fast and the furious

While I'm on a role with blogging about my husbands interests and hobbies, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention his favorite hobby of all time: Motorcycles. Specifically, Ducatis. At a very young age, he developed an interest in dirt bikes, motorcycles and cars. Over the years, this interest for all things fast has grown into a mad passion.

This passion actually influenced us in the naming our daughter, Britten. Britten was the last name of a racer from New Zealand, who before the age of 30, designed an elite race bike, in which he actually named Britten. Sadly, he passed away from cancer at age 35, but before his death, accomplished more than most do in a lifetime. My husband admired him for that and I think felt they shared a common bond in their love for race bikes. He took a liking to his last name, worked heavily on persuading me to like it, and now we have our daughter, Britten. I hope she appreciates being named after her Daddy's passion - a motorcycle. :)

Over the course of three years, my husband has slowly (Slowly, because having three little girls, a job that requires him to travel and a wife that appreciates "quality time," doesn't allow for much free time to tinker!) rebuilt his Ducati in his basement workshop, the same workshop that now doubles as his "photo studio." Though it's still a work in progress, his bike is finally ready for the road.

More than anything else, my husband loves to ride the race track with his motorcycle. He says he's born to race. It's in his blood. Given the chance to lead another life, my husband would undoubtedly choose to do one thing: race professionally. Fortunately, he chose a different path for his real life. This path did not include becoming a professional motorcycle racer. This path included marrying me. That, of course, led to him becoming a father to these little ladies...

Becoming a parent changed his perspective on taking certain risks and he chose a much, much safer career path.

He does, however, still enjoy racing his motorcycle, but limits his "racing" to scheduled track days at a local race track. Today, in fact, was one of the few track days he has scheduled throughout the season and mother nature decided to cooperate for him. His day began at 8:00am, but after church, I loaded the girls in the van and drove them straight to the track to support their Daddy in action.

There's my stud-muffin, all decked out in leathers. He sorta resembles a power ranger. But a cute power ranger.

There we are, his LADIES, there to support and cheer him on! The girls have SO much fun doing this! They love watching their Daddy zip around the track, leaning so hard into curves that his knee drags on the asphalt. I'm not sure I share in their excitement, but I grin and bear it, knowing full well it could be worse.