Biking Adventures

Biking Adventure #1

Alice and Robert were at Erin's house, Matthew had been invited to a friend's house, so it was just me and James on Wednesday afternoon. He wanted to stay home. And stay together. We worked on dismantling the orchard a little more, then he suddenly wanted to leave home and do something "adventurous." We went for a bike ride where he got to decide where to go. He thought he could get us lost and giggled at the idea. Unfortunately (fortunately?), we both know this area pretty well and couldn't get lost. James' knowledge of our area is surprisingly extensive and detailed. Well, maybe it's normal, but it caught me off guard. I'm always underestimating my kids. And while I try really, really hard not to compare my kids to each other...nnnnnngh...not all of my kids have been this confident with navigation, especially at age 6!

We pedaled to the preschool and then I showed James this cute little mini park that's hidden away nearby. It was just us, a giant metal porch swing, and lots of conversation. Questions. Theories. Stories created with "what if..." and so many hypotheses.

Biking Adventure #2

Friday was a good day. I was in a pretty good mood when dinner time came around and I put my menu plan aside for an adventure. I figured we could cash in the kids' free pizza coupons from the library summer reading program. And, as a bonus that made the whole outing worth it to me, this particular pizza place was within easy biking distance of our house! When we told our neighbor friends about our plans, they wanted to come, too! A biking caravan! And we did it: 3 adults, 6 kids. One looooooong circus train that turned quite a few heads. I never would have wanted to do this when my kids were younger. Never, ever, ever. When they were younger, it was easier to make my own plans and they just had to come along, but I was physically responsible for all of their needs. Now that they're older, I don't get as much control over making the plans (they are too big to wrestle into the car, less distractable, and far too expensive to bribe all the time), but we can do more involved outings like this because they are managing more of their own physical needs (helmets, pedaling, locking up their bikes, bathroom breaks, following directions).

And I must say, the restaurant experience wasn't so bad. James needed to take a walk with me outside while the pizzas were cooking (I didn't mind it one bit). Here are the kids before our walk:

Waiting for food at our local Monical's Pizza

Biking Adventure #3

Alice, Robert, and I finished a mini triathlon together on Saturday!

After the race, wearing our fancy spinner medals.

Just after our swim, Robert and I are walking our bikes out of the bike corral. Alice finished the swim some time before us and was already on the course. Many thanks to our friends who took these pictures and cheered us on. It was a lot more fun to race when you have a cheering section ;)

It was a 200-yard swim (8 laps in the pool) followed by a 6-mile bike ride and a 2-mile walk/run. None of the three of us did any training for it. When I initially signed up for this race at the beginning of the summer, I had grand plans for regular physical activity with my kids. Um. Yeah. Didn't happen. The morning of the event, I just said, "Hey guys, we're doing this to have fun. Once it stops being fun, we can stop, and we'll all stop together. We don't even have to finish the race. Let's just see how far we can get." And we had fun the whole time! Woo hooooooo!