It’s no secret that our family enjoys going to see the monster trucks whenever Monster Jam comes to town. I’ve written about our Monster Jam experiences each and every time we’ve gone. Fortunately for us Nashvillians, next month will make the 2nd time within the year that Monster Jam has graced our city.
This will be the first time we’ve ever been to an outdoor Monster Jam show, as the event will be taking place at the Nissan Stadium in downtown Nashville.
The show is on Saturday, June 18th, 2016 and begins at 7 PM.
You know me- I love to celebrate fatherhood and masculinity. Both themes seem to mesh naturally well with monster trucks. My wife and a month-old daughter will be sitting this one out, but I’ll be taking my son and my own dad. After all, the show is on Father’s Day weekend.
So, thanks to the folks at Monster Jam, I was able to give away 4 tickets to giveaway away for the show! I held a giveaway and here was the winning entry:
My daughter is 7 years old. her daddy passed away a few months Shy of her second birthday. She’s in to big trucks and mud. I think this would really brighten her spirit up around this tough time of the year. Although I’m a momma I’d definitely LOVE to treat my kids to a fun night out. We have never been to anything like this and it would be a dream come true.
And even for those who didn’t win, you still can save $5 on tickets. The discount code is: MJAM.
I wonder who will join us there?
MONSTER JAM®To Make Debut
at Nissan Stadium This Summer
Tickets On Sale Now
NASHVILLE, Tenn. –It’s official,MONSTER JAM®will make its debut at Nissan Stadiumon June 18, 2016. Tickets are on sale now. The action takes place Father’s Day weekend, making it the perfect outing to celebrate Dad. The Party in the Pits will bring loads of family fun, all leading up to the main event. Fans will be treated to aggressive, head-to-head racing action with more than a dozen of Monster Jam’s fiercest athletes competing in a stadium in Nashville for the firsttime.
Party in the Pits: 1:30 p.m.–5 p.m. outside Nissan Stadium (Lot H)
Approximately 12 feet tall and about 12 feet wide, Monster Jam trucks are custom-designed machines that sit atop 66-inch-tall tires and weigh a minimum of 10,000 pounds. Built for short, high-powered bursts of speed, Monster Jam trucks generate 1,500 to 2,000 horsepower and are capable of speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. Monster Jam trucks can fly up to 125 to 130 feet (a distance greater than 14 cars side by side) and up to 35 feet in the air.
It’s simply family tradition by now that we attended the Monster Jam truck show this past weekend. This made our 3rd time; and both you and Mommy declared for yourselves… this was your favorite.
And I would have to agree.
As did the Fulmer family, who won the ticket giveaway on my blog, Family Friendly Daddy Blog.
They told me their little boy cried once the show was over and he realized the trucks wouldn’t be coming back out. That’s how you know it was a good show!
The action was simply non-stop. This was the first time we had seen the wheelie popping contest.
It was great being able to see these huge monster trucks leap straight into the air, thanks to the dirt ramps in the middle of the arena.
Whether I should admit this or not, it’s always interesting to watch what happens when the monster trucks flip over.
This happened at least twice while we were there.
The first time was with Gravedigger. I took this handy little video to share with the world:
And then it happened again with Zombie. I took pictures of that, as opposed to a video.
There’s a little bulldozer on standby that comes to the rescue, which flips the monster truck upright- obviously, the driver runs out of the vehicle first.
Zombie was your favorite. You loved how “his” arms waved in front of him the whole time.
Something that really caught my attention this time around is how diverse the monster truck industry is becoming. I love what I’m seeing.
I noticed that Scooby Doo, which happened to be one of the best performing trucks at the show, is driven by a female, Nichole Johnson from California.
Going back to your favorite monster truck that day, Zombie, its driver is Bari Musawwir.
This shows me that monster trucks have officially gone mainstream. I celebrate that.
The diversity of the audience demonstrated this as well. Monster trucks are for everyone and anyone who shows up to watch the action.
Our family is faithful to Monster Jam each year when they come through Nashville.
Before we had left for the show, you were imagining dragons as you took some time to draw a dragon before the show; not even knowing there was a monster truck called Dragon.
Of all coincidences, after the show we stopped by Walmart to let you pick out a monster truck. Sure enough, they had Dragon, which again, you didn’t even know existed.
Needless to say, you’ve been clutching “him” tightly in bed for the past couple of night, like you do your stuffed animals.
For the past two years, in both 2014 as well as 2015, our family has attended the Monster Jam event. This year will be no different. Our calendar is marked for 2:00 PM on Saturday, January 9th, 2016; just a few weeks away.
When you have a 5 year-old son, it’s only natural that, by default, your family is into monster trucks.
His collection of toy monster trucks grows every year. He draws them all the time at school. And he loves to build them out of his Legos.
That’s actually the main thing he keeps rebuilding each time he plays with those blocks.
While Nashville is known worldwide for its live shows, the one show we can’t miss is Monster Jam at Bridgestone Arena.
Just a couple of months ago, my son and I were able to experience the adventure of riding full speed in an actual monster truck, at the Spring Hill Ham Fest.
