The Broken Ornament That Bonds

Just this past weekend I had one of those defining moments in being a Dad.  It was a moment that I easily could have gotten mad about something but instead I went the other route and chose the better path.  God must have been right there with us and we turned something unfortunate and sad into what I hope will be something very meaningful for our Son for many, many years to come.

The entire family was decorating the Christmas Tree and the kids were looking over all the ornaments and sharing stories about the memories behind each one.  Each year we try to get a new ornament for the kids and they always seem to enjoy that.  They were talking about the ornaments they made in preschool and during grade school and with each ornament they pulled from the box they would mention something they remembered about when they made the ornament or something special about that particular Christmas.  Wendy and I just kept working on getting the decorations out as we each listened to the kids talk about special memories.  Carissa was recalling each Barbie ornament and she was going through them year by year.  Tyler was getting an ornament out for each of us and asking which ornament we wanted to put on the tree first.  They all know that there is one particular ornament that is special to me.  It's an ornament that I made in second grade back in 1976.  Yep, the ornament is 35 years old!

Many years ago when I moved into my own apartment, after graduating from college, my Mom gave me a box of memorable stuff and that box included several Christmas ornaments from my youth and it included the little pale green ornament from 2nd grade that had my name on it and the year 1976 in dark green paint .  I don't know why this one was so special to me but it was, and the kids knew that.  That ornament was on every tree I've had for the past 35 years.

When we were decorating Tyler carefully took that ornament out and set it aside for me to put on the tree.  He found several other ornaments for me as well and kindly brought them all to the fireplace mantel so I could put them on the tree.  He brought them to the fireplace mantel because I was working on the tree and he wanted the ornaments to be closer to me.  That's when it happened.  Tyler carefully set the ornament on the mantel and then he turned around and all of a sudden I heard a strange sound....  "POP"   I turned my head and looked around to see our eight year old little boy staring at the ground looking at what seemed like like a million pieces of what use to be my ornament.  It was now just a bunch of shiny pieces of glass on the floor.  Tyler was totally devastated and after a brief moment of shock he started to cry.  He was so sad that he broke my ornament.  The first thing he said through all the tears, was, "Can we glue it back together?"  He knew how special that ornament was to me and he just couldn't quit crying about it.  It was really touching that he shed so many tears because it showed just how big his heart is, and how much he cared.  Now I had to work on helping him stop the tears.  I picked him up hugged him and held him close to me until the tears stopped and while I was holding him I told him we were going to make the ornament even more special than it was before.  He looked at me through all the tears and said, "How are we gonna do that?" 

By now the tears were mostly gone, but his eyes were still glassy and his chin was still quivering as he looked up at me wondering how were were going to make the ornament "More Special".  This was one of those defining moments for both me and him.  I stood there as a Dad and my job at the moment was to make everything better and give our Son something to remember and look back on.  This was one of those "teaching moments" and I'm confident that God was right there pushing me in the right direction on this one.  I looked down at the ornament box and grabbed one of Tyler's ornaments that he made back in 2007 when he was in preschool.  Ironically, it too, had his name and the year on it in green but his ornament was totally clear, you could see right through it.  I picked up that ornament and he and I walked over and sat down on the floor where my ornament lay in pieces and I told him, "My ornament can't hang on the tree anymore by itself.  It's going to need some help.  Do you think your ornament could hold on to my ornament and maybe they could be on the tree together from now on?"  I'm not quite sure he totally understood until I took the top of his ornament off and started to put the pieces of my ornament inside his.  He was still a little sad about the fact that my special ornament was broken but you could see that he understood that his ornament just became that much more special because it was now responsible for taking care of my ornament as well, even though my ornament was now nothing but just pieces.  I told him, "Hopefully you'll have this ornament for as long as I've had mine.  And maybe someday, when you're a Dad, you'll be hanging this ornament on your tree and telling your kids how your ornament is special because it has a big responsibility.  It holds Grandpa's ornament inside it and Grandpa's ornament has been on every Hagan Christmas Tree since he was in 2nd grade back in 1976."  

Tyler & Dad with "Special Ornament"

I could have easily gotten mad about this because that ornament really was very special to me.  It was something I made back in 2nd grade and my Mom took such great care in protecting it all those years and after I got married Wendy did the very same thing.  It was always protected in a special case and we were always careful with it.  As unfortunate as it was that the ornament broke it provided a great teaching opportunity and bonding moment between Tyler and I.  Hopefully it will be something he remembers for a very long time.

The Hagan Christmas tree 2011 with the Special Ornament glowing Green right in the center

Today reminded me of that quote that I like so much.... 

 "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be a different place because I was important in the life of a child."

