Saturday is race day?!?

To completely mess with us, Keith decided to do a race today (races are normally Sunday) and his race time wasn't until 5:30 pm! It was nice and let us take our time in the morning. The race was over in Des Moines and our friend Rick was going to race in it too. His first crit! Got to the race and Keith and Rick were warming up, the boys and I were watching the other racers. Storm clouds started moving in! Not good! It got REALLY windy and little bit of rain. The boys and I (as well as all the spectators) ran to our cars. Then it calmed back down. But when it came time for Keith's race the wind picked back up and lots of big rain! The boys and I donned our rain coats and had no probs staying to watch. The rain would go, then stop, then the sun would come out, then it'd rain again. Really ticking me (trying to take pictures) and I'm sure the racers too.
Keith was doing great in the race, right up in the front! He even took two prems (special middle of the race prizes). But a few laps to the end Keith crashed at a corner! I wasn't able to see the crash because of how the course sloped at that corner. I did see him standing there and thought he might have slipped out of his pedal or got nudged off the course. I didn't find out until the race was done that he had really crashed trying too hard there. Whatever the reason, that now made him out of contention for the top finishers :( I was SO bummed! He was doing so well and then in a split second, it's done. He was a good sport and finished the race strong! Our friend Rick (shown above sticking his tongue out in exhaustion) finished 9th! Keith finished 11th! And there were 21 racers, so a big field for such a small race.

After the race we headed over to Johnston's Green Days carnival. Carnies, lol! Tried looking for my cousins but unless they had neon signs above their heads saying who they were, I wouldn't recognize them. Not even sure if they're with carnivals anymore. Lots of carnival rides and games and such. The kids had wanted to hit a bunch of the rides, but they were expensive! $3 each for the carousel, $2 for the giant slide, $3 for the tilt-a-whirl thing. Miranda(Ricks' wife) wanted Corley (their daughter) to go on a couple rides. So we decided to stimulate the economy and let the boys go on one too. Kaden was to go on the Dragon coaster with Corley and Salem wanted to do the giant slide. Keith and I didn't think Salem would even be able to walk up the stairs, but he did! He climbed up, put his burlap sack down and slide all the way to the end! Smiling the whole time! Kaden and Corley had a blast on the dragon coaster. I think it went around 5 or 6 times! Poor Corley didn't want to leave the rides.

Decided it was time for food, so Keith and Rick head to pick up some burgers to grill and the rest of us headed back to their house. They let us crash at their house when we're on that side of town. Makes it nice we can relax and hang out without having to rush back home that night and deal with driving after the race. The kids fell asleep pretty quick! Exhausted! So were us adults!