Please check out this video I spent a lot of time on. I think it’s really cool to see how fast the monster truck went and how happy my son was to be there.
The folks at Monster Jam are courteous to provide free tickets to one lucky family who is reading this right now.
The contest explained below is now closed, as the winner is the Fulmer family out of Murphreesboro, TN.
The Fulmers were the first go to the Family Friendly Daddy Blog Facebook page, and leave a comment where I shared this post there on that page on Facebook (which is called, Meet Us at the January 9th, 2016 Monster Jam in Nashville, TN).
In the comment, they told me their child’s favorite Monster Jam monster truck and asked me if they are the winner of the Monster Jam tickets.
Three weeks ago, our family was able to drive a brand-new 2015 Chevy Colorado crew cab from our home near Nashville (TN) to Montgomery (AL) as we supported our nephew Matt graduated Air Force boot camp.
Though he’s from Sacramento (CA) where my wife is from, Matt’s boot camp was coincidentally assigned in Montgomery, which is in driving distance (about 4 hours) from where we live.
When Chevrolet found out we were going to be the only family members able to see Matt graduate, as the rest of his family is on the west coast, they jumped at the chance to provide a vehicle to help us make the journey.
Chevrolet is a big supporter of our military, providing discounts to Active Duty members, reserves, veterans within one year of discharge – including spouses of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, National Guard and Coast Guard. The discount can be combined with most current incentives. Here’s a link to Chevy’s site for more on their military discount.
I have to point out that the general public was thoroughly impressed by the mere sight of the 2015 Chevy Colorado. During the week I drove it, I had people approaching me asking about it.
Here’s my walk-around video I made:
When you see the truck in person, it’s hard to look away. And not simply because it was yellow; but because it’s very clear this is a tough truck.
I filmed my son’s and wife’s first reaction to it when I pulled in the driveway. I promise I didn’t prompt them to say anything; I just let the camera roll. Their reactions are completely sincere.
On the way to our hotel near Maxwell Air Force Base there in Montgomery, we stopped at Mellow Mushroom to have dinner with our son’s good friend, Sophie, who coincidentally moved away last year from Nashville to Montgomery.
The next morning we attended our nephew Matt’s boot camp graduation. He happened to be at the end of the parade, holding a rifle, next the flag bearers, so I got a good shot of him for my video.
Afterwards, we had some time to hang out there on the base and catch up with him. The Chevy Colorado provided a much needed break from the heat outside, leading up until it was time to eat lunch there at the base.
But first, Matt gave us a tour of Maxwell, showing us on the jets, which my son was impressed to see.
Eventually, we had to say goodbye to Matt; though we should be seeing him again when we make our annual trip to Sacramento, next month.
It goes without saying we are more than proud to see Matt began a career that involves serving in our military. He has what it takes!
The road trip wasn’t complete without a trip back to my hometown in Fort Payne (AL), on the way back to Nashville.
Our niece Calla had her 4th birthday party! So to make things even more fun, our family shot a couple Jack-Man webisodes.
By the way, Jack-Man is a web series that my son Jack and I do, in which he is the superhero and I am the arch nemesis. For webisodes 14 and 15, the 2015 Chevy Colorado serves as part of the plot device.
So it’s apparent we had a wonderful road trip. We look forward to reviewing more Chevy vehicles in the future!
And now I will close with my video which features the events mentioned above:
2015 Chevy Colorado provided courtesy of Chevrolet for promotional purposes.
This evening while Mommy was buying groceries, you and I played with the Dollar General version of Play-Doh, called Craft Dough.
With your 5 pack of Craft Dough came a very rare color… black.
You decided to make a camper for your Dodge Ram pickup truck, so you began stuffing the bed with black dough.
In the process, you picked up your St. Peter action figure and his boat, and stuck them in the back of the truck, then stood Jesus on top of a couple containers of Craft Dough nearby.
You ended up nixing the whole camper idea altogether and I got to hear the dialogue of the new plot line:
“Jesus, I gotta drive my truck and take my boat. Do you want to go?” Peter asked.
“No, I’ll just stay here today,” Jesus replied, in your falsetto voice.
I immediately began imagining a new kids’ show which featured favorite Bible characters in a modern day setting.
Yeah, that wouldn’t go over well at all…
But just the thought of Jesus and Peter as buddies who drive pickup trucks and take the boat for a spin out on the lake, instead of the familiar “walk on the water” story everyone knows, it’s pretty much hilarious to me!
In the process of trying to find Biblical action figures last Christmas, which you asked for by the way, I noticed there weren’t a lot of toy companies that made them.
Not only is there probably not an abundance of toy companies who are willing to make religious action figures, but there’s also the fact that those toys may very well end up in random activities which are more likely to show up in the lyrics of a Country song than they are in a sermon.
To be honest, I’m suprised it’s actually taken you this long to crack me up with your inevitable and accidentally humorous (and somehow seemingly inappropriate?) use of Jesus and St. Peter action figures during playtime.
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