First Day of Practice

Today was the first day of practice. The weather was overcast to start out. The track is about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. The track is BIG! Max got in a few good laps, before almost being disqualified because he had on the wrong pants. He had on "fast pants", which are soccer pants that are tapered at the ankle. Lots of the kids wear them. A track official told Max to go change or he would be DQ'd. So, of course, we didn't have race pants with us, so I had to go buy a pair. But, he was able to get back on the track within 15 minutes and able to go two more laps before it started to rain. We have practice again tomorrow morning at 9a (3a at home).

There was a team meeting this evening and we got to meet one of the other USA 11 yr olds, (Shane from California). Max will eventually race him on Wednesday. Max said this trip has been more fun because the 11 yr old (Louie) from New York is staying at our same hotel. They are BMX buds!

The skies have almost cleared, YAY!!! So our fingers are crossed for good weather. The forecast is sunny and 71 for Wednesday.

Rainy Day!!

It's been rainy all day :( We took the bus to the mall...mall is closed on Sundays. We went to the grocery...grocery is closed on Sundays. So, we came back to the hotel and the boys played in the hot tub and sauna. We went to dinner at at Place called Cafe Awada, the owner is from Georgia. The food was fabulous! We paid about $10 less for our dinner there than we did at Burger King for lunch. So, we will be eating at Cafe Awada every night. Good thing they have a variety.

Tomorrow is Max's first practice. USA, Canada, and one other country practice together. There are 300 riders in his practice group. They only have 1 1/2 hours to practice...so hopefully Max gets in some good laps. I will take some pictures of Max on the track and try to post them tomorrow.

Tivoli Gardens

We slept in today and then went to Tivoli Gardens. The boys loved it. It is absolutely beautiful there!! It is the oldest amusement park in the world. Walt Disney developed Disney after Tivoli Gardens. There are flowers everywhere, roller coasters, coffee/tea/food venders, etc. George met and rode 2 rides with a 7 yr old from Norway. George also rode his first "real" roller coaster and LOVED it! Max and Zach (Scott Moreland's son) got stuck half way up on the flying swings for 4 minutes, for maintainence.

We've had a great day and might go to see the Little Mermaid tomorrow. Then the action starts on Monday. Max practices on Monday, Tuesday and then races on Wednesday. We found out that there are 105 kids in his class, Max will have
1/8ths. So, keep good thoughts for Mad Max!!!

We made it!

We finally made it to Copenhagen. We left Wednesday afternoon from Chicago. Our seats were fabulous! We were in business first class (Thanks Lee!) As soon as we boarded they were there with champagne, soda, whatever we wanted. We stayed one night in London. Didn't see much, but our eyelids. Once we arrived to the hotel, we were all exhausted and slept for several hours, went to dinner and then back to bed. We got up this AM and flew to Copenhagen. The trip over was uneventful...which is good! Now we are trying to figure out the cost of everything compared to the US....

Denmark here come the Burhenn's

Max has been doing lots of training and is looking good! July 19th will be here before we know it...yikes! Max is excited and even more excited that one of his best buddy's from New York will also be competing in Denmark.

Thanks for all of the love and support from our friends and family! It is deeply appreciated!

Special thanks to Jerry Massey, The Bultman's, Lauren, Danny, The McCarty's, and The Walsh's for helping get Max to practice and most importantly...hanging out with George!



I will keep this blog updated...so stay tuned!

Max is now ...World #4!!!!!

Max was in Moto 17 and had gates 7-6-1, he finished those 3 races in first place. He then transfered to the semi-final race. He had a bad gate start and was in 6th place at the first turn, he then kicked it in high gear and placed 2nd in the semi-final. Now he is in the main...WOO-HOO!!

Up until this time, Brian has been calling me on the international phone (thanks Elains), and giving me play by play. So, now time for the main (final race), the phone is not let us make a connection. So, I am going crazy...does Brian call the house phone....NO! So unfortunatetly I didn't get to hear the race play by play.

In the main, Max was in 3rd place going into the last turn, and he and the kid in 4th hit bikes and then they were both battling to the finish...the kid barely got him.

GOOD JOB MAX....WE ARE SO INCREDIBLY PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!

Wednesday Practice ~ Good News & Bad News

GOOD NEWS ~ I talked to Brian, he said Max did really good in practice today...YEA!!! He said he looked a lot better and was more comfortable. That calms my nerves a lot!!

