Monster Truck All-Stars

Several weeks ago we saw that a monster truck show was coming to Salt Lake City and the tickets were pretty affordable.  We immediately wanted to take Jack, as he has been enamored with monster trucks for about a year now.  He doesn't just play with them, he sets up monster truck shows with jumps and obstacles, he watches documentaries about monster trucks, he begs to watch YouTube videos on our computers of actual monster truck shows, and he takes his monster trucks in the car with him frequently.

We hadn't bought our tickets yet when I got an email that a discount was available for people with the passes we have, so the tickets were even cheaper.  Awesome.  We went ahead and got tickets for the whole family - I was intrigued enough to want to tag along with Ben and Jack, and we knew Cat would love it.  So, Eliza had to come too, haha.

The show was in a small arena, and everything took place in an area the size of a hockey rink.  So, the tricks weren't very impressive.  We'd been expecting a better show and Ben and I were both a little disappointed.  Well, we found out a few days after this show that there was another show coming to SLC in mid-February which was the actual really famous monster trucks (the ones Jack watches on YouTube) and we'd actually gone to a lower-tier show.  Sad.  We were bummed that we'd been confused by two different shows, but isn't it weird that two such similar shows would be booked in one city within a month of each other?  Oh well.  Maybe we'll see the "Monster Jam" another year.  We can tell you all about "Monster Truck All-Stars" now, though!

The pictures above show what the arena looked like when we arrived.

The people walking around within the track paid for special Pit Passes. 

We didn't feel that was necessary.

We arrived pretty early because we didn't have assigned seats and we wanted to get the best we could. We ended up being so early that the stands were practically empty when we sat down.  So I let Cat take pictures of the trucks in the arena to kill time.  (She took the majority of the pictures in the above collage.)  Unfortunately, this gave Jack ample time to worry about the noise and possible dangers of the monster trucks, and he spent about 20 minutes in the concession area with Ben.  Jack was alternately crying and asking to go to the bathroom.  Poor guy hates loud noises and we were afraid it could be an issue, but decided to take the risk.

So, once the show was actually starting, we had him just stay in the seats with us, hoping he would get over his fear and be able to have a good experience.  The top picture was taken shortly after Jack sat down, and the bottom picture was taken about 15 minutes later.  He ended up having a great time!  Thanks to small squishy ear plugs combined with Ben's big shooting ear muffs, haha.

Eliza had a hard time with the noise for a while, too, but she calmed down at about the same time Jack did.  I guess the good thing about the trucks being so loud is that Jack's and Eliza's crying didn't bother anyone around us, because they couldn't hear it.

Here are a few action shots of the trucks.

Jumping over and off of things, crushing cars, doing wheelies.

Pretty standard stuff, right?

We learned from one of Jack's monster truck documentaries that the engines on monster trucks need time to breathe between runs.  So during the waiting periods while the trucks recovered, there were a couple of other events to watch.  There was the "Tough Trucks" competition, where hobbyists who worked on their trucks raced around the track.  But the coolest thing was the Motocross, with motorcycles jumping off of a 30-foot ramp to an earthen ramp about 70 feet away.  They did some cool tricks...

Ben took a picture of the kids and me at the end.

We survived the loud noises!

(Notice Eliza was wearing the big ear muffs by the end.)

Happy Monster Truck Lovin' Boy!