My girls ♥

These two love eachother so much. As soon as Ava sees Campbell, her eyes light up and she gets so excited. Campbell loves to hold Ava, even though Ava doesn't always want to be held :) She loves to feed her, play with her, change her, push her in the stroller, everything. I love watching them together and hope they will always be friends.

Vegas...again.

My family has started a yearly tradition of going to Vegas for the Cup weekend which is either the last weekend of February or the first weekend of March. My Grandpa is part of a time share and there are several properties there, so they stay at those. I had not planned to go this year as I just went to Irwindale and went to the Truck race in Vegas last Fall. The Tuesday before my Dad was going to leave, he talked me into going with him..which wasn't very hard, and by the next morning I had talked Ashley into coming..which also wasn't very hard :) My Dad drives down there because after he spends the week in Vegas, he continues on down to Phoenix to stay at my Grandpa's place there for awhile.

We left on Sunday morning, literally 5 days after planning to go. We drove to Twin Falls the first night and stayed at the McKean's. They cooked us a nice meal and my Dad and Eddie played the Wii while Ashley and I played with her niece Kaili.

Monday morning we finished the trip to Vegas, only about 7 hours and got settled into the condo. Ashley and I went grocery shopping and then we BBQ'ed steaks and I made potatoes and salad. It was actually so nice staying off of the strip. We were only 2 miles from it, yet we were far enough away from it.

Tuesday My Grandma, Ashley and I went to PF Chang's for lunch and then went to the Outlet mall for our girls day. We had a lot of fun laughing! Later that night we had dinner at Lawry's steakhouse before meeting up with our friend Kevin and his race team. We watched them play Craps for hours!

Wednesday we didn't do much besides relaxing which was so nice..

Kevin told us we were the oldest 20 somethings in Vegas...oh well, it's not like it was our first time..we have done Vegas, many of times :)

Thursday morning we went and picked up Kevin and took him to Voodoo tattoo to get his first tat. I had decided I would get one too, but mine took about 5 min. A simple "be" on the inside of my left wrist. People ask me why the word "be". Well, I love the word because it can mean so many things. It is sort of my personal mantra..be happy, be calm, be thankful, be loving..be anything! Luckily it only took 5 minutes because it hurt so bad, I was over it! I don't understand how people get tattoo's. The pain is not worth it to me. Kevin was there all day, so Ashley and I left and had lunch and did some shopping before picking him back up.
Thursday night we had dinner at the Hard Rock, hung out at Margaritaville and then called it a night.

Friday was a fun, unexpected day. My friend Jennifer won us VIP tickets to see Dierks Bentley at a new casino resort out towards the racetrack. She lives in NC and wasn't in Vegas, so she gifted her tickets to us and we had a great time. We got to show up early, meet Dierks and get our pictures with him, stand stage side the entire concert and create many memories. We had a great time! Thanks Jennie girl :)

We went to both the Nationwide race and the Cup race. Kevin spots for a team that runs both series and I texted him Saturday afternoon telling him I felt like I was at Monroe at the end of March on opening night, it was literally that cold! Sunday was much nicer reaching 70 even. The Cup race was pretty boring, which is what I expected at that track.

Sunday night Ashley and I went to The Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, only intending on going to the Roxy store. We walked in and Ashley spotted Club Tattoo and she was set on me getting my nose pierced. I have wanted it done since I was about 16 but have always been too scared to do it. With some convincing, I decided to do it. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. So I left Vegas with a tattoo and a piercing..a sign that I needed to go home :)

Monday morning we packed up all of our stuff and headed down to Goodyear, Arizona where my Grandpa spends most of the winter. We had a nice dinner with him and watched the Bachelor season finale..which I won't even get into, had some great wine and then called it a night.

Tuesday morning Ashley and I both flew to our homes and our big adventure was over! We had such a great time and most likely, we will be doing it again next year!

What it's all about.

