Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Weekend 2009 in Indy, and Happy Anniversary

After running a marathon last Saturday, putting on a concert last Tuesday, driving kids to all of their different activities, including rehearsals, recording sessions, preschool graduations, and a karate belt test and preparing to skip town last week, by Thursday, I was still in hyper-drive.
Wednesday night, I spent a tearful evening witnessing my brother, Spencer, as he was set apart as an Elder, then said goodbye to him with the family.

Thursday morning, I sent KJ off to school, then took TJ to his preschool graduation. He was so stinkin' cute, hammin' it up the whole time. I'll post pictures as soon as I get my disposable camera developed. Then home, to pack, clean up, and get everything ready. Then back to preschool for Peter's preschool program (I get why they were at different times---they are in different classes, but it sure was inconvenient an hour before I had to leave for the airport.) She was sheepish in front of all those people, but warmed up at the end. And also so cute! From there, we checked KJ out of school early, and drove straight to Grandma's house, where I dropped off the kids to stay for the weekend.

Once I got on the plane, and settled in my seat between Neck-brace guy, and Dr. Chang, I thought of my brother, who was surely, by now, flying somewhere over the ocean, on his way to the United Kingdom, to fulfill his 2 years of service to the Church.

At my layover in Detroit, I discovered there is such a thing as a perma-flushing toilet, which only flushes when you sit down to go, and won't stop during the "business" but will stop once you stand up, and refuse to flush again.

I finally landed in Indianapolis and took at Taxi to my hotel around 10:30 PM eastern.
Alright, that's the boring part of the story. Feel free to skim.
Friday morning we woke up expecting to catch a bus to the Bryant factory. We got up and dressed only to discover that our tour was scheduled at 1:00 pm. So, we spent some downtime, sitting in the hotel lobby trying to decide what to do, and finally settled on reading a book in the room until lunch.
The Bryant factory was pretty cool, despite our tour guide who admittedly didn't know what the hell he was talking about, who actually worked in scheduling or something. I tried really hard not to get distracted by his moobs as he droned on about this machine or that. Actually, to see the ins and outs of how a furnace was actually made was pretty cool and interesting. Our tour guide just kind of sucked. I felt like a celebrity as we entered the building the entire faculty lined the entrance and hallway, applauding our arrival. Made us feel pretty special.

Here's C in his sexy safety goggles. I'm sure he appreciates me posting this picture. Unfortunately this is the only picture I took of the factory.
(As you can see, my camera seems to be working just fine now. I'm so relieved)


Friday night we had a little welcome dinner. Guess who showed up for that?


Do you know who that is? No?


That's Tony Kanaan. The driver of the Indy car that Bryant sponsors. And he came to have dinner with us. (That other dude works for Bryant). How cool is that? He even took a picture of us and tweeted it. I felt special (even though you can't see me at all in his picture) I was hoping to get my pic with him and his autograph, but unfortunately he had to leave early and I didn't get it.



That night we also got to have our picture taken with the official race car,


I think this pic looks like a high school dance picture. I felt like were at Morp or something.


This is C & Me, and C's best friend Troy, and his wife Melissa. Troy works for C.


and we also had our caricatures drawn:



What do you think? I really appreciate that the artist chose to point out the giant zit on my chin that I'd been sporting all weekend.



This artist was a little nicer, I think. And he reminded me of Bobby from the Brady Bunch. I think it was him. Seriously.

It makes C look like Luke Wilson. Something about the eyebrows.

After dinner they had a 50's bop dance, because they were celebrating 50 years of Bryant sponsoring Indy racing. We didn't dress up, but here are some pics.


Saturday, we got to go to the track, and go in the pits with the crews. They had pit crews there practicing for the big day. It was kind of fun to watch them do it over and over. Here's a video. I paid attention to the time. 15 seconds. Better keep practicing!


Here are some pics from Saturday's events. We walked around, got lots of free stuff, and checked out the Indy racing Hall of Fame museum. There were lots of cars in there. Who'da thought?

Bumblebee. How cool is that? I took this pic for TJ. I was hoping to see a Mustang, but this particular display of sports cars was sponsored by Chevy.

Here a giant statue. What is Troy doing under there? And what am I pointing at? Hanging out with these guys all weekend brings out the worst in me....

The next Danica Patrick? p.s. this is actually Danica's car. I think from last year or something


This little beauty is called the "Mormon Meteor" because it's speed was tested in the Utah Salt Flats.


Did you know that the first female Indy car race driver to drive in the Indy 500 in 1956 (I think) was sponsored by Bryant? Yeah, that's pretty freakin' awesome.

