Grandpa Blake and Grandma Penny in WV

It was sure nice to have my Dad and Penny come visit for nearly a week. They had a rough time getting hear, TSA doing their job... Agghhh... It was pretty late, but their hotel was in a good location and it all worked out well. Here are some pictures of different things we did.

Isaac showing Grandpa and Grandma the stringless harp at the Clay Center.
Grandpa, Isaac and Lexy Jo at the Clay Center.

Half of Danica, Penny and Dad at the beginning of the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine tour. This is a sweet tour on a train in the mine with a bunch of displays set up of different equipment, etc.

Grandpa and Grandma Penny at the Old School House at the Beckley Mine.

Here we are having lunch at the Omelet Shoppe. Amy loves to eat here when she is in Beckley.

Check back to this post later... I will add more pictures.

Danica in WV

Danica came to visit and help us out while Amy was in class. She came in Saturday night, stayed a week and left the next Saturday morning. She was a great help and the kids had fun. Naturally Lexy had more fun with her that Isaac, but that is how it goes with the girls. Lexy would let Danica sit anywhere the she couldn't sit next to her. She chased her around and looked up to her in a BIG way. Here are some pics of the week.

Amy, Lexy and Danica at the airport.

Grandma Penny, Lexy and Danica at the Clay Center.

Danica and Lexy making a stop motion movie at the Clay Center.

Danica and Lexy ice skating.
Danica headed out, at the airport. Thanks for ALL your help Danica...!

Lexy Jo's New Chair

Lexy got a new chair. She like to sit by Amy during the day when Amy is studying at her desk. Lexy writes letters, colors, and does learning pages. She has been dragging a stool in from the kitchen, but this works better. Sweet pink chair Lexy Jo.

Freshly assembled.Here is an action shot.

Racetime... Again...

Sorry for the gap in posting. With Danica, my Dad and Penny in town, Amy gone to school, and me not going to work, I just haven't taken the time. Boy, taking time off of work is exhausting.

Anyway, to the racing news. Sometimes I feel like this has become the Isaac (#75) Walbeck Blog. I hope I can keep some balance. We took Grandpa and Grandma to the track on Saturday night. Isaac did great... again. He won the 50cc 7-8 year old class, took 2nd in the 50cc Open class (what a show) and got 6th in the 65cc 7-9 year old class. He kept nailing the double he started jumping last week, he is getting smooth on it. And on his last lap of the night he nailed another double to a table top. We were all cheering. This picture is after we washed the bikes and got most everything pack into the trailer. He is packing his hardware. The smaller one in his left hand is a 'Holeshot Award' for taking the holeshot in the first moto. He got the plaque, a new set of Scott grips and a key chain. Pretty cool bonus.

I have a ton to post, I just gotta take the time. Stay tuned.

Visitors, Visitors

We have lots of visitors in town.

Danica (Amy's cousin) is in town to help us with the kids and have a vacation of her own. She is loving sleeping in, afternoons by the pool and not having to worry about when to goto work next. One of our neighbors told her, "Enjoy your time here, it's like living at a resort." He's right.

My Dad and Penny got here yesterday to get away themselves. We picked them up at the airport last night about 10pm. It will be nice to show them the area and see them for a few days. We are going to drag the whole crew down the Beckley tomorrow the pick up Amy from class and take everybody through the Exhibition Mine.

After we dropped off Dad and Penny at their hotel we saw fireworks being launched from the Appalachian Power Park. We rushed over the to catch them before they were over. What a nice display. It when on for a good 15 min. I snapped some poor pics of the kids with the fireworks behind them. It was a good time.

Later.

More Racing...

Saturday was the first points race at the Tyler Mountain track. They are doing a four race series. Isaac did pretty good. He got a second and a third in the 50cc classes and a 5th in the 65 class. The big news of the night is after some talking, I told him he could try a double jump. (OK for the non-motocross lingo people, that is jumping off of one jump and landing on the next jump.) We talked through which one would be best to try and that he had to commit all the way. He did great. He came up a bit short a few times but by the end of the night he was clearing it. Good Job Isaac...!

Here are some pics from the night and a little video at the end.

Play Ball... or Dance...

We have been trying to stay out of the house in the evenings so Momma can study. Having the kids home in the day has cut into her study time. So, we when to the baseball game. Charleston has a pro team, the Appalachian Power. They are a minor league team for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's always fun to go to the game and "Kids Eat Free Night" made it even better. We had a blast. Burgers, cotton candy, peanuts in the shell, etc. Lexy and I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch. We had killer seat, front row against the backstop looking down the first base line. There was a freestyle dance group there performing, so they had a kids dance off during the 4th inning. Isaac and Lexy signed up and kicked butt. Isaac even had the instructor from the dance group invite him to come join their crew. He wants to, we'll see about adding dance lessons to the mix. (shrug) It already seems like we do it all.

Anyway, here is the video from the dancing on the dugout.

Honor Roll

So.. Aahhh... I'm not sure where he got it because Amy and I were neither one great students. But after a week and a half of being out of school, Amy found a whole pile of papers that Isaac brought home. He had a couple of Honor Roll certificates, and spelling award, and this straight A's report card. The stinker did show us all that, he was too excited to be out of school...

Great Job Isaac...!

Shots from the Track

Here are a few quick pics from the track last Saturday... I loaded up small images to save space, just click on any of them the get a larger verision if you want to see them better. Enjoy. It's amazing how hot you get riding... The poor kid gets all red in the face, like his dad.

This is a shot of Isaac waiting to go to the starting gate.

Lexy brought a mega-phone because she wanted Isaac to be able to hear her better.

This is Isaac taking FIRST place in one of his motos.

Isaac invited the missionaries to come see him race. They were super excited Elder Dedrickson and Elder Downard both are from Utah and both ride back home. One of them told Amy that he was more excited about coming to the race that he was about going home. It was fun to have them there and see all the strange looks from the other people. They even enjoied the hotdogs that Amy grilled them for dinner.

Petting Zoo

Amy took the kids to the mobile petting zoo today. She has been sacrificing study time to make sure the kids do some learning and some fun in the days now that they are out of school. There were some fun animals.Isaac tote-in' a chicken.Lexy scoping out which animal to attack next. What the heck is that thing...?

They loved it... Thanks Amy...!