The Centennial Indy 500

This year was the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500.  We went to the race as we always do, guns blazing!

The night before we went to the Keele family's house for the party and beer pong tournament.  There are sooo many traditions that we do from year to year.  A new tradition is the Who's Pregnant? game.  Katie was pregnant two years ago.  I was preggers last year and now Katie is preggo again this year.  It's almost mandatory since we have to have a sober driver.
So as I was saying, the beer pong tournament...

TJ found his shirt, thank goodness!

 Thornburg/Neal versus...

Keele/Neal did not turn out so well for our husbands.  Neal/Keele advanced to the finals leaving our sad husbands in the dust.
(But I can't make fun.  I did not get a single ball in the cup.  I was TERRIBLE.  I didn't think it was possible to get worse. But I did!)

We all got the same memo and wore the same color.  These were my new best friends, Amy and Lisa.

There were cocktails aplenty.  Matt was enjoying a funky monkey or something.

Andrew leaned against the beer pong bracket.  Whoops.

I had to include this picture.  My camera has face recognition.  When I went to take this picture, the only face that it recognized was Danica's.  Awesome.

One fun new game we played this year was called REEEEECYYYYCCCLLLE!!!!!!!!!! It started with screaming that very word when you had an empty.  Then you would throw it to Anne.

 Then Anne would Tomahawk Jam it into the recycle bin.  

 Recycling should always be that fun!

There were a few mishaps, like a broken glass getting in the way.

 But that just adds more the the recycling pile!!! RECYCLE!!!!!!!!
Just a word of caution- DO NOT get in the way of the tomahawk jam.  There's some major power behind that.  REEEECCCCYYYYCCCLLLLEEEEE!!!!

The next morning we headed to the race mega early.

 See I told you! Sober driver! Someone's gotta do it.  You might as well create life at the same time. :)

We picked up our boxed lunches along the way.  That was only half of them.

We parked in Big Nate's yard and pre-partied.

  Awww, the lovely Neal ladies.

The Purple Passion Threesome (we managed to all wear something purple the next day too.)

Travis said this picture wouldn't show that he was dancing.  What do you think? Does he look like he's dancing? Or does it look like he likes to pose in the most uncomfortable way for pictures?

We finally got to our seats.  It was HOT!! Temperature-wise it wasn't as hot as last year. But maybe last year, I was a little more prepared.  It was just sooooo hot.

Hey, it's Nealburg!

Travis's dad always has the best accessories for the race...

There were plenty of shirts there that were.... surprising, like the one above.

You can just imagine what this says.

Yeah, don't ask.  It's the Indy 500!!

I was disappointed in the lack of celebrity this year.  There were a few that we saw.  The Star Spangled Banner was the most momentous that we've seen.

 Seal, Kelly Clarkson and David Foster (?) performed the Star Spangled Banner which sounded fantastic.

 Then there was the obligatory but MUCH APPRECIATED flyover.

 Seriously, this is probably THE best part.

 I got a close up but that thing was FLYING so it was hard to center it.  Still so dang cool! There was another flyover at the end of the race.  Also very cool.  Double the pleasure this year! :)

 We saw Jerry Rice and got him to wave at us.  That was cool.

There were planes flying over the track all day.  It was crazy.  One plane came ridiculously low.  Much lower than the one above. Someone said, "Whoa that plane is like terrorist low." It really was.  LOW.  Scary! But it was just some plane taking off from the Indy Airport and the pilot was showing off.  "The people on the right side of the plane can see the greatest spectacle in racing. The people on the left side of the plane, well, you can see nothing.  Nice seat choice, dummy."

 Another obligatory shot of the ladies in attendance!

 Now on to the winner...

 We were sad that Dan Wheldon won.  JR Hildebrand was in the lead in the last lap until the fourth turn when he tried lap someone and crashed. Most heartbreaking ending to the Indy 500 we've ever seen.  Poor rookie.
Andrew drew JR in our drawing.  He could have won $100.  Instead he won $30.  Wah waahhhh.

It was one heck of a race though.  Pretty exciting the whole time.

One the way home, Travis fell asleep.

 Then we stopped, switched around seats a little and he fell asleep again.  Nice.

The 2011 Indy 500 was a great success! We left Tommy overnight for the first time and he did great.  Grandma sent pictures.  This was the first one she sent in the morning.

Just look at that face!
The second one was this one.

I knew I didn't have to worry if he was having THAT much fun! Jeez! That kid is so happy! But we were so glad to see him again.  I missed him so much.