New Hôm Nay

Two more firsts

Two new firsts this week.

First family bike ride together! Prep time: 3.5 hours. Actual riding time: 30 minutes.

Still, it was good. Ever since the kids got their bikes for Easter, they've been wanting to ride and our neighborhood just doesn't have a lot of good riding territory. They go up and down their little stretch of sidewalk a lot - the stretch that isn't frighteningly steep. We actually left their tires semi-deflated to keep them from going too fast at first. But they are getting proficient...enough to be leaving skid marks everywhere. Sunday we had nice warm weather - so it was time to break out and go RIDE! Yee-haw!

The prep time was so long mainly because we had to find various assorted bike rack parts in our jumbled garage, assemble and then install the bike rack on top of the car. We also had to buy a new bike pump and pump up all the tires. Finally, we were ready with 2 bikes on top and 2 in the trunk, with a bungee cord holding the trunk lid. Very classy. We don't need no stinkin' minivan.

Got to the trail and the wind started to blow...40-mph gusts. Alex was scared that the wind would blow her away, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but with encouragement she managed to keep her wits about her. Sam wasn't scared at all - though he should have been - he kept looking BACK at us instead of in FRONT where he was going...ran off the trail twice and looked most surprised to be in the grass all of a sudden! Still makes me laugh to remember it. Glad he is still years away from driving the car.

Anyway, the second "first" of the week was Sam's first plunge off the diving board at swim lessons. I am so proud of my two fearless fishies. Maybe it's because I'm such a poor swimmer, but I'm so thrilled that they are loving the water.