Biking

We have a great trail system in our city!  Spencer and I have done some running on them, but what we were really enjoying during the beautiful weather of early fall was some biking.  We got a great bike trailer from Craigslist.  It was barely used and converts to a stroller -- one of those nice ones purchased for only two children that grow out of it before too long!

Our inaugural ride - the girls were so excited.

Lilia was such a trooper at the end of this ride!  I had gotten really ambitious and we rode to the park that is a full mile from our house.  There was definitely some weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth going on at the end, but Lilia made it.  I was incredibly impressed with her hard work.

A later time we drove to the park, but I loaded up the trailer and put the bikes on the bike rack so we could ride down the trail for a little bit.

I could put our car repairs in their own post (we have had enough of them to last us a while: starter, transfer case, rotors - all on the van - and an intake gasket on the malibu was leaking that could have caused the engine to explode!  we have been very blessed), but I'll just combine it with this one since it fits.

I needed to get the van in and Spencer's schedule was not very conducive to dropping it off during business hours.  And when it is the van that needs the repairs it is hard because we can't all fit in the car.  I could have asked a friend to help, but I decided to take all of the girls in the trailer!  It is 3.5 miles away and I knew there was no way Lilia could put that off - even with it being slightly downhill.  We drove to the car place and got all loaded up for the ride home.  It really went well.

For the pick-up we definitely could have gone after hours, but I thought we could make it into a fun treat with the boys.  After school we got on our bikes and all three girls squeezed into the trailer again and we headed off.  This time we stopped at the frozen custard place for a quick treat!  And even though Andy was really tired (he does not have a great bike) the kids really enjoyed it -- and so did I.

We have really been trying to bike wherever we can.  Before the weather got cold we were doing a really good job of it.  We actually bought a second trailer from craigslist (even cheaper than the first!) so that Spencer can pull Lilia on longer rides.  We are quite the site when all of us get going, but it is so much fun.  

We have ridden to the library (.8 miles) and from there to the store (.7 miles) in the pouring rain!  Wow, that was quite the experience.  Honestly, at one point I had a huge smile on my face because it was just utterly ridiculous and so unlike me - I check the weather regularly and I missed the high chance of rain.  The boys were pretty miserable.  The girls, at least, were sheltered (thank goodness for plastic shielding!).  Then we rode from the store back home again (1.1 miles) in continuing rain.  We have ridden over two miles out and enjoyed some fun cupcakes (I forgot to check the ending time of the festival we were heading to) and two miles back.

I don't know about the kids, but I am really looking forward to warmer weather so we can get out on our bikes again!