Where in the world is Caruthers? I asked the same question when Garrett suggested that we go to the Caruthers District Fair and let Coleman race his dirt bike. Come to find out, it's only about a 40 minute drive from Clovis, smack dab in the middle of raisin country. And after just spending quality time at our area welfare project--a raisin vineyard--"rolling raisins," I found myself admiring acre after acre of neat rows of raisin bundles as we drove to the fair.
So Coleman competed in his first (and last?) dirt bike race. He was pretty darn excited. His buddy Brett was racing his quad. Can it get any better than that for a 7-year-old boy? Actually, yes, it can: when that boy comes home with a trophy! No matter that every kid was handed one as they exited the track after their last heat, and no matter that it says "participant" on it, to him it's a TROPHY! His first trophy!
The pictures aren't the greatest, but he's so darn cute in his gear on his little bike. Here he is on the straight-away (almost center of the picture) and rounding the corner. He was a little timid--not the fastest guy out there, but he had a great time.
In his first heat he killed his bike at the starting line and had a rough time until some guy came and helped him get it started. He got going in time to make a couple of laps. He did better in the next heat and was happy to announce that he passed a couple of guys.
Garrett was in the pits with him so the other kids and I spent a few minutes checking out the rest of the fair. When that few minutes was over we'd seen everything there was to see (did I mention this was a very small fair?) so we sat in the stands to watch the practices. The kids got pretty stir crazy and we were sweating our faces off, but we had a good time.
The guy sitting by us was not very comfortable with a camera, so bear with the picture. Check out Ellie's hair. She and Anson were entertaining themselves by wrestling on the benches. You should have seen the dirt in the bottom of the bathtub. These next pictures demonstrate their general mood.
And to change the subject, I had to post these pictures of Anson's obsession. These go along with the last post and his Thomas shirt. He takes great care to set these all up before he can be happy going to sleep. But boy, is he happy!
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4 comments:
Paul and I took our older three to that fair before. We liked it. It felt safe. How cool that Coleman got to race. My brothers were bikers. My oldest bro Aaron placed 2nd at the Nationals in Reno. He was really good. My younger bro Gabe followed right in his footsteps and also got into freestyle. He is almost 30 and can still do back flips on his bike. I will tell you that both bro's are COVERED in scars. It is a bloody sport.
Great post! I would have liked to see a picture of Coleman all geared up close up. Andy and I have said if there's one kid we know that will end up in the X Games, it is going to be Coleman! And Anson is so cute!
Very, very "cool!" You have the cutest kids! You're a good mom Amy!
looks like you guys are doing great Amy...thanks for the blog link, because I had lost it. Weren't you private for a while? Anyway, now I have you added as a link on my blog so I won't lose you again. How's the photography going? It looks like it's going well!
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