Daytona 500 - epic really!

If your have ever said "I will never go to a NASCAR race, I hate NASCAR." Then you are seriously limiting your life's experiences and boy do I feel sorry for you. NASCAR I guess is known for being a "redneck" sport so there are some people out there that never even give it a chance. Most of you know that I do not limit my love for sports though. I pretty much love all sports (basketball can get kinda sleepy for me but I still like it). So a few years back, when TJ and I had our first opportunity to go to the Daytona 500, we went!! And I found a love that I never thought I would. I mean, I have always liked watching races on TV, but that was the extent of it. Actually going to a race changed that.... it is LOVE. NASCAR races live make football and baseball games just "ho-hum" events. YEP, I just said that.
So now that we live back on this side of the country, and Elleah is a little older, all the stars alined for us to go to another race. We got the family together and decided to go Daytona the RIGHT way. We rented campers and camped all weekend out by the speedway. We had a BLAST. Lots of cornhole tournaments, lots of food, lots of family fun.... it was GREAT!
Until Sunday. Race Day. It decides it is going to rain. A lot. We still tried making our way to the track but by the time we got there and got UNDERNEATH the grandstands for shelter from the rain, the race was CANCELLED! ugh!!! Rescheduled for Monday at noon. Well, like most normal people, my parents, brother, and rest of the family had to get home Monday... some people have to work, right? It was still raining at 10am on Monday so TJ and I headed home too. We had to turn our rental in and for heaven's sake we needed a SHOWER! LOL. On our way home though, it was announced that the race was pushed to 7pm. We only live 2 hours from Daytona. So after turning in the rental, we showered and like a couple of silly heads, we schlepped Elleah BACK down south for the race. I was SO sick that my family had bought tickets and were not able to go. But we live just too close to not give it a shot. We got there just in time to hear, "Gentlemen, start your engines." Such an awesome place....






Elleah was originally NOT going to go. She was going to stay with mom while the rest of us went. But with mom no longer there and all these extra tickets we had, Elleah went. That turned out to be great though, because she LOVED it. And she loved loved loved the...... Blimps! lol


















The race was delayed 2hrs for a crazy fire!! We thought about leaving, but, naaaahhh! Elleah conveniently took a nap during the delay. She woke up ready for more racing!! So it worked out good. It was a LATE night though. We got in the car to come home at about 2:30am. Elleah was such a good girl. I am so thankful that she is so awesome and makes it easy for us to bring her along for things like this. She was asleep before we could hit the road. TJ and I both WANTED to be asleep too! So we pulled over at a rest stop to catch a few Zzzzz!! We were not the only ones....lol.... This rest stop looked like a camp grounds! It was crazy! Cars were parked EVERYWHERE!!!! We pulled up in the grass along side a few other cars, folded the seats down in the suv, and passed out from exhaustion!!! Elleah woke us up about 7 saying she wanted to go home. She fell back asleep on the way home. When we got home, we all three curled up in our bed and slept till after 11. Then we went back to sleep around 1 and woke up at 5. We. All. Were. Tired. But it was worth it. It is not a normal day, it definitely threw us off routine, but we had a balllllll.
My advice.... Get your booties to a NASCAR race, just do it how you need to do it, and enjoy the heck out of yourselves!!! It gives me an adrenaline rush watching those cars speed by! I think Elleah felt it too!! Amazing!!

*****The circumstances of this particular Daytona 500 were unbelievable. I know most people do not care about the details and since I am not ESPN, I will let you looks those details up if you are interested. But if you know all the little details, I think you too would agree it was epic really!!

Lovetown, USA

For months now, Kingland/St Marys, GA has been being scouted for a new show called Lovetown, USA. It is a match making reality show for the OWN network (Oprah's new network for you cave dwellers). Anywho, our little town was finally chosen and filming started Sunday at the kick off "love rally"! I was already thinking of seeing if TJ wanted to go down there for a bit when he called me from work on that Friday to inform me he had to work Sunday. Oprah had decided to come to the "Rally" and his boats were to pick her up in Fernandina Beach and bring her to Saint Marys. It wasn't completely out of the blue, the Coast Guard here is already sorta involved because one of the guys TJ works with is a 'contestant' (if thats what we are calling them). So while half the town was getting their panties in a wad over how much they hate all this, I embraced it and thought "Neato!!!!" PS: I think most people saying they hated it just said that because they didn't want to admit that they too thought it was NEATO! Because we all know it's Neato! Whatever! So I made plans for me and Elleah to go downtown and watch her daddy's boat come in. I gotta tell ya, they keep these boats under pretty tight lock and key and even though I had seen them before, it isn't a normal day they pull these boats out like this and bring them downtown, so I may have been more excited about THAT!! We ended up running into a few other coastie wives and had such a great time!! I think the rest of the day is better explained in pictures.....

Elleah was so good and had so much fun!

An empty pier, waiting on the boat!

Camera man gets ready...

Boat one... small boat... doing a sweep through :)

Boat 2, TJ's boat (he is the hunky one on the front)

TJ's boat pulling up! TJ is standing on the outside up front!

Then Oprah got off the boat for the show...

Then, while the show was going on, we crossed
the barricades to see the guys on the boats

aww

crossing the ramp....

Finally it was over and they all lined up for a pic....
 TJ is behind the pole...LOL figures!

We had such a good time!! It was a gorgeous day, so spending it in the park was perfect!!

Love is Always in the Air!

TJ and I have never celebrated Valentine's Day like some do. Do we buy each other cards?? Eh, not really! Big stuffed bears?? Nah, waste of money! Chocolates? Of course, but we don't actually present them to each other on vday like two Cupid struck lovers! I love TJ, almost more than anybody! But I don't just love him on Feb 14th!! I love him Feb 15th-Feb 13th too!! With that being said, I'm not anti-Valentine's Day either, I'm fine either way! Having Elleah makes things a little bit more interesting though. I don't need special days for her, but I love having things to celebrate WITH her! I decided that I would let her make special Valentine's cards for all the special people in our lives!! While I don't think it is necessary to celebrate Valentine's Day like two love birds with TJ, I do think it is a great opportunity to remind everyone that we L<3VE them and think of them!! So I laid out construction paper, stickers, pipe cleaners, glue, paint, glitter, crayons, markers, foam paper, and more!!! I invited some friends and their little ones over too!! What is more fun than making a biiiiiig mess with friends?? I let E make whatever she wanted on each card and then asked her who we should give it to! I helped her with name options, but she chose the end results!! I hope you all get your cards in time for Valentine's Day!! ;-) hehehe.



So TJ and I are laying in bed one night, both online, and he sees this invite to the Daddy Daughter Dance on base! Without hesitating, he mentions that he'd love to take Elleah. My heart melted because I just knew she would love nothing more than to go on a date with her daddy and that he was serious about taking her. I decided to make her a twirly skirt and top (the corset style that she loved so much) to match this zebra print shoes she always calling her "princess" shoes and dancing shoes!! She did not pose very well for pics, but here are a few pics of the end result. Notice how dapper Mr Runnels looks!!!! ;-)








After the dance, TJ informed me that while Elleah loved going in and watching, she got shy on the dance floor. He was able to slow dance with her a few times, but she mostly just loved the chocolate fountain and grapes! lol. When they got home, we turned on the music and all three danced! It was so much fun!!

And then TJ made us these this morning.... We love him so much!!!




Happy Valentine's Day!!!