Monster Jam 2011

Yesterday, we took Eli to Monster Jam again. We had such a great time and it was more fun than last year! We missed having Cole with us but he will get to go next year (he had fun of his own while we were gone going to see a school buddy).

First, we went to the Pit Party to see the trucks up close and meet the drivers. Eli was harder to control this year than last. He was very interested in the dirt, digging up rocks, getting dirty, trying to tear down the caution style tape around the trucks, not wanting to hold our hands, just being 3-1/2! He did do well saying hi to each driver and loved the big tires. There were 6 trucks/drivers and we managed to see them all. Each was extremely nice - they are very sensitive to the fact that their fans ultimately pay their salary so they take time to talk, say hi, sign autographs and pose for photos.

Pit Party

Eli had to touch every single tire.

With War Wizard driver, Randy Moore

With High Maintenance driver, Jocelyn Perrin - she drove with her family down from Michigan!

Daddy and Eli in front of Advance Auto Parts Grinder

With Grinder's driver John Seasock. This guy was so funny. Eli was playing with the tape and he told Eli to pull it down so the guys with the earphones would go crazy. Eli was fidgety for the picture so he just picked him up and put him in a hold. Very nice guy.

With SpiderMan driver, Whit Tarlton - we saw him last year.

Eli wanted to look at his program while in line. Looks like such a big boy!

With Grave Digger driver, Gary Porter - we saw him last year too.

Our only family shot of the day - at least it's with Grave Digger!

Mommy & Eli in front of Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Big tires and my big but little boy. =)

Eli with one of the quad drivers. This was a group from Greensboro.

Monster Jam!!

With Monster Mutt Rottweiler driver Charles Benns. This guy used to be Grave Digger's crew chief and now he's driving.

The pit party was from 11a-1p. When it was over, we grabbed some lunch and found our seats. Eli was not interested in eating at all. He kept his eyes peeled for any action on the dirt. A special treat for the day was that Eli's buddy Noah came to Monster Jam with his Nana & Granddad and were just a few rows behind us. Before the show started, we let them hang out a bit together. So cute!

Eli & Noah - I think they both had fun

The first event of the afternoon was the Wheelie Competition. Each truck got a chance to do their best wheelie over a few cars. Oh, I forgot to mention that thanks to a generous subcontractor of mine, we were on the FRONT row! The trucks were doing wheelies right in front of us! It was the coolest. After the wheelies, they did the first quad race. The quads were guys versus gals in a best of 3 series - racing in between monster truck events.

Monster Mutt Rottweiler

SpiderMan's wheelie was pretty good

but Grinder's was AWESOME

He flipped it over. Last year we didn't see any trucks flip.

Not sure if you can tell in this but they had a piece of equipment, attached a chain and righted the truck. I think Eli liked watching the equipment work just as much as the trucks themselves.

Once Grinder was off the course, it was Grave Digger's turn. Grinder ended up winning the Wheelie Competition.

First quad race. This was a lot of fun to watch.

The second competition was a race. The trucks lined up, jumped over the cars and whichever truck was the fastest moved on to the next round.

SpiderMan versus Monster Mutt Rottweiler

Grinder versus Grave Digger

Final heat - Monster Mutt Rottweiler versus Grinder. Monster Mutt won!

Monster truck boy

Before intermission, they came out with this Megasaurus thing that literally chomped a car in half and breathed fire. It was interesting to see.

The third and final competition was freestyle - everyone's favorite! One of these days, we would love to go to a true stadium show where they have a lot of room and can really show off. Each truck was given 60 seconds to show their stuff.