ABA Grand Nationals Tulsa

Holy Cow what an amazing event this was!  We spent our very first Thanksgiving away from family and took Tyler to the ABA Grand Nationals for BMX in Tulsa, Oklahoma this year.  There were nearly 4,000 BMX riders that came in for the event from all across the country.  This is literally the Super Bowl of BMX and the first place trophy is about 8 feet tall.  

This was our first year for an event like this and it was rather intimidating for both Wendy and I to make sure we had everything organized for Tyler and I'm sure it was rather intimidating for him as well knowing that there were 4,000 BMX riders who came from all across the country to race.  He had 56 riders in his category and while we didn't come home with a trophy this year it was a tremendous experience and he had a wonderful time! 

Tyler getting ready to Race at Grands!

 The track he was racing on was AMAZING!  It was about 1,300 feet in length and the jumps were HUGE!  Well, at least it seemed that way to me but I'm not a young kid anymore.  The length of the track is only about 200 feet longer than our local track but it was much more complex and the hill at the starting gate was pretty big!

Tyler in the Gate at Grands!  He's on the far right of the photo in the Red Helmet

 While we weren't able to come home with a trophy this season, it was a great experience and Tyler is already looking forward to going back to Tulsa for next year.  I think the part that amazed me the most is that Wendy is becoming quite the "Racing Mom".   For a lady who was never much into racing it's been funny to watch her get into the sport too.  Don't expect to see her on a bike anytime soon but she's picking things up really quickly and she's keeping me on my toes as well.  But then again, that's nothing new.... 

Racing is basically over for us until the new season starts locally in March - April of 2012 but Wendy has her eyes on taking Tyler to some races out of State this Winter.  We may be back to Oklahoma a little sooner than I expect....

 

Racing Season Nearly Complete

WOW!  What a season....  The Kart racing season is done and BMX Season is nearly finished.  Tyler will race this weekend at The Grand Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma and it will be our first trip to the "Grands".  From what people tell us there will be literally thousands of kids there racing from all across the country.  They even come in from Hawaii and Canada from what I understand.  Tyler is really looking forward to it and Wendy and I just hope the size of the event doesn't overwhelm him.  He's currently ranked #27 out of 176 riders in our district and he's done quite well this season so hopefully he'll have a lot of fun in Tulsa!

The go kart season wrapped up at the end of September and Tyler finished up the season on a really strong note.  For two years we've chased the current Champion and while we didn't beat him in the points this year we only missed the Championship by 23 points and Tyler was able to beat Luke in the final race of the season!  It was a huge victory for us and watching Tyler smile when he came off the track was worth every minute of effort we've put in this season.

Tyler Gets 2nd Place Mazda Heartland Sprint Series 2011

Now we move on to next season and Tyler moves up to the Tag Cadet Class where Tyler will be able to go 60mph in his kart.  The Kid Karts top out at about 40mph and despite the fact that he could stay in that class for one more season he's ready to move up to the faster more competitive class.  To say he's excited would be an understatement!  Before we could move up to the next class we had to sell his kart and I chose to sell mine as well so we could get him in some good equipment for next season.  Tyler's shown that he's got some real talent when it comes to driving because we were racing with a very old Kid Kart and we were up against some kid with much better equipment and yet we still were able to attain 2nd place in the points and score one race win this season.  They told us we'd never make it to Winner's Circle with the kart we had.  It just goes to show you that there's no substitute for determination!  

Now comes the hard part....  Just when I was getting to understand that little motor we had on Tyler's Kid Kart it's time to move up.  So now I have a totally new engine to learn!  I'm excited about it because a good friend of ours will be racing the same type of kart we're racing this coming season so it will be nice to have some input from someone else as well.  So now Tyler and I will spend the off season getting ready for the Tag Cadet class in his new Arrow AX9 with a Parilla Mini Swift motor.

Tyler's new Hot Rod!!!

 This is the only photo I have of the kart right now but it will have some slightly different decals on it when we're done with it and of course it will be #26 again in 2012. 

Look out everyone we're already getting prepared for the 2012 season!!!!

Crash, Bang, Zoom!

What an awesome weekend!  The entire family went to the Redline Cup BMX Race in Raytown this past weekend and we had a blast.  This was the largest race we've been to thus far!  There were over 120 motos with nearly 8 riders per moto that added up to nearly 1,000 riders and when you add in spectators there had to be at least 3,000 people there this weekend.  Tyler competed against riders from:  Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Arkansas, Iowa, as well as local riders from Missouri and Kansas.  While the weekend didn't go exactly as we planned, hence the title of this post, but we ended it on a positive note and we all had fun together which is the important part.

