Kings Valley Christian School

Race and his friend Kevin put on a great comedy skit at the Talent Show tonight.  They performed the Abbott and Costello skit, "Hey Lou, Can You Lend Me $50"  Elizabeth made up double size $10 bills with their faces on them for the skit. 

May 12th, 2012

Along with our Lions Club, Race and I worked Special Kids Day at deLuna Ranch in Brentwood.  This is an annual event tailored to special needs children and young adults.  We ran a face pointing, foam picture frame and temporary tattoo booth.  Race spent the day enjoying the free, food, ice cream and drinks.  Race also got to ride a Harley and hang out with the Storm Troopers.  What a great day!

May 4th, 2012

Tomorrow is our car clubs annual Show and Shine, so we got out the Mustang Jr, cleaned it up, and let Race take it for a spin before we loaded it up for the car show. 

May 2, 2012

We came home to a large, slightly cracked Sumo Wrestler in our yard.  Our neighbors thought it would be funny to stick us with him.  Elizabeth noticed that he could use a bra, so we put a bra on him and returned him to the neighbors. 

April 27th, 2012

Last week I served as a judge at a Speech Meet, this week I served as a judge at an Art Festival.  These competitions are between the Bay Area Christian Schools.  Here are a couple of examples of art from the festival.  I'm particularly fond of the 30" long hair clip made out of paper mache.  Mostly I'm just fascinated that a kid thought to make art out of such a mundane item.

May 2nd, 2012

It was fun, fun, fun at Kings Valley.  The day was a kick off to the schools Tech Trek fundraising efforts to raise money for new technology for the classrooms.  To the kids it was a day of fun and games.  Here's a picture of Race and Jarod competing in the three legged race.  I worked the three legged race, balloon toss and ran a game of capture the flag.  -Dean

Oakdale Relay for Life

For only 4 dollars we had Race arrested and jailed.  They even handcuffed him.  It cost us another 3 bucks to bail him out.

Scout training, two car shows and an amusement park

Just an average weekend for the Cofer family.  We started Saturday off by dropping Elizabeth off in Brentwood at the BSA's Camp Fetterman for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation training.  Race and Dean continued on to Stockton for a morning at the MustangsPlus Mustang show, a pizza lunch at Eddie's Pizza and the Hunger Games at Regency Cinema.  We picked Elizabeth up in Brentwood at 4:30 and headed straight to our hotel in Buena Park.  The next morning we were off to Fabulous Fords Forever at Knott's Berry Farm.  Elizabeth worked the MCA (Mustang Club of America)booth while Race and I rode roller coasters in the park.  Elizabeth managed to score an invitation to the media lunch where she was able hobnob with John Force, his daughters Cortney and Britney and his son-in-law Robert Hight.  She also met Steve Saleen, Linda Vaughn (/the Hurst girl) and Henry Ford III.  We left Buena Park about 3 in the afternoon and finally arrived home 38 hours after we set off for Brentwood.  We're a little tired now!

Race's 2012 Edition Pinewood Derby Car is finished

He refers to it as an Anti-Aircraft Tank. It uses a Nerf dart as a barrel; the turret is a strap of packing Styrofoam. The nose weights are .44 Magnum bullets. Race designed the custom Purple on Purple Camouflage pattern. The number, 10, is for his age.

A little nostalgia

Here are a few pictures of Race and Eli from back in the day.

Indy Car Test Day at Infineon

I mean Sears Point... Uhh, I mean, Sonoma Raceway... Oh heck, it's that race track at the corner of Highway 29 and 37. Race and I went with my friend Tony and his three kids, Eli, Gabi and Wyatt. We went extra early to take advantage of the pit tour being offered to the first 100 fans. Much to our disappointment, you had to be over 18 to go on the tour. We had a good time anyway. Helio Castro-Neves was there along with... Well, we didn't actually recognize any other drivers. I guess that's indicative of just how low in popularity Indy car racing has fallen. Tony and I agreed that we missed the CART era. IRL is just, well, boring. Regardless, it's always good to spend a day at the track with friends watching beautiful, fast, wicked sounding cars go around the track. We decided we had seen all that we would see about 11 am and headed to Vallejo for a meal of Popeye's chicken tenders, red beans and rice, mashed potatoes and gravy, fries and onion rings. Tony and I are pretty sure that lunch was the highlight of the day for the kids. Here are a few pictures. That's Race and Eli standing in front of the winner's circle.