On the way back from the track, Troy sweet talked our bus driver into dropping us off at the Lucas Oil Stadium. That's the new field where the Indianapolis Colts play. So, we took a tour.

It was pretty cool, but I'll admit, it would've been cooler to watch an actual game.


Yes, this is their carpet. Kind of cool.


C in the locker room.


Me on the field.






I'll post about the race later. As of right now, I've been writing/posting pictures all morning, and I've got to get my laundry done and house clean.
And I should probably take a shower because today is the 9th Anniversary of my and C's wedding? (Annette, what is the proper way to say that? Plural possessive? I've always wondered)
Yeah, so tonight when C gets home from work we'll be celebrating our 9 year anniversary.
Boom Chicka Wow Wow!

19 comments:

Kristina P. said...

You guys always take the best vacations! And you look smashing as usual.

Peggy said...

Welcome home! And Happy Anniversary!

Jillene said...

How fun!! Love all of the pictures----especially the one of Morp!! (0;

Annette Lyon said...

I'd think you'd be ready to collapse from exhaustion about now. (I am after just reading all you've been up to!)

That first artist was sort of lame. You don't have huge ears or a neck that belongs to Gumby!

Erin said...

What a great time you had! That first caricature picture was pretty silly.

But I just showed Ethan, my six year old, the Bumblebee pictures, and he was in awe. Thanks for impressing my son!

Mikki said...

What a fun weekend. The bumblebee pic is awesome! My kids will be so jealous, heck, I'm jealous.
That first caricature is really very scary. No way did the artist do you justice, he should be fired.

Happy Anniversary!!! have some fun tonight!!

mCat said...

I'll confess, not much into racing, but your post was fun to read, and yes it did look like a prom picture! Strategically posed hands and all!
Sounds like a great time, welcome back and.....

Happy Hubba Hubba day today!

deb@virginia blue said...

You two have to be one of the best looking couples in the world :)

Looks like you had a great time, but I'm still upset that your trip fell on graduation weekend and I couldn't hook up with you :(

Happy Anniversary ♥

Shelle-BlokThoughts said...

HOW cool is that. I'm totally envious... I LOVE transformers... does that make me a geek??? Anyway... you look incredible as always!

Jo said...

I am sure Little Man would have swooned to see BumbleBee. Your list of everything you are doing makes me want to take a nap!

Rachel Sue said...

What a weekend! I like the 2nd caricature better too. The first one has weird noses. . .

I have always wanted to walk around on a football field like that. That is so cool. It would have been cool for you to see a game, but then you couldn't have gone on the field!

AS Amber said...

I guess you forgot the BEST part of your weekend? The part when you texted me from the BAR??? Nice.

I agree with debilyn...you two are so good lookin'!

Oh, and I know you didn't ask me but I'm pretty sure it's "C's and my anniversary." You're welcome.

Oh and my favorite part would have been the Colts Stadium part. AWESOME!!!
And then the...y'know...

tiburon said...

Wowsa! Looks like such a great trip! Now I really want to go to Indianapolis...

Unknown said...

Amber is correct on the grammar thing. Way to go, little sis.

Sounds like you had a blast. Why was I not being texted from the bar? I would text you from a bar. You know I would.

And I have actually spent an entire night alone in the Detroit airport. For a place with skanky carpet and hard plastic seats, it wasn't half bad.

Chas Hathaway said...

High Five for LDS musician bloggers! I just discovered your blog, and love it. I'm always looking for other LDS musicians who blog. There aren't many out there! At least I haven't found many.

Anyway, thanks for the great blog!

- Chas
http://music.willowrise.com

Lisa said...

Your trip sounds awesome! Enjoy your 9th anniversary tonight. Boom chicka wow wow totally had me laughing.

Wonder Woman said...

The first caricature doesn't even look like you guys. I like the second one much more.

Looks like you had a blast!!

p.s. I think I'm reading the Jodi Picoult book you read that you thought was kinda porny. The one with the mercy killer. Wasn't that you? Please tell me it was....

Lisa Loo said...

I agree with every one else on the Barbie and Ken thing--good grief girl!!!!

My son is drooling over my shoulder at the bummblebee pics--great--now he knows this is out there I will not be allowed to rest.

Looks like this trip was so much fun---so nice you could go!!


OH!! I GOT MY CD IN THE MAIL!! LOVE IT!! Already got it on my iPod--yeah!

Natalie said...

Looks like a man's paradise. You look so good, super skinny!