The Pallet Grand Prix

One of the great things about my dad's job with the Davis Chamber of Commerce is that he gets involved in so many community events.  Being related to him means we tag along some times as well.  It's pretty awesome.

On the morning of August 23, my mom called me and asked if I had any big plans for the day.  Of course, I didn't.  I was picking tomatoes while we talked.  Pretty exciting.  She said that Dad was at the PARC Pallet Grand Prix and that they could user a crowd of fans to cheer them on.  PARC stands for Pioneer Adult Rehabilitation Center. They help adults with special needs and disabilities.  My dad does a lot with them through the chamber.  Anyway, once per year, several companies in the area get old pallets (like the stuff they place the goods on at Costco) and convert them into go carts.  Each team has a special "hero" riding the cart and two volunteers pushing the cart as they race two-by-two pinewood derby style down a 50 yard-or-so track. Of course, we dropped everything and went.  What a fun morning!

Some of the carts were pretty decked out!  The pink princess one looked dainty, but she was the grand champion!  Undefeated!!!

Here's the starting line. 

And the finish line was about 50 yards away.  It's hard to see him, but my dad is the man in the orange shirt and baseball cap at the foot of the bleachers.  He was a line judge.  He got to wave a checkered flag as the teams crossed the finish line. 

We had so much fun!  We all cheered our hearts out!  We sat on the very top bleacher, which was cool because after each race, the carts went behind the bleachers to get back to the starting line, so we would cheer them on as they went by.  We got blown a few kisses, a ton of thumbs up, and even squirted by one of the hero's squirt gun.  There was one go cart that fell apart in his race.  It was sad, but the hero didn't mind - he was all smiles as his two volunteers carried his mangled cart across the finish line.  The emcee was cute.  He was like, "Folks, if you've never been to NASCAR, now you know what it's like!"

Our family was the first of our group to arrive.  Grandma Smith and Kristin's crew showed up soon, though.

Alison even brought a home made sign to cheer on the racers.

As you can see, it was a windy day, but I'd choose wind over hot sun any day.

Go!  Go!  Go!

After the race, a bunch of local restaurants served lunch to everyone in attendance.  It was amazing!  Little Ceasars, Chick-Fil-A, McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, and many other places gave out free food!  Yum!  The Chick-Fil-A cow was there, entertaining us between races and mingling with us at lunch time.  My boys were FREAKED OUT by him!!!  Especially Joshua.  He ran away in tears if the cow was within 20 yards of us.  Dumb cow kept trying to get close to us too - I'm not sure if he was trying to torment my son or if he didn't know he was doing it.

At least Nicki liked the cow.

At lunch, things started to get crazy.  I couldn't keep all of my kids within eyesight at the same time to save my life.  I accidentally ate a cookie (sugar) and started feeling lousy  Josh ran off with Payton somewhere, and I think he accidentally bumped into one of the hero's because the guy kind of freaked out and started yelling at Josh.  I missed the whole incident - this is just what I've been told by a four year old boy  All I know is that Josh came over to me while I was eating my lunch and said, "Mom?  Can we leave now and never come back?"  It made us all crack up!  A few minutes later, we were all heading back to the parking lot together.  My dad said, "Thanks for coming, you guys." Joshua  promptly responded with, "You're welcome.  Except for the cow."  I guess he really doesn't like the Chick-Fil-A cow!