The weekend started on Friday at around 2:00pm with the first round of practice.  I was stuck at work so Wendy and Carissa took Tyler out to the track and braved the weather as two downpours got them rather wet in the early afternoon.  They were there much of the day and as soon as work was over I made it out for the race that started around 6:00pm.  Tyler did a great job in his first race.  He started off a little slow but caught right back up and passed a total of 4 riders which put him into 3rd place but unfortunately he wouldn't finish in 3rd.  A CRASH just 40 feet from the finish line would put him in 7th place for the first race.

Redline Central Championship Race Sept 9th 2011

 This is a HUGE race and Tyler had been looking forward to it because if you finish in the top 3 you get a new number plate for your bike.  Tyler finished the qualifier event in 2nd place and was sitting in a good position going into the race to earn a plate but the CRASH rattled his confidence a little, something that hasn't happened to him in the past.  He's crashed in the past and he always jumps up and keeps going.  This time was different....  He wasn't hurt physically, but his confidence was bruised this time.  It reminded me of the movies "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder" when, in each case, Tom Cruise couldn't get back in the game.  The same thing seemed to happen to Tyler this time so Wendy and I had our work cut our for us to help him get his confidence back.

Tyler in the Starting Gate at Redline Cup Finals

He finished in last place in race number two and race number three on Friday as well and it was totally apparent that his confidence took a major blow.  He wasn't as fast on the track as he normally was, and he was being cautious.  This wasn't like our "No Fear" kamikaze type rider.  That wreck, just 40 feet from the finish line, really got to him.   It was time to pack it up for the evening and head home and come back tomorrow.  We had two more days of racing in front of us and Saturday and Sunday were the days that really mattered.  

Saturday morning came early and we were at the track by 8:00am ready to go for practice.  Tyler seemed a little better but he still wasn't 100% and we could tell.  This event was new Wendy and I as well and we encouraged Tyler without pushing him too hard.  We told him to be confident in his ability and go out and do your best.  Well, apparently we didn't have the magic touch as he finished last place in both races.  Normally this would mean that your day is done and you don't get to race again so we thought we'd head home and let him rest and just as we were ready to leave they called Tyler's name for the Semi Finals.  WHAT???  Are you kidding me?  Wendy and I were shocked and unprepared for this and it took several others by surprise as well but we got him suited up and to the starting grid in under 40 seconds.  No sooner than he was in the gate and ready to go the gate dropped and they were off.  Wendy and I had our fingers crossed and then it happened..... BANG!    Seriously, are you kidding me!  The poor little guy crashed on the first jump.  This NEVER happens to him.  I stood there with my head in my hand thinking to myself, Oh my gosh our poor son.  He's gonna be crushed.  Ok let me correct that....  Naturally my first thought was, is he ok! and he was thankfully.  He got back up and finished the race as the crowd cheered for him but I knew he was bummed out.  This certainly wasn't going to boost his confidence level.  Shortly after that we packed up and headed home.  We had one more day of racing left to go.  The finals on Sunday were up next....

Redline Cup Saturday in Raytown

We were on the way home on Saturday and Tyler said he thought he needed a new gear so we called Bike Stop and asked them to hold a gear for us and we picked up a 37 tooth gear and changed it at home.  Now Tyler had a new gear for the race on Sunday and hopefully that would help boost his confidence a little.  I think that helped a little because all of sudden out of the gate it was ZOOM!!!   He wasn't quite up to full speed yet but he was back.  He was determined and you could see that he found his stride again as he brushed off the wrecks from the days before.  You could see the determination in his eyes and he was ready to race!!!

Tyler at Redline Central Finals Race in Raytown, MO September 11, 2011

He still ended up finishing in last place, on Sunday but he has his confidence back and he was gaining on the other racers again.  This was our first really big BMX race and Tyler just entered the Intermediate Class a few months ago.  Some of the kids he was up against have been in the Intermediate Class for a couple years.  Yes, we got beat this weekend and we got beat by more experienced racers but that's what makes you better and Tyler came through it and learned something important.  You're not gonna win every race, and some of them you might actually lose.  That's just the nature of racing.  The true test of a champion is how he conducts himself when challenged and how he picks himself up after a fall.  Tyler did a great job with that.  Those who succeed in life are those who have had failures and pushed beyond the failure to achieve success.  Great job son, keep your chin up because we'll get em' next year!

A Corvette For Her Birthday!

What a great Labor Day weekend!!!!  The weather was wonderful, except for the occasional storm, but Sunday and Monday were nothing short of perfection.  We rented a boat and took the family out on the lake on Sunday and did some fishing and swimming and had a great time.  We didn't catch anything but it didn't matter it was the time spend with family that counted!

Yesterday was Carissa's birthday and she got a really amazing present!  A 1994 British Racing Green Chevrolet Corvette with a 6 Speed....   She said the acceleration was amazing and she really loved the car!  Oh, wait a minute....  I forgot a few important words in that previous sentence..


