PINKS ALL OUT

What an awesome weekend at Martin 131 Dragway! I am going to start by bragging about Liam a little bit. He is the best kid ever, and if you don't believe me then just ask! I'm pretty sure he is already a full blown gear head and loves fast and loud cars. Liam had the time of his life hanging out at the drags and playing with some new friends he met.

Jon Genzink and myself were 2 of 13 cars chosen out of 450 to be feature cars for PINKS ALL OUT. That in itself was more than enough to satisfy our entire weekend. Featured cars meant that we would both be guaranteed some airtime on PINKS ALL OUT TAKES (a separate show from PINKS All Out)and we had a free pass to lane 5 for racing with all the cameras on us. We also had Rod Dejonge in our group showing all 450 cars at the track how to do a wheelstand in a Jeep, and it was awesome!

The weather for Friday night to Saturday morning called for heavy T-storms so Jen and I decided to fold the seats down in our motor home/Ford Excursion and spend the night there. Liam slept through the night like normal while Jen and I were up till 3am listening to a dozen punks having a party right in front of our truck. The storm finally hit at 5:30am and we stayed perfectly dry!

Saturday morning Jon and I lined up at 9am to race. We had a racers meeting with the PINKS crew and got ready to race. I was 3rd in line to race until one of the track staff spotted all the cords showing on my drag tires and said they were unsafe to race. I then had to go back to the pits and try to find another set within the hour. This was apparently an answer to my prayers because I knew they were bad but thought I could get two more runs out of them. They were bad enough that I would pray the entire 1/4 mile that they wouldn't blow and then God sent the nice guy to tell me no more racing until you change your tires.

Jon had another set of slicks at his shop in Holland and Brad and Dave Haan were just leaving for the track and were able to pick them up. They were given a VIP pass to the pits by the PINKS crew. If that wasn't all cool enough, Peter Root (one of the PINKS producers) escorted them on our golf cart to the pits, waited for us to change the slicks and then brought me back to the track around all the racers, stopped the next two cars in line just to allow me to make my pass! That was better than any Hollywood story I have ever heard.

Alright, that's way more typing then I have ever done. The end result is, we all had the time of our lives and none of us are $10,000 richer. Maybe next time! I posted a Youtube video of some of our passes, just go to Youtube and search tbob80, then click on PINKS ALL OUT.


This is Peter Root from PINKS with Brad Haan driving.
This is Brad and myself changing slicks faster then a Nascar pit crew.

Liam with Grandpa DeHaan and ear protection!

Liam tried to convinced me that he can go faster in the Ranger and thus win the 10,000 dollars. My response was, who is going to step on the gas for you?

I told Liam he needs to practice with his own Ranger!

Popsicles

What would summer be without Popsicles? This was Liam's first attempt at eating a Popsicle. He loved it. No real surprise there, I have yet to find some food item he doesn't devour. And of course he was upset when it was gone. I think he thought his mommy didn't share fare, but I do think he ate more than I did, plus he had some of grandma's! It must have felt great on his gums because he was teething big time. Sunday was the first day I could feel his first sharp little tooth coming though.
Last week Liam stayed in G-ma and G-pa's Huyser's boat. Tim was gone all week to Colorado with the church youth group and I thought that it would be too long for him to go to daycare on the days I work because that would have been over 13 hours 3 days in a row! So G-ma volunteered to watch him since she had vacation that week anyway. Too bad it was such a crummy week. I don't think Liam cared too much but I know G-ma wished it was nicer weather. My mom thought that Liam had to have his exersaucer along because he loves it so much. It was a good idea - especially with the weather. He can stand up around it now and he even attempts to walk around it. You have to help hold him of course or he would fall face first. this kid has no fear!
Grandpa came to visit him every night after work and even spent the night once. He is quite the baby hog. When he is around he's gotta have the grandkids. He like to walk with Liam and show him off. here he put on his sun hat - cowboy style with the sunglasses. So far he keeps them both on. I'm sure it won't last long.
G-ma got lots of use out of her stroller. They even got a little wet, but Liam didn't care. He loves to go for walks. This is him on the Grand Haven Pier - taking a break. He is yelling for g-ma to put down the camera and start walking again. He doesn't really like to stop.
After such long days outside Liam was ready to sleep. G-ma said he loved sleeping on the boat and he slept until about 8:oo every morning. I don't think g-ma knows the no blanket in the bed rule - what do you think? Well at least he was comfortable. Thanks G-ma and G-pa Huyser for taking such good care of him!
This weekend we are going camping at the 131 Dragway (Martin, MI). Tim is racing his truck in PINKS All Out! It is a TV show that airs on the SPEED channel. I think there is about 350-400 cars racing and there will be only 16 in the feature. We dropped off the truck tonight and got our spot in the pits and Tim was already interviewed by one of the PINKS crew members. The guy was leaving the track and seen us pull in and he turned around and followed us to our spot. He was excited to see something different that would be racing. There isn't a lot of trucks and probably non that are as lifted as Tim's so it kinda draws a crowd. We are definitely not the fastest, but it is fun to watch. It should be a good time, our first experience with Liam in a tent. I will report back next week with the details!

