BIKES GALORE!

We’ve discovered the terrain in this part of the States is much more bike-friendly. The kids had tried valiantly to learn to ride bikes in Alaska but our block was on a hill, add snow, ice and short winter days and there just wasn’t much time to learn to ride. Arielle had begun to make real progress in Alaska. She was thrilled when we got the bikes out a couple of weeks ago to discover that she could still ride. She’s made great progress in the past couple of weeks.

Zander had decided he didn’t need a bike and would ride a scooter instead. The problem being that he is a dare devil and we didn’t like him on the scooter at all. Boy he can make that thing go! Josiah and Jamin chase him on rollerblades. We decided it was time to take stock of the bikes we had, buy a 12 in one for Zander and set out to teach the boys to ride. Mike has a “thing” about training wheels. He’s determined that the way Dad Earl taught him to ride is THE way to teach a child to ride. We found Arielle’s old hefty, YERF tricycle and got it outfitted for Zander. At this point Zander took 3 minutes to figure out the pedaling thing and away he, Arielle and I went. He charmed the neighbors by yelling, “Mom, Look at me! I Ride Like the WIND”.

Meanwhile, back at the home, Mike had found a bike that would fit Nolan. He had lowered the seat, pumped up the tire, put pedals back on and was teaching Nolan to ride his bike. Nolan did quite well. He was able to ride from our house to the next by himself…”with dad a little bit behind me”. The beauty of this training system is that Mike is going to get plenty of exercise riding along behind Nolan. If we can find some time this weekend to ride bikes, I think Nolan will have it made.