Bike Ride

Grant and Evy are so big in so many ways that I sometimes forget that they are still so young.  I had the brilliant idea to go for a bike ride with the kids.  I thought we would park by the trail head and bike to the park.  In my mind the ride wasn't too far, but for a 6 year old it was WAY too far!  We weren't on the trail for more than 3 minutes before both of them were complaining about their legs being tired and wanting to go home.

My mom and I pushed them through and got them to ride for a while promising they would get to play at the park.  We also promised we would stop and throw rocks in the river.  

Our plans quickly became unraveled when Grant stopped quickly in front of me.  I swiveled and missed crashing into him by inches.  Evy was distracted and ran right into the back of my bike trailer.  She wasn't wearing shoes just flip flops and she scratched her toe really good.  

We were in the middle of the trail and no way to get her injury taken care of.  It wasn't a horrible scratch and stopped bleeding pretty quickly.  Luckily, she was brave and pushed through.

We stopped at a park and took a rest.  It is a long story, but we didn't have enough water bottles for the kids and we were all very hot and thirsty.  That didn't make matters better.

Preston and Celeste were cramped and hot in the back of the bike trailer and just wanted to go home. The kids hardly played at the play ground.  We turned around and headed back to the car.  Preston was going to die if he didn't throw rocks and so we had to make one more stop.  We threw a few rocks and took off.  Celeste was extremely grumpy by this point and was the only one with water left.  However, while my mom and I were putting the bikes on the bike rack all the other kids drank Celeste's drink.  She was still thirsty and screamed at the top of her lungs the entire way home. 

Our little outing was a lot of work, a lot of pain, and a little fun.

I have learned to do short bike trips and work up to the big trips.  Riding around the neighborhood is not the same as riding a trail.  Pack lots of water!  You can always bring it home.