Race Day 7/29 ~ Max will be in moto 17 and has gates 7-6-1. There are only 40 some motos in the 13 and under challenge group...about 1/2 the number of last year. Probably due to the cost of flights! Go MAD MAX....show 'em what you are made of!!!!

BAD NEWS ~ The race will not be webcast live : ( So, I am going to talk to Brian during each of Max's races and hopefully get play by play. I am so bummed and just wishing George and I were there with them!!!

First Practice in South Africa

Max had his first practice today in South Africa. Brian said Max was having trouble jumping the first jump. Scott Moreland was riding with him and said he was doing better each time over it and that Brian was just being Brian (a headcase)! So, of course, that makes me very nervous for Max. But, I am going to stay positive and know that Max will do his very best! Max will practice again tomorrow (Wednesday 7/28) with the starting gate, so he will be able to get more speed for the first jump. Go Max!!

Australia Final 2009, Max finishes 3rd place

Australia Semi-Final 2009, he finishes 2nd

Max's 1st BMX Interview...just before his first local race (March 2006)

Max and Brian left today for South Africa

Max and Brian left on Wednesday for South Africa. They spend the night in Georgia (Thanks Scott) and then they fly from Georgia on Thursday to Johannesburg. They will arrive in Pietermaritzburg on Friday night. It's already making me crazy that I am not there with them! George told me he doesn't miss them yet because he has freedom and can go in Max's room without getting in trouble.

Thanks for your support!!

Thanks to everyone who attended and/or donated to the comedy fundraiser. Max was really excited to autogragh his pictures and give them out. Before the show he told me that this was really exciting and fun. So thank you for giving Max such great support and lasting memories!!! It was great to see everyone. We really appreciate and are very fortunate to have such a great group of friends and family!

Stay tuned for more info leading up to Max in South Africa!

SORRY...the internet was down for the last 3 days at the hotel...read further for results!

Max had a great practice on Wednesday, Brian ended up changing his gear and Max said he felt a lot better on the track.

SO....race day, Max raced 6 times...he had his 3 regular motos (laps), quarter finals, semi finals, and then the BIG race. He transferred to the final race...we (Brian & Jodi) were ecstatic!! We didn't care where Max finished in the main.

Max WANTED it!!! He came out of the gate strong and stayed strong the entire race! He ended up placing 3rd!! His race was absolutely AMAZING and the best we have ever seen him race!

Mad Max the Warrior is now World #3. There were 63 riders from all over the world in his age group. He automatically qualifies for next years World Finals in South Africa because he finished in the top 8. But, we are going to take baby steps and make that our future goal.

I will post video and pictures tomorrow. We got home today and we are all exhausted. Thanks for reading up on Max. Stayed tuned for pictures and videos!

Max's first practice

Team USA practiced yesterday for the first time, it was pretty cool to see most of the team in the staging area...I will try and post a picture. Practice went good, Max didn't appear to be riding at his best...so Brian changed his gear and we will find out later today how that works out. There are a lot of fast kids...Max will probably have his hands full, but hopefully be able to hang with the others. The track is technically BIG...they are actually changing it a little, because some of the younger riders were having trouble.

We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant last night, it was really good. They don't have meat balls or pepperoni here....there American pizza is tomato and salami. I had a fabulous pasta dish that has spinach, feta, broccoli, and artichoke. They give you a side of "hot pepper" to make it spicier...it was some type of oil and red chili flakes. It was really good!! Brian added it to his pizza...very yummy.

Today we are going to the second and last practice before Max races tomorrow. We might try and go to the outdoor mall after his practice and get some souvenirs.

Tuesday morning 7/21

We had an uneventful day yesterday. We didn't end up making it to the zoo, the boys didn't want to go, instead we put together Max's back-up bike. We took a taxi to an outdoor mall and spent about an hour in guess where...Toys 'R Us, you would of thought the boys (including Brian)had never seen one before. We walked around, saw a magic show, and came back to the hotel. When we got back to the hotel we realized we left one of our bags in the taxi, it had a new humidification chamber for Brian's CPAP (which broke when the boys were WWF wrestling on our bed) and a hair comb. We called both taxi services and they put out a call to all drivers....but have haven't heard anything, so we probably won't. Oh well, it could have been worse.

