Partying, airport shuttles, and other Memorial weekend activities

Our Memorial Day weekend was spent over in Illinois.  We went on the guise that we were coming over for the holiday and to celebrate Rachel's 7th birthday which was Friday.  What we mainly went over for was a surprise 60th birthday party for my dad.

Here he is with his "blazing with fire" cake at the party at his church.  This was after we had a family lunch out at their house.  Dusty, Aaron, and Dusty's brother Joel were able to get him out of the house for the morning by taking him golfing.  Dad says he only got suspicious that something may be going on when my mom insisted that he go in our car and leave his truck for her.  (We had to haul some tables)  She NEVER drives the truck.

But let me back up for a moment.  What do you do when your family consists of more than a couple private pilots.....you spend the morning picking them up from local airports and airstrips.  Uncle Richard and Aunt Ginger flew up from Clarksville, TN so my 1st airport shuttle service was off to the Shelby Co. airport to pick them up.

I pulled up to a mostly empty small town airport and hopped out of the car.  I had my sign with their last name printed in bold letters on it.  (I wanted to make sure I took the right set of people)  They were leaning against the plane waiting for someone to come and turn on the fuel pump.  There would be no confusion in finding the right people.  :)

My Uncle Ray and Aunt Charlotte were flying up from Olney, IL.  They were landing on the grass strip about 2 miles from mom and dad's.  I got the call that they were 10 minutes out so I headed down the road to get them.  Pulled off to the side of the road and hopped out with another sign for them.  Fairly certain that there would be no mix-up, but you never know!  Actually I like to have some silly fun. :)

We got everybody back to the house and when Dad pulled back in he seemed to be genuinely surprised.  I think he knew something was up, but didn't realize so many family would be there.  We had lunch and Mom proceeded to give the garden and flower tour to any willing participant.

After some presents at the house we headed to the church for cake and ice cream.  Lots of people stopped by and it was fun to see everyone.

Got everybody back to their planes and back in the air with no problems. :)

My Grandpa Lusk was also able to join us and spent the night so he could go to church with us.  So glad to be able to spend some time with him.

I think Molly thinks he's going to get into her ice cream!

Then Sunday evening we headed off to Dusty's parents where we eventually did get to a party for Rachel's birthday.

But not before Aaron challenged Dusty to a heated game of Duck, Duck, Goose!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Little girl turns 7 today!

And in keeping with our tradition, we sang a special Happy Birthday for Wannaporn (our sponsored child in Thailand) who turned 7 today too!

Zoom...zoom

Kids are out of school, the car has 4 new tires, time to hit the track.  We headed out to community day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The one day when you can drive your car around the track....provided you don't go over 30 mph.  It was a fun experience and an interesting one keeping the car up on the banked corners.

Come and take a trip around the track with us

After doing our lap at a blistering 25 mph we parked the car and headed into the action.  First stop - pit road.  They had it lined with cars from the last 100 years.  Rachel even managed to find one her size.

And of course you need a photo standing on the yard of bricks.  The bricks (which are the original surface of the speedway) are at the start/finish line and run across the track, pit road, and under the tower.

There was a solid line of cars circling the track all day, including this one.  He's holding up a license plate with "Wheldon" on it.  We saw several tributes to Dan Wheldon, last year's Indy 500 winner who killed in the last race of the season last year.

After taking in pit road we stopped at the winner's circle for a photo op.  Aaron said he wished he had a bottle of milk right about now. :)

Off to the garages where the crews were working on the cars getting them ready to roll on Sunday.  This is Helio Castroneves' garage. 

The kids got Alex Tagliani's autograph. They were doing autograph sessions in the afternoon, but the lines were huge just to get the wristbands that you needed to attend a session. Honestly, autographs aren't that big of a deal to me and (with a few exceptions) I probably wouldn't know if a driver walked right past me.

We took a tour of the timing and scoring floor up in the Pagoda.  This is the view of the finish line from there.

And then we check out one of the suites.  A seat in here on Sunday costs $750.  Or you could just rent out the entire room for your friends for a measly $195,000!

Before we left, Aaron got to have a fantasy moment and sit in the drivers seat of a new Chevy Camaro.

Or if the Camaro isn't your speed how's this one

We had to dodge a pace car on pit road....Corvette....Shiny!

It was a fun time.  In fact, Aaron and I came to the conclusion that this day was a lot more fun than sitting in the stands in the sun on Sunday will be.

Let the summer begin!

School is out....and the children rejoice!  This one made it home first.  He's no longer in grade school.  Yes, you heard that correctly; he's headed to Brownsburg High School in a couple months.

Not long after Aaron got home it was time to head off to get Rachel and her pals.  There was much rejoicing as they buckled in. 

Then there's only one way to end a school year....Dairy Queen.  Everyone else in the town must have thought so too because the joint was packed!

This morning I got to spend a few hours at the 6:4 Fellowship national conference representing Operation Christmas Child.  Always great to be able to talk to people about this great ministry.

While there I also got to see a performance by the World Children's Choir.  They had members from Uganda, Nepal, and the Phillipines.  One of the host families for the kids talked about how some of the children had mentioned how the shoeboxes had came to their village. 

So if you ever want more information about packing a shoebox, leave me a comment.  I'd love to tell you how you can get involved! :)

And to sum up.......THE ICE BARN IS OPEN!  O happy day indeed! :)

One more day & the entry revealed

Only one more day of school left for us.  Last day of 1st grade for Rachel and last day of grade school entirely for Aaron.  We've been counting down on our dry erase board.

And finally the entry redo is complete.  Here's the before

Not horrible, but I had looked at that wall border for close to 10 years now....time for a change. 

After...

Removed the border, added a fresh coat of paint and a new light fixture, rug, table, and wall decorations.  And here's my favorite part...the new wall decal.

Maybe we're good to go for another 10 years now. :)

Buy the rumor, Sell the fact

Aaron was part of a group project for his language arts class to make a video.  They choose an anti-bully theme.  In addition to receiving an A+ for the project.  Their video was chosen to be shown to students at the beginning of the next school year.  Proud of you Aaron!

Gettin' Dirty!

I participated in the GoDirtyGirl 5k today with a super group of girls, partly to have a muddy fun time and partly to celebrate this wonderful friend.

Heather's bravely battled breast cancer and now we're on to more fun and better days!!

The "before" team photo of the H3 girls

...and a little bit of during*

*meaning...mud flying everywhere!

At the finish line - dirty, muddy, & happy

And our shoes.....

TOAST!

Photos courtesy of our talented team photographer and Heather's proud husband....Paul. :)