10, maybe 20 miles

I finally got my mother's day/birthday present - a new bicycle.  We (adults) got rid of our crappy Walmart special bikes last year at a small yard sale we had.  Those bikes were heavy, falling apart and yeah, just needed to go.  So, I had told Neil in the winter that I wanted a new bike so we can go on rides with the boys.  We have a great bike/walk trail up and down the river.  We live in a town with only small, manageable hills.  So, we picked up my bike about a week and a half ago.  I was able to ride it about five out of the last seven days and it's awesome.  It's amazing how well a new bike that's not from Walmart works.  It's pretty light, which is nice because I still tow Fischer in the trailer.

So, the boys decided they wanted new bikes as well.  They had been working with Grandpa to earn some money, so they decided that's what they wanted to spend their money on.  Great plan.  I like it when they make a good decision. :)  The only thing is that they hadn't yet earned quite enough yet and really wanted the bikes now.  So, we did cave a little bit and let them go look at bikes today.  They found some they liked.  Neil wheeled and dealed and got the puncture proof tires for all four of our bikes for a reduced price and everyone (except Fischer) ended up with a new bike.  Fischer got a couple of handfuls of free M&Ms and that seemed to appease him at the time.

We got home this afternoon and set out on our first family bike ride in over a year.  It was awesome.  So fun!  We went down to the Marina Park, around the loop, down the bike/walk trail to the River Lodge, up the road at the 40, left down past the wood mill, up the hill over the train tracks, down the hill past my work, down Columbia Avenue, cut through the back of the high school and back to our house.  Paden says, "wow, that was like 10, maybe 20 miles."  He referred to the bike ride several times as the "10, maybe 20 mile" ride. :) He's so funny sometimes.  

Fischer fell asleep in his little kick back trailer on the way home.  He didn't have much of a nap earlier, so I probably would have fallen asleep back there too in that situation.  He had a good time though.  

We got home and we were super-duper sweaty hot, so Gunnar, Paden and I got into the green swamp like pool.  The water wasn't terribly cold, just a little green. :)  We swam for a while.  I did a few water aerobics moves while in the pool.  I love water aerobics.  Our pool water level is a little low, we need to add some water.  There's a leak somewhere on the bottom we don't know where the hole is. :-(  Anyway, I am looking up a water aerobics routine for next time!

The boys loved going on a family bike ride.  They didn't have any issues with any chains or flat tires!  It was fabuloso.  I hope to go several nights a week.  Tomorrow Neil is going to buy some bark for the front where we finally pulled the weeds, so he's going to buy a deal for his bike to track how many miles we go.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to 6 miles we went tonight. It was a good hour of a ride.  We took two short breaks in the shade is all.  Hopefully, that's going to be burning some fat calories and I'll be slimming down.  Just when I think I couldn't weigh more another pound shows up on that dang-blasted scale.  So, I really need to put some effort into this situation!

The boys loved their bikes so much, they went on a ride up and down our street and down to the high school after their swim.  Kind of like a triathlon.  I think I went up and down our stairs following the swim enough times to qualify for the triathlon as well.  I hope I can still walk in the morning.