Viva Las Vegas!

It has been a whirl wind of a week and weekend and tomorrow morning Rick and I are off to Vegas for a few days. Rick's sister Lori will be getting married on Tuesday night (and if it turns out to be an April Fools joke, someone is in BIG trouble!)

So I will be back at the end of the week with pics and I'm sure stories. I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed our lovely spring SNOW!

Easter Fun at the Beightol's

We had Easter dinner at Wendy and Kevin's this year. Sue and Dave hosted a big egg hunt for the grandkids. They were spoiled with money and candy. Wendy and I played the kids Easter webkinz... which of course just cracked everyone up but hey, we gotta get them webkinz dollars some how. It was a very nice afternoon, despite the cold nasty weather outside. And now we are all on crash diet mode since we all head to Vegas this weekend. Rick's sister Lori is getting married on Tuesday the 1st so all the adults are heading down to celebrate a few days of fun.

Prosser Egg Hunt

We took the kids to the Prosser egg hunt, which lasts 2 minutes :-) They had fun, got some candy and each got their new book (awesome thing Prosser does!).

Saturday Karting

With the weekends winding down until Kaitlyn's first race, we loaded up the new trailer and took her out to the track for practice on Saturday. It was FREEZING! The sun was out but the wind was blowing and it was the coldest wind. On a positive note, Kaitlyn just keeps improving with her karting. She loves it but she hasn't always shown the signs of being super competitive (which is funny because she is SOOOO COMPETITIVE in everything she does). And we have probably handicapped her a little bit with the equipment she has been in. Well on Saturday she went faster than the track record in her class. She was the only kid-kart there so she had to practice with the big karts, which was hilarious because she has like 1/4 of the motor as most of them. I love the pic of her side-by-side with the big kart because you can just see the determination on her face to beat him. She held her own and did a very good job practicing with those big guys :-)

Rick got to take his trailer out for its first spin. It is going to be so nice to have all our stuff together and be able to haul it all. On Friday he spent the afternoon running around getting parking squared away. We broke down and rented a space to store the motorhome so we took that out and parked it. He then went over to Kevin and Michelle's who have been kind enough to store our boat all winter. He went and got the boat and because they are such great friends they are now letting us store the big car trailer out there. Its nice to have it all close enough to be able to get it if we need it. All these toys though are another reminder how much we need some property. Since we turned the carport into a garage the boat's home is gone so it went back in the RV parking area we put in and then we parked the g0-kart trailer behind that.

Saturday night we just took it easy and got ready for a fun Easter!

Hair Day

Kaitlyn's class was selected to be filmed for a commerical her school is doing. I'm not sure what it is about, I'm assuming recruiting new students. But Kaitlyn told me she wanted to look really cute. So of course that translates to super cool hair for me :-) I tried to talk her into one of my french braiding creations but no, she wanted curls. The problem is her hair is so long right now it is never dry by morning. So after sleeping in rollers, using my steam rollers and then finishing it off with a curling iron, we finally got curls. She was not happy it wasn't as curly as it was on her graduation last year but I had to remind her that it won't be since her hair is about 6 inches longer than it was. She is so in need of a hair cut but she is hearing nothing of the subject. Oye!!!

Just because this is one of my all time favorite pics of her, I thought I would throw in what she was "hoping" for....

Daylight Savings = no savings on sleep!

We had another busy weekend which just flew by. It was my weekend off but both kids had school on Friday. I got the spend the day with Trace's class and got to have lunch with him. He even served my food for me.... so cute! I figured he would be a total spaz when I got there but surprisingly he did really well and just kinda ignored me. After school his teachers came over to our house for our home visit conference. He is doing well and I think this program has been just a huge benefit to him.

As soon as we were done with the teachers Rick raced up to Tri-Cities to pick up a trailer he bought on an internet auction. We have been looking for a trailer and just could not decide what the best option would be for us. We need something that will haul around Kaitlyn's go-karts, soon to be Kaitlyn and Trace's go-karts, something we can take to the mountains with the ATVs and motorcycles and it would be nice to have something that could also haul Rick's race car. Rick is planning on running a few races in Yakima this summer but thats about it. His time really needs to be focused on getting the house stuff done so we can try to get it sold. But even those few times racing would be really nice to have something that would fit the car and the pit cart. But on Friday he found this small trailer at the auction that had been hit from behind and he made a low ball bid and got it. So once he got it home he worked on tearing it apart so he could get stuff ordered to fix it on Monday.

Saturday was pretty laid back. We went out to the kart track and Kaitlyn got in some more practice. She is doing so well. Her times were right at the track record so I think she is ready for her first race.... and she has a few weeks to go still! We had Cheyanne and Taylor spend the night Sat. night but the kids were so tired from being at the kart track all day they were all asleep fairly early.

