Proud Dad

4.5 Miles

Sarah and I took the girls over to the trail for an evening ride after work.  We somehow loaded the jogging stroller, two kids bikes, two sets of rollerblades and five people into one car (I had to jury rig the bike rack to hold the girls' bikes.  Sydney has a 18" bike that she is almost too big for.  Tara has a 16" bike that she didn't want to use because she is still learning so she used her tiny 12" Dora bike that, up until a few days ago, had extremely bent-up training wheels attached.  The girls were so excited that once we got on the trail they took off in a sprint to outrun Mom and Dad.  I have to admit that it has been quite awhile since I've been on my blades and I had a hard time keeping up with Sydney.  I finally convinced Sydney to slow down before she burnt out.   I tried to tell Tara the same, but she's like the Energizer bunny that just keeps going and going and going and going...  It was funny watching the two ride together, Sydney with her big bike and Tara with her tiny one.   Sydney was riding hard but her legs had a good, slower rhythm.  Tara, on the other hand, with her small wheels, was pumping her little legs like powerful pistons.  That girl is tough.  We had a couple climbs on the trail, one that was over 100 feet tall.  Sydney slowly pumped up the hill and learned that if she stood up, she'd get more power to get up the hill.  Right behind was Tara, pumping her legs like crazy showing no signs of slowing down.

We made it over 2 miles before we decided to turn around thinking we'd worn out the girls and they might struggle to get back to the car.  O contraire, they were so excited to go back down the hill that they could hardly contain themselves.  We had drills at the top of the hill where we made them show us how to use the brakes (instead of dragging the toes of their shoes until they start smoking).  We had them ride their coaster brakes all the way down as Sarah and I struggled to slow our rollerblades for the decent.  They did great and begged to go back up the hill so they could come back down real fast.  They definitely inherited their parents' need for speed.  They had so much fun that they've been bouncing off the walls since we got home.  We'll definitely have to do it again.

Evie hanging out in the stroller. Sarah had control of the camera so no pictures of her.