Grandpa O's 75th Birthday

Nick and I headed to Illinois this weekend to celebrate my Grandpa Oshinski's 75th birthday. Grandpa is a big horseracing fan and spends time almost every day at Arlington Race Track, so it was only appropriate that this is where the family would spend the day of his birthday celebration.

AND THEY'RE OFF!!

Nick, Adrienne, and Paul relaxing before the next race.

This was also Nick's first time at the racetrack, so my dad, Uncle Paul, and Grandpa were very eager to show him the ropes of reading the racing form.

Which horse do you like for this race, Nick?

The racing form involves too many numbers for me so I only look at it to see the names. My method is to go to the paddock and pick the horse that I like the most or pick the horse with the best name... some days it works really well... some days it doesn't. But it's my way and I like it.

My Uncle Paul was the big winner of the day- he won an exacta- which means he picked the 1st and 2nd place horse in order (impressive, huh?).

Paul and his winning ticket.

My dad also won an exacta... but his horses were both favorites and netted him a total of 20 cents. He couldn't even use his winnings to buy a gumball!

Dad O. and his winning ticket.

After an afternoon at the racetrack, we headed out for dinner at Fuego, a very yummy mexican restaurant that had the best strawberry lemonade. The spinach quesadilla was also wonderful...

And no birthday in the Oshinski family is complete without Grandma's most wonderful chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherries. I'm telling you- it is worth every calorie!

Grandpa blowing the candles on his cake- one candle for every quarter century.

We had a great weekend with family! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!

Grandpa and his roses.