We received Max's team jersey, it looks pretty cool. The hotel we are staying is the host hotel for USA...so it has been a mad house, all of the team meetings are here. It has been fun meeting people from all over the US. We are going to Max's first practice in about an hour, so I will update and hopefully post pictures of the track. I cannot post video until I get home because I forgot the cord to connect to the video camera : ( But I will try and post some pictures later tonight.

Sunday July 19th...we walked several miles today.

So if you go to bed early....the boys get up early. They were up at 5am ready to go. So we got ready, ate breakfast, and even sat in the restaurant for a while and it was only 9am.

We came back to the room and the boys played hide and seek...they had to be really creative! We went to the park for a few hours, the boys (including Brian) invented their own game...they had to throw the football into the middle of a tire swing and if they made it, they stepped back 12 inches. Brian ended up winning, with Max only one level behind him.

We walked to China Town....all the shops are closed on Sunday. We were going to ride the bus just for fun around town...but we couldn't understand the bus driver, so we got off and just walked. We finally made it to McDonald's! What an adventure...Max doesn't eat french fries so he wanted to sub fries for apples, the lady looked at me and said oh, I don't know if we do that....the manager says no they don't. So I buy individual apples. I look over at the kids meal and guess what...you can sub apples for fries. You can only get soda with your meals, or pay $3.45 extra for tea...which was a Lipton tea bag and a pot of hot water. I ended up getting a cup of ice and poured the hot tea over ice. And they don't have refills on soda, so $40 later....we learned it is just better to stick to the menu and not veer from it and that it is about the same price to eat at a "restaurant".

We walked back to the hotel, Max rode his bike around for a little while and then we all took what was supposed to be a nap at 5p....the boys are still asleep and wanted to stay asleep instead of going swimming. So, it looks like it will be another 5am morning on Monday. I better get back to bed...it is 930pm.

A day of relaxing

We woke up today at 1130am, we went down to the restaurant and found out it was 830am...our clock in our room was wrong. So we have had a long day so far. We walked across the street to a park and watched Australian Football and then watched a game of Net Ball. Both were games we had never seen before, we had never heard of Net ball. We walked to the Adelaide showgrounds, but they wouldn't let us see the track. We have to wait until Tuesday morning. We went and played on the playground and came back to the hotel and watched a Rugby match on TV and ordered pizza. The choices of pizza were Salami, Ham & Pineapple, and Veggie. The boys were not thrilled, but I love ham & pineapple pizza. For some reason we are all tired and will probably go to bed early. Have a good Saturday!

We made it to Australia : )

Thank goodness Max woke up feeling completely fine, I think he just ate something that didn't agree with him.

We finally arrived in Australia 19 hours after leaving Los Angeles. Our long flight was very smooth. We watched a movie, ate dinner and fell asleep for a few hours. We had a lay over in New Zealand and George slipped trying to reach his Orange juice and hit his mouth, we thought he cut his lip all the way through...but after further investigation, he bit the inside and hit the outside on the table. I don't know what we would have done. But we eventually made it to Australia and through customs. We took a walk to Adelaide's "restaurant district", China Town, we ended up eating at Hungry Jack's...aka, Burger King. We were fighting our sleep, so we decided to go swimming and now are heading to bed. I am sure we will all sleep very sound!

We are going to watch some young kids play Australian football tomorrow, go back and walk through China Town, and probably swim again...since we won't swim on practice and race days.

We made it to California

We all arrived safely to Los Angelos on Monday night, we met up with our friend George (who our George is named after), ate at In-N-Out Burger, and finally got to bed around midnight CA time...3am Indy time.

Tuesday started out awesome! We got to go to see a live taping of Wizards of Waverly Place. That was really cool and interesting. It takes them about a week to tape one episode. We were able to grab one of the stars, David Delouise (Dom's son), we had our picture taken with him, he is a really nice guy. We had lunch at Mel's Diner and went over to George's house and hung out.

On our way home is when the fun started! Just before we left Max said that his stomach wasn't feeling good. We headed back to the hotel, but didn't make it in time...he yacked all over the rental car, we were about 1/2 mile from the hotel :( He said his belly felt better, but only time will tell...hopefully he is back to himself before the long plane ride tomorrow night. I will give an update sometime tomorrow.

Good night~