Before Sunday, Jamie McMurray was an average middle of the pack racer. In fact, only a few months ago, he wasn't even sure if he would have a ride for the 2010 season. His team downsized from 5 cars to 4 and he was the odd man out. But Sunday afternoon, he raced his way to the new title of Daytona 500 Champion. A title that every driver in Nascar, dreams of having. As he said in his own words, something he has dreamed about since he was a little kid.

I'll be honest, he obviously wasn't my pick going in to the race. I have never been a fan of Jamie. I didn't dislike him at all, I just never purposefully cheered for him. Until Sunday night that is. When he won that race and did his Victory celebration, he turned me into a huge fan. To show that raw emotion and flat out appreciate what he had just accomplished as much as he did, how could you not be a fan? As my friend Karen said, he made the fans forget about the pot hole and the delays and remember what this sport is truly about.

I couldn't agree more. Jamie's win and celebration IS what this sport is all about and it's why I love it so much. As he said very emotionally, When you do something you love so much and succeed at it, you want to share it with those you love so much. Thank you Jamie for sharing your celebration with all of us, you made a fan out of me!

Valentine's.

Some of the special Valentine's I made for the little ones. The cupcakes were treats for Campbell and Cooper's classes and they were both so excited to take them.

I found the little mail boxes in the dollar spot at Target and decorated them with paper, ribbon and other embellishments and filled them with their favorite sweets.

To & From.

Lots of driving. Many laughs. Paprazzi. Getting lost. Jay Z. Makeup. Double Tree. Starbucks. Sailor Jerry. PF Changs. 5th place. The Grammys. Santa Monica. Calabasas. Malibu. Eric's Birthday. The Hangover. Too many memories ♥

These streets will make you feel brand new.

It's that time of the year again, time for the Toyota All Star Showdown! It also means it's road trip time. Ashley flys in tonight and we are leaving in the morning.

I am so excited for this year since Jay will be racing in the Super Late Model class on Friday night, live on Speed. My friend Jeff will be racing the West race on Saturday night, also live on Speed.

Can't wait for the open road, loud music, lots of laughs, taking pictures, forgetting about everything else except for having the time of my life..again :)

Monday Funday.

On Monday, I took the kids, along with my Sister and Ava to meet up in Seattle with Shae, Cadence, her mom Pam, Her cousin Heidi and her 3 kids for a fun day. We started at the Children's Museum and the kids loved it. There were so many exhibits for them to do. I think their favorite was the painting. I loved the Grocery store and Ava loved the discovery area where she could crawl around :)

Afterwards we went out to the Fountain at the Seattle Center. The kids thought that was about the coolest thing ever and I can't wait to take them back there in the summer when they can actually run through the fountain.

We ended our day with a trip to the top of the Space Needle. Not my favorite thing as I am afraid of heights, but the kids both loved that too. When we first got to Seattle, Cooper kept talking about the "Space Noodle" and I told him after we went to the Museum, we were going to go to the top of the Space Needle..his response: Why?

Haha :) I was worried he would be scared but he wasn't at all. He thought it was so cool that we could see the helicopter on top of the Komo 4 news building. Campbell thought it was cool that she could see our car :) And she loved to keep asking me how scared I was. I did just fine except when they got too close to the railings!

All in all it was a great way to spend the day and I can't wait until our next outing :)

Taco Salad.

A famous tradition at the races, the one and only, Taco Salad recipe.

1 packet Taco Seasoning

1lb. Hamburger

1 can drained Kidney Beans

1 can sliced Olives

1 (smaller) bag Mexican Cheese

1 bag of Shreds Lettuce

1 bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, crunched up

Sauce:

1 cup Mayonnaise

1/2 cup Ketchup

1 tsp. taco Seasoning

Simply, cook hamburger.

Drain and add seasoning.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, add sauce mixture and mix completely. And there you have it! I have yet to meet a person that doesn't love this, or atleast like it :)