Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!

If you know anything at all about Howie, you know that he loves cars. He loves playing with cars, imitating cars, talking about cars, buying cars, watching cars, and reading about cars. When we color together, he asks me to draw cars. When he sees pictures of cars on our junk mail, he asks me to cut them out so he can play with them. When he sees soup cans or yogurt at the grocery store with cars on them, he wants to buy them. At night when the game is on, he is watching car commercials. There is almost nothing in the world Howie loves more than cars.

For a boy who loves cars as much as Howie, Saturday was like a dream come true. We took him to Thunderhill Raceway to watch REAL, LIVE RACE CARS! I don't believe it is possible to describe in words how excited he was. It was like Christmas in June, a second birthday, or a trip to Disneyland. Howie sat glued to his seat for two hours watching stock cars, trucks, mini stock cars, and the like drive around the track. It was probably the best day of his life.

Howie making race car noises. Yes, that is a Lighting McQueen T-shirt he is wearing.

Howie in awe of the awesomeness of real, live race cars. He is covering his ears because race cars are really loud. Later he was wearing some earplugs that we bought for him.

So you know Howie had a good time, but what did the rest of the family think of their first Nascar experience? Matt and I were pleasantly surprised to discover that live car races are much more exciting than their TV counterparts. On TV you know the cars are going fast because the announcer tells you they are going fast. At the race track you see them going fast. And they are really, really fast. And you see how many times they almost crash into each other. They are loud (really loud) and bits of gravel and dust fly into your face when they rush past. And the whole time you are drinking a cold lemonade surrounded by your fellow Nascar fans. (We never knew that you could feel over-dressed wearing a t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals.) It is all pretty exciting.

Henry, on the other hand, did not enjoy the experience. Did I mention that race cars are loud? They were much too loud for little Henry. Matt and I took turns being with Howie, who wanted to be as close to the race cars as possible, and Henry, who wanted to be as far away from the race cars as possible.

Since we live with a little boy who loves cars, I imagine that we will become regulars at the Thunderhill Raceway, but next time I will be sure to remember my Dale Earnhardt baseball cap and ear muffs for Henry.

Howie, Henry, and Matt watching the opening ceremonies.  Henry is happy because the cars are not racing.

These are all the cars that were racing that day. They did not race all at once, but they were all lined up together for the opening ceremonies. 

The Green Flag. Time to race!

Even these small cars were surprisingly loud and fast.