Many Faces

Liam has been up to so much since our last post! He has had an ear infection, is trying to cut teeth, rolls over - a lot - and is sitting up on his own. He is not crawling yet, but he is getting closer. He just has to pick up that big belly.

Here he is drooling all over. He will laugh at pretty much anything Tim does.
Oh, what big eyes you have!
And more laughing at his daddy.

Does this look say "here comes trouble" or what!
I just couldn't resist putting this picture in. Tim made this wagon before we got married. In fact, Logan Muyskens rode it in our wedding. Since then, Tim has made a few adjustments including newer, bigger tires. For those of you who don't know, this wagon looks just like Tim's sand drag truck. I will have to post a picture of both of the trucks next to each other. Liam isn't too sure about riding in the wagon yet, but I'm sure he will come to love it - especially since it has a cooler in the back to hold all his bottles :0).

Finally Tulip Time!

I am a little behind on posts lately. So I will start with Tulip time and try to catch up from here. We had a great time this year - Liam's first tulip time. He wore the costume I made for Carter last year. It was kinda snug, but so cute.

He loves to stand up like a big boy and he sucks his lips in a lot - when he doesn't have his fingers in his mouth! You can't tell by the pictures I post because I try to weed those out.

This is my dutch dance partner, Missy. She looks so cute with Liam, they are wearing the same style of dutch costume - the boys Volendam. Missy got in lots of trouble this year dancing. I think she got yelled at every night for wearing too many earrings and having bobby pins in instead of hat pins. She is such a rebel! (or is it just the crazy costume inspectors?)

Carter and Liam came to watch me dance a few nights. I think they love the attention from all the tourists. Aren't they just the cutest? We also went to the parade on Wednesday. Carter loved it - Liam could care less, as long as he gets fed and gets a nap!

From left to right - Jenn and Cam, Abby and Rylee, Kelly and Carter, Me and Liam, Jill and Hudson. What a fun night! I can't believe we got everyone in the picture - and no tears! The kids did pretty good considering it was getting to be past their bed times. It's a riot dressing them up in these silly costumes just to get a few good pictures.

I couldn't resist posting one more of Liam. He is just starting to sit up on his own. Right after we took this picture I let go of him to see if he could sit by himself and he leaned a little too far towards the tulips and did a face plant in the dirt! He didn't even cry, he was far too interested in the grass. It was hard to get him to look up for a picture he just wanted to stare at the ground. It really makes me wonder what he will be doing at this time next year. I bet it will be even harder to get a good picture!

Mother's Day

A quick post from Tim and Liam to the best mom ever!

Baptism Invitation

All family and friends are invited! We understand it is Mother's Day, but didn't want to miss anyone who may want to come. So you are welcome to witness and celebrate with us on Liam's special day. If you are planning on lunch, just call or e-mail Tim or I so we know how many to plan on. We appreciate everyone who has been involved in his life. He has come a long way in such a short time. There have been so many prayers prayed for him and he doesn't even know it yet. We have a long and happy road ahead of us as we strive to raise him as a child of God (so we would love it if the prayers kept comming!).