Riding bikes

I don't know how far we went yesterday. We made a sort of spur-of-the-moment decision to take a Sunday afternoon bike ride.

I pumped up a few bike tires and we tracked down riding gloves and other accessories we hadn't used since last fall. Finally, we were ready and we headed down the driveway, then up the hill behind our house.

The boys aren't ready for that kind of a hill, though my oldest made it more than halfway up before he had to get off the bike and walk. But when we had arrived at the top, neither of the boys wanted to stop riding. We probably rode 3 or 4 miles, all the way up past the temple, past the High School, and down the hill to the park with the pond.

The pond is extremely full--TOO full due to the abundance of rain and snow that has, so far, kept us from doing much riding. There were ducks and geese chasing each other all over the grass and all over the water's surface.

The weather was beautiful... At least, it was beautiful until we decided to turn back towards home. We rode (and the boys walked) our bikes back up the hill and then we told them that the hard part was over and it was almost completely downhill all the way home. We were halfway right.

It was certainly downhill almost all the way home, but the hard part wasn' t over. We hadn't counted on such a strong wind blowing in our faces all the way home. But we all pushed on against it. It started to get cold - almost a biting cold. For a while, my youngest didn't want to keep riding. There was, however, no alternative, so he pushed on even harder against the wind.

When we entered our neighborhood, both boys were pretty worn out. We must have ridden 7 or 8 miles, half of it into a pretty stiff wind. In the end, despite the challenge of the wind, we were all happy to have done something active together. We're a little sore this morning (I'm speaking for the adults. The children seem completely unaffected), but we're looking forward to the next family ride.