Jaunt to the beach

Today the kids and I took a quick jaunt to the beach by our house.  It's only 1.3 miles round trip, but I'm counting it!!  Daddy was resting and I was a little nervous about supervising all 4 kids on their own bikes.  Mo does well, Colleen is 90% there and the littles...well, they're still working on it!  But it was a straight shot, so I figured why not?  I gave them the speech - you know the one.  It went a little like this...
1) We will be in a specific order.  Mo, Colleen, "Bert", "Ernie" and then me.
2) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU PASS!
3) If a car comes, go on the grassy part of the shoulder and STOP.  Do not go until they have passed you.
4) We will be in a specific order.
5) DO NOT PASS.
6) Obey Mom if you hear her yelling from the back.
7) DO NOT PASS.
etc...etc...etc...you get the drift.
As we were pulling out, I got choked up.  They were riding in a perfect line, all in age order, just riding!  I didn't need to pull anyone in a trailer, they were obeying my instructions, no one had training wheels or was whining they couldn't do it...so I hollered out to them that I was so proud of them and that I was thankful they were riding well!  "Ernie" shouted out "GO TEAM (our last name)" and I almost lost it...
(Side note - if you haven't read the other blog, you need some back story.  "Bert" and "Ernie" are our foster sons.  We can't share their real names.  Adoption is the plan and then their names will be different anyway.  "Bert" is ready to be adopted, like today, and be all around DONE w/his birth family.  He is very anxious and his trauma memories are going to take years to over come.  "Ernie" on the other hand is not quite all sold out on this whole thing.  He says he wants to be adopted, but we get the feeling he would be ok if he just went back and forth between 2 families forever.  Emotionally, he wouldn't be, but he doesn't understand that yet.  Anyway...back to the story!)
To hear anyone, much less "Ernie", cheer for our 'team' was pretty cool!  I had to laugh along the way - there were a few spills, since 'the littles' are still working on balance and all that, but everyone got right back in the saddle and carried on =)  We got to the beach to find that there really isn't one this year.  We didn't hang out there much.  All in all though, I would count this as a success!

2016 New town, new trail, new people

Well, well, well...this blog is not dead!
Today all 6 of us went on the paved trail near our house.  We went 7.5 miles to a town south of us and back.  Some of us may have gone a bit farther since we doubled back a few times!  One of us was on training wheels =)  We saw cranes (even a baby one!), tractors, weeds and a fenced nature preserve we didn't know about.  We also checked up on a house we had previously looked at when we were on the house hunt 2 years ago.  Moses and I saw the berry picking patch/buisness by our house and we told the berries to get nice and big and juicy.  We promised to come back and visit them in about a month or so...
I'd like to say that we are going to be doing a lot more of this, but I honestly do not know.  It's really nice that almost everyone is riding independently and no one needs to be pulled in the Burley.  "Ernie" was pretty slow on the training wheels today, though, and I sort of wished we had put him in there.  He can ride w/o the trainers - until something distracts him and he just falls over.  Oh well - maybe by the end of summer!  It was a beautiful day for a ride but I had to laugh.  DW said it wasn't going to rain, even though it was in the forecast.  He said it was going to miss us.  I was waiting for "Ernie" at the end of the trail where we parked and wouldn't you know it - it began to sprinkle!  By the time we crossed the street and put our bikes in the trailer it started to rain!  It poured for at least 2 hours after that!  I had a good time teasing him!!
The trail was extremely easy and so nice!!  If you are ever in our area and want to try it out, we recommend it!
PS - if you are wondering about the new people in our family or any other news, check the other blog!

Into town

If you read the other blog, you already know we've moved!  We now live about 3 miles from a very small town...and we've started biking into town for groceries, the library and trips to the hardware store.  I haven't exactly tracked all of our miles, but I know we have ridden into town at least 4 times!  I am going to add 25 miles to our tally and I hope to add many more!

2015 - new town to ride in!

We moved...if you read the other blog, you probably know that already.  And it's 2015!  A new year for biking!  I am not delusional - I do realize that we will get no where near 100 miles this year for various reasons, but I will keep writing in this space.  As a family of 4, we went on our first ride this year!  We are approx. 3 miles from the center of the new (little) town we live near/in.  Yesterday we went into town on bikes - each of us on our own!  It was pretty fun =)  We went to the hardware store, the grocery store, the gas station...pretty much almost every business there is in town.  It's quaint - we ran into someone we know at the grocery store, which was a bonus!  Then as we were finishing up our gas station ice cream treats, the clouds loomed...we got about a mile from the house and it poured!  It was funny and gross and wet and a really good memory!!  All together we put about 6.5 miles on our list!

2014 begins

YES, I am still here and YES I am still keeping track.  Never mind the fact that bike trips are few and far between!  Never mind the fact that I have yet to hit my goal!!  Today the kids and I took a quick trip to some friends' house...total of 1.3 miles.  We'll take it =)

...a tisket, a tasket, a stainless steel cup rattling around in my basket...

