Last Weekend

Yes, I realize that I'm now officially one week behind, but last weekend was epic for us. So following Shelby's really fun birthday party, Aunt Christy took her two kids and all 4 of mine for the night. Technically at this point she was taking them for the afternoon, night, and all day long the following day. Let's also underscore the fact that this overnight trip also included Halloween and trick-or-treating. I'm thinking that this act of bravery and selflessness at least deserves a shout out on the blog and a picture...

The Heinemeiers, some of our California BFFs, drove up from P'cola and spent Saturday night with us. We had a great kid-free night together here and then spent Sunday at the Talladega Nascar Race. It was my first. Everybody was preparing me for the "culture shock" that apparently Talladega has quite the reputation for. I was prepared for Mardi Gras like behavior with mullets and Alabama trash thrown in for good measure. I was quite surprised to find almost none of any of that. We saw a couple of incredibly tasteless t-shirts and one good mullet/mohawk combination and that was really the extent of it. Perhaps I've just lived here too long... I was, however, quite surprised to learn that NASCAR races are really a very individual experience. The cars are too loud to carry on much conversation with your neighbor and almost everybody is listening to the radio on headphones. There was a crowd of thousands of people at the race and I looked around and there was ZERO amount of social interaction going on in the stands. The whole thing just struck me as odd and not something that you get from watching the race on tv. Scott and I had a FANTASTIC time with the Heines and truly enjoyed spending the weekend with each other. Now I've "been there and done that" and can check NASCAR off the list. No need for me to go back, but I'm very grateful for the experience.

Thank you to Aunt Christy & Uncle Matt for giving us the grown up time. You rock.