Family Bike Ride

So today was kind of a crazy day. Jaron and I have really been wanting to see the new Batman movie, so we got a babysitter so that we could go during the matinee today. We decided to take Lilly since she would need to eat and she really won't take a bottle, so the baby sitter can't feed her. Anyway, we get to the movie and get about 30 seconds into it and Lilly is terrified. All the loud loises, gun fire and buses crashing through walls etc. was freaking her out. Duh! What were we thinking taking our baby to that movie, she would have been scarred for life! Needless to say, we quickly left, got our refund and then headed home. The kids weren't too happy with us for cutting their precious babysitter time short.

We were going to work on putting our basement together and then go to Lagoon, but neither Jaron nor I were up to it, again disappointing the kids, so to make up for it, we promised them that for an hour of hard work in the basement we would go on a family bike ride to the church parking lot. This was an acceptable deal to them, so we wrote up the contract and got to work on the basement! We got alot done and at exactly one hour, Emmy was reminding us that it was time to go.

The church is not too far away from our house, but there is a pretty nice hill going down to the church that the kids were nervous to ride down. We, being the loving and caring parents that we are, who only want the best for our children, told them that if they didn't ride down then hill then they had to go home and go to bed. This provided sufficient motivation for them to suck it up and ride down the hill. I wasn't worried about Emmy, but Carter is still on training wheels, so I told him to use his brakes and when he got to the bottom of the hill where we were supposed to turn, to NOT turn, stop first, or he would tip with those blasted training wheels on.


Now those of you who know Carter know that telling him something can be about as effective as telling a brick wall to move out of your way. So off he goes down the hill, pedaling forward instead of using his brakes, and then at the bottom of the hill, as I repeatedly yell at him to "GO STRAIGHT, DON'T TURN!", he begins his turn of death, which logically is followed by a spectacular crash involving 3 "360 degree" flips by Carter (his bike only flipped once. . . nothing to brag about really). This is the first time that instead of cursing those annoying bike helmets that I never needed to wear as a child, I was kind of glad my kid had one on.

Amazingly, Carter came out with only a few scratched elbows which we immediately started praising and telling him how cool he was and how he could show off those scratches (this tends to stave off the annoying crying and whining that could last for days until the scabs disappear). He stood looking at us with a dazed and confused face for a few moments and then decided that he was pretty cool and tough, so he got back on his bike and started riding the rest of the way to the church. Of course, we couldn't let him go without chewing him out for not listening to us in the first place. I told him, "Carter, you HAVE to use your brakes coming down that hill! Just pedal backwards and you won't go so fast!", and then the real issue is revealed when Carter replies to me, "but Mom! My bike doesn't pedal backwards!" Yeah. So anyway, we spent the next few minutes practicing braking techniques (which was a review, I swear I taught him how to use the brakes the first day he got his bike!) Anyway, we all survived the bike ride and I took a few pictures of us out on the road.