On Sunday Rick took Kaitlyn back out to the track for a little more practice. Trace and I cleaned house and hung out for a while. I went and got Carson so Trace and him could ride bikes. I cleaned my car from top to bottom, which was quite the task! Driving 600 miles plus a week with 2 kids definately takes its toll on the inside of a car. But I got it nice and clean and hopefully the kids will keep it up!

When Rick got home he drug out the motorcycles and let the kids go for a ride. It was Kaitlyn's first try on the MR50 which has a clutch. Yea, she needs a little more practice. But for being 7 and never trying something like that, she did good. Carson was standing next to me watching Kaitlyn and Trace and asked if he could try it. I called Wendy and she said that was fine. Ummm, yea.. the boy is hooked. Uncle Rick had to stop him once to tell him he could not stand up when he was riding and then a 2nd time when he found how fun it was to drift it in the lose dirt pile. Since he was riding his old motorcycle that we bought for Trace (yea the one he had no interest in just one month ago) Wendy asked him what the deal was. He told her that where he had riden it before was just too bumpy and that he really wanted a Yamaha (which turns out to really be a Kawasaki). Kids crack me up!

So the time change has me all kinds of messed up. I'm not too sure why but I can't seem to get enough sleep. That is a far cry from the, can't sleep, that I have gotten used to. So hopefully I will get back on track soon :-)

More Pics

I got all in the mood to scan in some wedding photos.. not that anyone really cares to look at them but it was fun for me to go through them again. And the kids had a serious crack up at how much their family had all changed. The biggest change is my dad since this was pre-surgery. In 2004 he had gastric bypass and is over 100lbs less of a person today.

9 Years!

March 6, 1999

Nine years ago today Rick and I were married... yep he's stuck with me :-) It seems like just yesterday. We had the wedding at Christ the King and then had a reception at the Shilo Inn. It wasn't quite as gorgeous of a day 9 years ago as it is today but I remember it was nice enough that he and I were able to get some pictures taken outside without freezing to death. We had a fabulous and fun wedding..... wouldn't have changed any of it!

We aren't doing anything too exciting tonight. Kaitlyn has a cold coming on and Trace has a snow make-up day at school tomorrow so we figured we would do dinner this weekend. We will be off to Vegas in a few weeks for Lolo and Michael's wedding so we should be saving for that.

So happy anniversary Rick! Love you lots :-)

Working and Racing....

Another busy weekend in the books. Rick and Trace stayed home on Friday and starting painting the garage. They were just finishing up the primer when Kaitlyn and I got home. One of Kaity's friends moms dropped her off at the store after school and she finished the work day with me. I started getting our seasonal freight in on Wednesday and got the 2nd shipment on Friday so work has been... WORK! I'm not used to it at all.

Saturday morning Rick got up early and finished the paint before I left for work. He and the kids went out to his dads to get the go-kart and I picked up tires on my way home for it. Rick finished getting it all together and scaled it Saturday night.

This morning Rick and Kaity got up and headed to the track for the first practice session. Trace and I left here around 10 to go watch. Kaity's kart is the same as last year but Rick got a few new parts for it, of course LIGHTER parts which is supposed to = faster. She had a great first practice, just a little shy of being as fast as she was at her fastest last season. Rick always considers success with her telling her something and then watching her actually LISTEN and follow directions. She listened and did what he asked and low and behold, went fast. It is pretty entertaining to watch 5, 6 and 7 year olds in these little karts going over 30 mph. She has a few more sessions of practice but it looks like she should have a great season! And we couldn't have asked for a nicer day to be outside.

Crew Chief and driver having a little sit-down....


It's all business when the helmet goes on...


Kaitlyn is on the right, getting ready to make the pass...

After practice Rick ran into town. He went by the pool store and picked up some lights and then ran to Home Depot. He got his bench built in the garage and got all the floor trim up. He is hoping by the weekend to have all the lights up and be putting everything where it will permantely go.

We found out on Friday that one of the hot tub business' was closing their doors. That makes for 5 stores since Sept. in the Tri-Cities to close. Being a business owner it is so hard to see someone have to lose what they work so hard to have. I know how difficult it is and the hours and attention it takes. But from a business stand point a few of those closing have meant a huge increase in business for us. The one that closed this weekend was a good customer to us also and we had a very good relationship with them in referring back and forth. On Saturday we had 3 customers come in that had been told to come to us that went to this particular store previously. And we have picked up a large # of customers from our big competitor that closed in the fall. It is looking to be a good year, January and February sales were the biggest we have ever had but a lot so cross your fingers that the rest of the year follows suit! Freight is rolling in and with the weather as nice as its been, pools will start opening soon. Let the fun begin!

Well its time for me to head to bed. I hope everyone had a nice weekend and had a chance to recharge for Monday!