Carissa got  a ride in a 1994 British Racing Green Chevrolet Corvette with a 6 Speed....   Grandma and Grandpa came in for Carissa's Birthday and Grandpa took her for a ride in their Corvette.  Notice the big smile on her face!!!  That was before she got to go for the ride.  You should have seen the look on her face when she got out of the car after the ride!!!  She's 14 and she's already been talking about driving...  Great, Now Grandpa gives her a taste of what a Corvette feels like.  I'm sure I'll be hearing about how cool that car is for the next two years! 

Carissa was invited to go up and watch the Football team scrimmage on her birthday and Grandpa thought it would be cool to give her a ride in the Vette.  Great!  I have a daughter who is anxious to drive and she's getting invited to go watch Football Scrimmage by one of the players.  Yes, I just got more grey hair on Monday!!!  Ugh!  

Attention boys!!!   

Here's a little info about me:  I like to go hunting and I have several friends in the Military, one of whom is an F-16 Fighter Pilot and some are US Navy SEALS.  I work with many MMA Fighters and I have a really, really fast car.  My philosophy about dating my daughter can be summed up in this song: Rodney Atkins "Cleaning This Gun" 

Now I'd like to get to know a little more about you:  Name, age, address, phone number, social security number, next of kin, report card, background check, etc.   Once you've filled out all this information you'll be provided with a GPS unit that has a timer on it.  You'll be required to get it back to me before the alarm goes off.  If there are any questions refer to the song above for clarification.

Naturally I'm only kidding about the items above, ok maybe just a few, actually I'm only kidding about one.  I'll let you figure out which one I'm joking about....  

Yes, I'm getting more grey hair with each passing birthday.  She's in 8th grade and she's getting invited to Football Scrimmage.  I'm not quite ready for this yet.  It seems like just yesterday she was playing with dolls and playing dress up....  

The Brickyard in 2012!

Well I just got the news and it looks like Tyler "Thunderfoot" Hagan will get the chance to race at the most famous race track in the world in 2012.  If all goes well Tyler will actually get to cross the yard of bricks at the hallowed ground of The Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2012.

The IZOD IndyCar Series is looking to embrace the grassroots of racing, that being the sport of karting, and find their future starts.  They're doing that by finding ways to help young kids take the steps necessary to become race car drivers and they've partnered with Mazda to develop a ladder system that will allow kids as young 5 years old to have a pathway that will ultimately take them to the IZOD IndyCar Series.  As part of that process they're going to host, what we hope is an annual event, the first ever kart race on the hallowed grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  

 Tyler will just be entering into the Tag 60 Class and if my estimations are correct this race will take place on the weekend of his 9th Birthday.  He's been racing since he was 5 years old and as silly as this sounds he won the "Power Wheels Championship" which believe it or not was actually a lot of work for us to win.  He then moved on to the Kid Kart Class, where we've been for the past two years with a 3rd place finish in season one and what looks to be a 2nd place finish in season number two if all goes well in our final race next month.  

Now it's time to take the next step up and move to the Tag 60 Class in 2012 and if all goes well we'll be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the weekend of Tyler's 9th Birthday for the first ever go kart race at the "Brickyard"...

Turkey In Tulsa...

Yep, it looks like it will be Turkey in Tulsa for us this year.  We're taking our first "Racing" road trip as a family in November for the ABA BMX Grand National Race.  Tyler just recently moved up to Intermediate in BMX and it looks like we're headed to our very first Grand National event this season.  So the title of this post is appropriate as we'll be eating "Turkey in Tulsa" this year.

Tyler has been racing BMX for just over a year now and he's having a blast with the sport!  We typically let him practice after the races are over and if he could put headlights on his Haro he'd be out there well after they turn off the lights!  

Shortly after Tyler first started racing he was invited to joint the Bike Stop team which was a big thrill and a real honor as well.  Tyler wears his Bike Stop Jersey with great pride and he's really looking forward to finishing out the season this year at his very first Grand National Race.

When we first started racing BMX we had no idea it would lead to "Racing Road Trips" but we're all looking forward to the opportunity to take a trip we wouldn't have otherwise taken.  So this November it's "Turkey in Tulsa" for the Hagan Racing Team. 

I took a look at some photos of the track from years past and it's HUGE!!!  The Quick Trip Expo Center in Tulsa is one of the World's largest clearspan buildings!  It's 448,000 square feet of racing!  Take a look at this track photo from a few years ago.

So as we get close to Thanksgiving this season we'll be packing the truck full of the racing gear and headed out on our very first "Racing Road Trip" as Tyler "Thunderfoot" Hagan goes up against all the other 8 year old Intermediates in the Country.