Better than Christmas presents

We knew about this event before Christmas. Even though presents are awesome, Gator could not wait until Big Foot the Monster Truck would come to our house. He would tell strangers on the street that a monster truck was going to come and would they like to come and see it too? He did not understand how far away or close the date was so we had to count down in sleeps. For some reason kids get that. Just..... more sleeps until the day! We had also been on the phone with Debbie (a total sweet heart) at Checkered Flag productions. She was totally getting us pumped and excited. She also let us know that CFP had set aside some tickets for our family for the Friday night show and that we got to sit very close!!!! It was going to be awesome. To help Gator understand who was coming and what to expect he spent many hours watching Youtube and looking at the Checkered Flag Productions Website. I read the stories to him but he loved every minute of it. The night before he had a very rough time falling asleep. He was way too excited. Even that morning as we were getting ready for school he asked me a million times how many more hours? Was that a long time? We decided it would be fun to invite his preschool to join us and also we called Christine at Make-A-Wish to see if she wanted to come too! It was such a beautiful day. I had been so worried that it would be freezing and there would be tons of snow but it all held out perfectly and we had the best weather. The kids played while we chatted.
 Gator ran to the end of the circle with Grandma to see if they were coming. Sure enough he saw the convoy and ran shrieking "here it comes".... He huffed and puffed up next to me and squealed!!!! Then we heard the sirens from the escort!!!
The kids were so happy to see two motorcycle officers, then a crush car, then BIG FOOT, then another crush car.... All hauled in by Wasatch Towing. (Thanks guys.) WT had to do all the hard work, they had come the day before to map the route  to make sure they were going to get into our neighborhood. Then they had one of the best drivers drive Big Foot in. BIG FOOT was sooooo good looking. This was the all black truck! I think Gator was star struck cause all he could do was have a silly grin on his face. He met Larry and Chris. Both drivers of Big Foot. Gator also met the police officers that helped make this happen, the guys at Wasatch Towing company, and Mr. Steven Kun from the Maverik Center. Gator got to sit inside Big Foot and all the kids wrote their names on the Crush Car that would be smashed at the show the next night.  We had our friends at Mrs Fields in the South Town Mall make us a yummy cookie cake, which they gave to us at no cost. We Love you Howey's! Cookies make everything better! When it was time for everyone to leave, Gator stood on the side walk to watch them pull away and wave. We walked back to the house and Gator grabbed his autographed picture of Big Foot and flopped on his belly to look at it on the floor. I was cleaning up a bit and he looked up at me and said. "mom, my heart is just so full of happy"!
The next day we got to go to the show. Gator invited both Papas to come with us. Gator wanted to wear his monster truck shirt! It is getting a bit small, but I thought, what the heck! We were seated on the second row! Gator was in heaven. I wished I would have asked more questions about the tickets because later Larry told us we had been invited to the pit party. Dang it! In my excitement and Gator's too, I completely forgot that was happening. In my defense, it wasn't printed on the tickets, and we all know I have 'Some-Timers'.
The Show was Awesome, we cheered  loudest for Big Foot. Monster Trakker was there too! He lives right in our very town and so we had to cheer just a little for him and his driver Ron. When the show was over and we were all full of nachos, popcorn and slushies we went up to have all the drivers sign their autographs. We forgot to get something to have them sign so that almost too small shirt came in handy and they each took a turn signing Gator's shirt.
It has been what Gator calls his "special days"! I am sure he will never ever forget it!