A Girl, Her Dad, His Truck(s)

What a busy weekend we had! If you've been following along Dan's Facebook updates, you might have heard about the big motor swap this weekend.

After a few months of prep work, many trips to the junkyard and a bright orange coat of paint - Jeep number one finally has a working motor. So, what better way to celebrate this project's completion (THANK GOODNESS!) than to share a few videos of Claire and her Daddy "wrenching" together. It seems that as a direct result of Dan taking up a second residence in the garage, Claire developed quite the fascination with cars and trucks. At the library last week she even snagged a book on trucks!

By the way, that's not OUR Jeep she's painting (yet!). We recently attended an open house at OK 4WD . The best way I can describe them is an off-roading outfitter. There were lots of lifted Jeeps to oogle, a rock crawling competition and even a modified fork lift set up to figure out how far you could tip your vehicle before it rolls (?!).

I have to admit, even though I've loved this event in the past (especially the overnight camping and off-roading part) I wasn't thrilled about attending this year - what was I going to do with Claire? I was absolutely delighted to find a white Jeep just waiting for Claire's artistic stamp. Dishes of red and yellow paint were stacked with some paint brushes and an invitation to "Paint Me" - well that was all we needed to pass a good hour - that and the hot dog stand just behind the vehicle. Heehee. So thank you OK 4WD, we'll see you again next year!

Check out these videos, she loves to drive them, she loves to build them and most of all, she loves to paint them. Pictures of the engine swap to come soon, Dan kidnapped the camera card, but I figured I'd get some new reading material up for today - hopefully these videos will make you smile and cure any "Monday Blues."

Painting the Jeep at 4 Wheel OK

Claire driving Daddy's truck and talking on the cell phone before we leave for the Drive-In theatre.