Chloe's Belt Graduation

We have two orange belts in Taw Kwon Do. Chloe graduated from yellow to orange. She'll be an orange belt for at least 4 months as the school has changed it belt graduation from monthly to quarterly.

Chloe breaks her board and receives her new belt.

Oliver was enthralled with the graduation, he was busy playing Uno on my phone.

Mosport



 

It was back to Canada just three days after the northeast regional race. This time we were in Ontario for a two-day eastern Canadian kart race at Mosport. It was a great track with elevation changes.

Chloe did well on Saturday despite a mishap where another karter tried to beat her out of the pit lane during a practice session that left her with a bent tie rod and broken wheel hub. Sunday's race was a good one and Chloe got her first ECKC podium finish of the season. It was a great podium before we head to U.S. Nationals.

Oliver had a great time at the race too. He can't race, but he has lots of pals to kick the soccer ball around with.

Despite the unhappy look, she really wanted to wear Chloe's neck brace while we were waiting for the podiums to begin.

MiniMax podium on Sunday.

 A photo of the family with Chloe's driving coach, Ben Cooper.

Oliver's First Kart Race

Shortly after we returned home from Tremblant we were in south Jersey for the Northeast Regional race at NJMP.

Chloe did really well, the kids had a lot of fun.

Chloe took 2nd on Saturday and 3rd on Sunday.

Fellow racer and pal, Karsten, turned 10 and we celebrated at the track.

But all that doesn't matter right now.

IT WAS OLIVER'S FIRST KART RACE ON SUNDAY!!!

And, it was quite possibly the most anticipated kart race of the race season. Not even an exaggeration.

Everyone was so excited to see Oliver race and very supportive. Only one other kid karter came to race. I felt bad for the other kid as he had to be intimidated by Oliver's throngs of adoring fans (no joke). That was until the kid asked if I was Oliver's grandmother.



Oliver's fans and pit crew help get his kart ready and shade him from the sun's rays.

Photo op with the kid, the myth, the legend--Oliver.

Dillon and Chloe were the pit crew and gave race advice.

In the end, Oliver got second, but he proved himself as a karter and didn't let his throngs of fans down. Most importantly to Oliver, he had his first podium ceremony and got his first race trophy!

 

And lets not forget his tuner and proud father--

 

Another father at the track took some great photos of the kids during the race weekend----

 

Tremblant Vacation

We went to the beautiful mountain village of Mt. Tremblant in Quebec for vacation this year. We brought all the toys--the motorhome, the karts, the dirt bikes and the RC cars.

We picked Tremblant to vacation because of this---

It wasn't the majestic mountain or quaint ski village that brought us to Tremblant. It was for the great kart track where Chloe's driving coach resides.

Don't get me wrong. It was fun, relaxing and good family time together. We did get away from the track and the kids got to play with all their favorite toys. I'll let the photos explain.

Oliver on track with Chloe. Oliver had some driving lessons and really improved his lap times.

We never pack lightly. We brought all the goodies.

Oliver and Papa Ben riding dirt bikes.

Oliver riding the roads around the kart track and main car track.

We went to the ski village one day and Emma Claire took on the toddler-sized climbing wall.

Big sister Chloe took on the big wall and conquered all it had to throw at her pretty easily.

Oliver and Chloe couldn't wait to try the Akropark with the suspended bridges and climbs. They channeled their inner American Ninja Warrior.

While everyone was on the kart track one afternoon, Emma Claire and I picked some of the abundant wildflowers and created this.



The kids begged and begged for a camp fire, so we obliged. Oliver enjoyed burning marshmallows, bits of trash and magazines laying around. It was our one and only camp fire.

Emma Claire in the ski village.

Oliver attempted the climbing wall. He gave it a good effort but he got a little scared being so high.

The kids favorite activity was the Skyline Luge down the mountain on three-wheeled karts. We did this activity twice and the kids still kept begging to do it again.

Last night in Tremblant. It was the 4th of July and we had the track to ourselves!