More Battle Cruise Photo's

Battle Cruise on the Hawaiian Chieftain

Rounding out Race's 10th birthday celebration was a trip to Mill Valley for lunch at the Buckeye Roadhouse and then to the Bay Model in Sausalito where the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain were docked. Learn more about the ships at http://historicalseaport.org/. Race and Rockwell had burgers and fries at the Buckeye; Dean had a grilled chicken salad and Elizabeth had a grilled chili-lime chicken sandwich. We then went to the Bay Model and the boys had a good time with the interactive displays. The tide was coming in and it was cool watching the water slowly climb up the model's shoreline. At 2:00 we boarded the Hawaiian Chieftain for a 3 hour tour (doesn't that sound ominous). The weather started getting rough... Well actually the weather was hideous, windy, but at least the rain stopped right before we boarded. We chose the Chieftain since we had cruised up the Sacramento River on the Lady Washington a few years ago. We left the dock and headed out into the bay. When the Lady Washington came out we reversed course and the battle began. We crossed in perfect position to exchange broadsides, our pair of port side 3-pound cannons roared and the Lady Washington returned fire with her starboard 3-pound cannon and a stern mounted swivel gun. Hard over went the helm and the Chieftain pivoted for a shot right down theLady Washington's unprotected stern. We had won this round and bid a temporary farewell to the Lady Washington with loud laughter and taunts. The battle continued, long periods of jockeying for position and brief moments of terror punctuated by the bangs of cannon and black powder smoke. The decks ran with blood and screams could be heard form below as the ship's Surgeon practiced his gruesome trade (alright, I admit it; I made up that last part). We battled all the way around Angel Island tacking and wearing ship to gain an advantage. Singing and taunting the enemy, but all to no avail. Both ships made it back to port. Crews and passengers were cold from the salt water spray and the unrelenting wind, but all aboard were oddly satisfied that they had had a truly great adventure.

A story from Race

Burt and the Tsunami

One day this 200 foot tall giant named Burt was eating breakfast at the Giant Chef Burger on the bay. Then the wind started blowing; it blew for 24 hours. The wind blew so hard that it caused a tsunami!

It took five hours to reach land. When it did, Burt came in his crane and he climbed up on the hook. Someone operated it and flung him to the tsunami and the tsunami flung him to the moon.

Bert was stuck on moon for hours. He had to hold his breath because there is no air on the moon. As he began to run out of breath he saw a meteor flying by. He jumped on it and rode the meteor back to earth.

Burt crashed into the tsunami and stopped it from hitting land. He saved the whole town of tiny people. The mayor, Mr. Short Pickle of little town, awarded him with the highest honor of all, to be the mayor for a week and have a huge party.

California Missions and More--the video

Here's a clip of Race as Father Junipero Serra. It's a rather large mpg file and may take a few minutes to download. Click Here for the Video or click on the post title.

March 29th--Happy Birthday to Race

Race had a busy birthday! Wednesday night the Mustang club was over for a Board Meeting and they sang Happy Birthday and he was thrilled to share and ice cream cake with the club members. Thursday: his actual birthday started with 10 balloons distributed throughout the house each with a box or bag attached. Each box or bag contained a $10 bill! Dean ran down to Min's Kitchen and got Race his favorite breakfast, chicken fried steak, to go. Elizabeth and Race had made Chocolate Chip muffins and Race took them to school for all of his classmates to enjoy and help celebrate his birthday. In the evening, twenty-three neighbors, friends and relatives showed up for pizza and cake.

March 24-25 Come hang out with us

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Dean and his race team are fielding two cars for the Lemons race at Infineon next weekend. Come up on Saturday and hang out. The race is from 9-5. At 5:00 the beer comes out and we're having a taco feed. Don't be surprised if SPAM is on the menu. Here's a preview of the SPAM car and Dean's SPAM Can costume. The other car is themed as Soylent Green Eggs completing the odd pulp movie, Dr Seuss, Lunch meat, Monty Python combination the "Soylent Green Eggs and SPAM" team is fielding. Check out the can key peeling back the hood on the SPAM car.

4th Grade California History play

Race played Father Junipero Serra and actually sang a duet! He also appeared as a California Indian and an American Farmer. Twenty-two friends and family members showed up to watch him perform. I think Race's fan club made up about a quarter of the audience.

Blue Devils Special Needs Flag Team

We attended a rehearsal of the Blue Devils newest flag team. These teens and adults are all special needs. Our Lions Club is sponsoring them by providing their uniform t-shirts for their first competition at the end of the month. Our friend Liz Lamach is showing off the t-shirt back.