I failed to put my girl's cup in her lunch box and since no cup usually equals very little calories (you can read more about her and her need for high calorie drinks on the other blog), that meant a trip to the kids' school.  It's not far and a friend told me about how short trips in your vehicle can wreck your exhaust (the engine doesn't get warmed up...?), so....I got on my bike.  I've been doing 5-7 miles lately so what's 4 and a half, round trip, right?
If you don't already know, this town has a river running through it.  And this river, it's flanked by high hills.  The school sits up on one of those, less than 3 blocks from the river.  Today there are 9-11mph winds, blowing from the school to my house (from the south, to the north).  I wavered.  It was hard, but I did it.  On the way back I ducked into the massive cemetery along the river to avoid cars as I went back up the hill and I realized it is even bigger than I thought!  I didn't just go straight home - I passed church and came the 1mi back into the wind to get home.  My ears are cold!!  But I can't complain about 6.87 miles...

Impressive

Would you believe me if I said that 3 out of 4 members of the family went on a 6.55 mile bike ride?  And the 4th went just over 5 miles?  The littlest one was on a tiny bike that still has training wheels!  The last mile or so I was really cooking b/c I could see a very large black cloud over my house.  I beat the rain and told everyone to get into the house for some dinner!  

Pizza is cheaper than petrol?

For some odd reason, whenever I eat pizza I feel compelled to work out the next day!  Whatever works, right?  Today I hopped on my bike and just rode.  I made sure to pass the frozen custard place right away, so I wouldn't be tempted at the end of my ride!  I kind of went backwards on my usual route...and I looped into a large park w/plenty of room to ride on the trail.  It has a few hills, which is good for me!  My GPS app says I went 6.01 miles!  It felt good =)  I thought of going to the Y but I am going to try and get outside as much as I can...

Neat story from paper

One of the men mentioned in this story is one of my former co-workers!  Way to go Mr. Ketterman!  It's really great to read about people biking for a good cause, so I had to share...

Double your endorphins! Chattering like dolphins!

Stayin' alive, stayin' alive, ah ah ah ah, stayin' aliiiiiiiiiiive....SING IT!!!

Don't bother looking around to see if anyone heard.  They did.  They are laughing but you don't care b/c that song makes EVERYONE sing when they think of it =)  You're welcome!

That is the theme today b/c of many things, but mostly b/c this blog is staying alive thanks to my efforts today.

I RODE MY BIKE TODAY!!!

BOOM!  And just like that, I am back in the saddle again.  =D

Like every time I do something I am proud of myself for, I write a blog post to celebrate!  And lucky you gets to read the chatter in my head...today I pulled 'the baby' Dewey in the Burley.  Um, Houston we have a problem.  That kid has grown and gained weight since last year.  He's easily 10lbs heavier!  I probably am too, so enough about that.  Once I started I realized that I just wanted to pedal through and not turn back.  The bank said it was over 70* already!  Unheard of lately...another good reason to go for a ride.  I sort of followed my old route, but added to it.  I know there is a really nice bike trail by my house, but it's sooooo boring and way to close to the Interstate.  I hear cars and see cars and hate cars.  Yes, there are cars on the road too but it's a lot less of them on the country roads and they are not going over 50mph!  So away we went and shortly after we left I realized the roads were so bumpy my bike mirror was rendered useless.  Every 30 seconds there was a pothole and many of them were large.  I was disappointed to see the roads in such disrepair and aggravated that I had to keep adjusting the mirror!!!  I wonder if they still make the ones that go on your helmet...anyway - for some reason the map my ride app didn't talk to me and tell me about how far I had gone.  Must be a settings thing.  So I didn't check until we got back, but I guessed it was more than 2 miles.

4.97 miles!!!

That, was a crazy surprise!  It only took me about 32 minutes.  As we all know, the best part of exercising is that feeling after, like you could punch a bear's lights out or something =)  No bears here but 2 chickens.  They didn't need defending but I discovered some more asparagus was ready!  A perfect after ride snack - don't worry I hosed it off first!

As you can see from the photos, I was pretty 'done' when we got back.  But - I still had energy to kiss my riding buddy and find some interesting flowers in the yard.  Then I got the crazy idea to mow the lawn w/the new mower.  Our old one worked, but it took some hutzpah to push it up the 2% grade of a hill we have in the front yard.  The new one was supposed to be better.  I actually managed to start it and felt like I spanked a horse or something!  I nearly needed to run after it!  "That thing got a HEMI?!"  Yeah, so it was easier to get it going and I didn't need to push!  However...the back 40 contains a swingset, a round sandbox, 2 composters, a sunken grill, the chicken coop, the burn barrel, the chicken tractor - you get the idea.  It took every ounce of my not-quite-but-too-close-for-my-comfort 150 pound self to pull back on that thing and make odd corners!!  ARGH!  I finally got into a rhythm but then I almost lacerated my kidney on the handle of the chicken tractor!  I howled pretty loud but couldn't stop to lick my wounds thanks to the runaway mower.  (Yes, I'm too stubborn to let go of the handle and just let it stop.  It's too much work to pull it and get it started again!  And no, it's not just man's work!  I like to be outside too!  And I was crazy flying high on post-workout endorphins!!)  Anyway - I only did the back.  Someone else can do the front.  Hopefully that will happen before the high winds kick into a severe thunderstorm later....but my arms will not allow me to go back to that, endorphins or no endorphins...

Well, I'm excited that I'm able to put a few miles into 'the ticker' today.  I've almost beat last year's grand total already!  (<---she a="" and="" font="" joy="" mix="" nbsp="" of="" said="" shame="" w="">