Sunday, September 28, 2014

Bikes

My family loves to go on bike rides... in theory.  It has been several years of getting to a point where we can ride together as a family.  None of my children have been natural pedalers, nor were they the kids who kicked off their training wheels and went zooming down the street.  We come by our bike ability a little less naturally and a lot more timidly.

So we occasionally pile the bikes in the back of dad's truck and head out to sunset park.  We usually slowly make it around one loop, in the meantime someone falls, someone breaks down because they are tired, someone gets frustrated because his sister is going fast, someone gets nervous and stops pedaling everytime we reach a curve... etc.  It takes a while.  

But this was the magical day.  The weather was perfect.  The bikes all had air in the tires.  And our two bike riders were riding like champions.  A perfect evening.

(P.S.  I am aware that my children aren't wearing helmets.  They own them. I promise.  But truthfully we never make it more than five slow feet without stopping usually and so I forgot them.  I will do better)


Jude rode in the sling with me on the first lap.  This was much easier to do when he was smaller.  My little fatty doesn't like being constrained nearly as much.  But as long as I never stopped pedaling he was happy.


 Scarlet is still the fastest of the crowd.  I think she crashed once but it didn't phase her at all.
Asher rode with dad on the first loop.  On the second loop I took pictures while Jon handled both babies.  Jude didn't love this so much.

Rhode was the star of the hour.  It was like he finally realized he did know how to ride a bike.  It was magical for everyone, but especially him.



Then we rode up to the top of the pavillion and rested.



Jude found the perfect drinking fountain, just his size!


It was meant for dogs of course...


We finished the ride with Jude in the basket.  It was his favorite way to ride.


One of those great family evenings.



3 comments:

Alyssa said...

So great! This is what I daydream about sometimes. Family bike-rides. Though I'm quite confident they would turn out far from my fantasy. Still. Where is this place?

Katie said...

Looks lovely. And the doggie drinking fountain would have thrown me, too. Who knew such things existed?!

Mindy said...

I LOVE the pause for effect when talking about the dog fountain. I can't wait until we all have bikes and can go for rides. But I'm pretty sure the Sunset loop is bigger than any loop in Halliday. HA!