Hi everybody! I promised you pictures of the lake and here they are. We had a blast. I think there were 11 of us total.

We took the boat and jet skis and stayed all day on Saturday. This was actually the first time in a very long time that the whole family actually got together. I mean, normally we are here and there at a race, but we actually got a chance to hang out and relax all together.

Well, I don’t know if I would exactly say we were relaxed after riding the tubes all day. We like -- okay we love -- to ride tubes behind the boat. Back in the day we used to pull five and six tubes behind it. Saturday we only pulled three, but boy did we have fun.

We started off me, dad ,and Utt, Amanda’s boyfriend – clutch guy on Connolly’s team. See Utt had never rode tubes with “The Smiths.” Amanda tried to warn him before he got on that me and dad like to play ugly. We like to see who can get thrown off the most and not just by the waves, by each other. Needless to say I think Utt was on for one minute and I kicked him off. It was hilarious!

My mom was driving the boat and hates when we try and fight each other off the tubes, so she got us good the next time around. Me, dad and Utt were all thrown off at once. After Utt had enough, my sister Amanda got on his tube with me and dad. And I was ready for her. We fought the whole time on the tubes, however I never threw her off until we stopped. There was one point where neither one of us was holding on to the tube, we were just fighting each other. Dad got her good, too; he hit her so hard with his tube she was doing back flips off the tube.

My other sister, Melissa, was in town from school and she rode some later on in the day behind the jet skis, which was pretty wild. We had at one point three tubes behind the jet skis as well. Needless to say we had a blast. It has been years since we all got together and just had some good fun. Even though none of us could move the next day because we were so sore from tubing, it was awesome!

Even though I had a wonderful break, I am definitely ready for this weekend. Brainerd is one of the best tracks to race at and not just because of the fans at The Zoo. It is always really fast, because of the weather up there.

Dad is racing his Pro Mod as well this weekend around home, while he is waiting on his new Pro Stock car to arrive next week, so check back in for some updates on us both.

See ya!