for it. I started hiding it a few years ago. She doesn't even chew on them much anymore but does look forward to her present.

Hurry up and unwrap that bone!

Jacob and Bryce

Jacob and Moose in front of the tree. Now you get the full effect :)

My Family

The last night we were there, we went to a mexican restaurant on the Arkansas River in Tulsa. It was great food and fun. The kids had Christmas themed balloon hats made for them as you can see in the picture below. We are so lucky to have such a great family. If only they lived closer. Love you guys!

Jacob, Zach and Sydni

Debbie and David Lee

Davena and Glenn

Me and Randy

The kids showing off their balloon hats

Everyone enjoyed getting to meet Bryce. He had a great time on the trip too and loved all the attention he got. Here are some pictures of him playing on the floor at Davena and Glenn's house: