How Lucky Are We?

The Texas Motor Speedway is right in our backyard (figuratively) and our best friends invited us along for a tour! I forgot to post the pics, so even though they're from a few weeks ago, I had to share because we had such a great morning!!


We all met in the gift shop and loaded into two vans to explore the entire grounds of the TMS. It was wayyyyy more interesting than I expected!

One of our first destinations, and Reese's absolute favorite, was riding in the van ON the actual speedway track!

The 24 degree bank on the side was crazy-nuts. We laughed about how it would make the front of the paper if the van rolled. "Twenty Homeschoolers Roll Over In Van At Texas Motor Speedway." All was fine, but it was a wild ride :) This is my best effort at taking a picture out the van window:
We pulled into the pit for a pit stop (like I know the lingo or something!).
Then we got to gather in Victory Lane as a group. It was a VERY cold morning & luckily Tammy brought an extra jacket to share with Reese! See where we're sitting? That's where all the photographers & journalists from magazines sit when it's time to interview the winners of the race.
Here's where my butt sat:
Reese sat down on the Victory Lane sign...
Then we got to check out one of the luxury suites. I got sick to my stomach as Reese trotted down the stairs & leaned up against the glass. Vertigo deluxe!!
We had a great view of the entire speedway grounds. Below you see lots of blue rectangles. Those are trash bins & the track was being prepared for the April 6th race, Samsung 500 or something. The big parking lot with trash cans is where the racers will park their multi-million dollar motor coaches.
After the Speedway tour, Tammy & I took the boys to Cabelas for lunch. We had ostrich sandwiches, elk sandwiches, & the boys opted for something a little more familiar...ham & cheese!
Just as we finished touring the whole store, we waltzed into the fish tank just in time for the twice-weekly feeding! The Aquarium Manager came out with all the food (live goldfish, shrimp, live worms, etc) and explained what they were & who in the tank would eat them.

Then he went to the top of the tank & dropped the food in a little at a time. The boys were fascinated by the fish lower in the tank. Good thing because at the top of the tank, we saw the live goldfish swim for their lives, only to be gulped in a second by the big fish. The turtles loved the wiggly worms. It was the food chain at its finest. Tammy & I were sad about the goldfish being eaten, but I guess it's just part of life.

It really was another great homeschool lesson on the fly!!