Gone Riding!!! and Kevin Wins Big

A couple of weeks ago I played hooky from work on a Friday and we all headed south to a place near Birmingham to go riding. This is a pay to play area but they have 500 acres, many trails of varying difficulty levels and several motocross tracks for little kids all the way up to a Supercross (difficult) track. I was in heaven!


Dana took this picture looking out across the motocross track where I spent most of my time. It's a little different than what I'm used to.

Here's my first artistic shot. The boys and Dana all say my two pictures are weird but I like them. The bike is wondering what in the heck those green things are in front of it.

And that's a brand new knobby, chain and sprockets and the bike is in the dirt for the first time in 8 months! How can that not excite you? Ok, fine. I still like it.

You can't tell in this picture, but there's a tree branch that hangs down and was smacking me across the face every time I came over this jump. That's something else I can chalk up as never happening to me before. This track was SO much fun. I can't wait to go back.

Cameron is on the kids' motocross track and about to catch some air. Big bikes like mine aren't allowed on it so I couldn't ride with them. Both boys really enjoyed this track as well.

Here's Kevin on the same jump. This double jump is immediately followed by two more doubles. This was the first real jump that Kevin has doubled on his 85 and he followed that up by jumping the next two as well. The first time he did it I honestly thought his throttle was stuck. It scared me!

Cade watching and learning. He's just biding his time until he can get out there.

Last week was "Bring Your Child to Work Day" and I took Kevin and Cameron to work with me. The center had some really nice activities and things to do for the kids. At lunch time we had just finished a free ice cream bar and were sitting down to eat some free pizza when Cameron asked me, "So do you eat pizza every day?" That's the bad thing about activities like that. The kids grow up thinking work is awesome and we all sit around and do fun stuff all day.

One of the things we went to was a bicycle safety presentation. Honestly, the only reason I took the kids to that was because they were giving away a free bike. The presentation was ok but not great and the lady didn't appreciate me suggesting she not drop her helmet on the floor in front of everyone next time (I talked to her after the class was over). Taking care of your helmet is something I harp on the kids about and they both noticed she did that so I felt obligated to say something. :) Anyway, the next day, I got a call from the head of Security and he told me Kevin won the bike! His story was that we could either have the bike that was on display or we could pick one out from Wal-Mart for $100 or less. Wal-Mart had a different story and said we get that bike and only that bike. As it turns out, it was worth more than $100 and is a pretty darn nice bike! Kevin loves it. Look at that thing. 21 speed, full suspension, DISC BRAKE in the front! When I called Kevin at home to tell him he was obviously super excited. He called me back a couple of hours later and told me it was his best day ever because he had just seen a new Camaro drive by (I'm so proud!). His day couldn't get any better than that.

Well, with all the excitement of getting a new bike, Cade wanted one too. Dana told him we had one for him in the attic so the minute we got home he wanted me up there to get that new bike for him. I wasn't sure he was big enough but he fits just fine if not a little tippy toe. I gave him a push to get started once and that was it. Moments later he told me he was done with his "special bike" (his name for his old, small bike) and that I could put it away. He goes trucking around everywhere on his new bike now and rides like a pro! Through the rocks, over the ruts, doesn't matter. And he won't even be 4 until October!

There he goes! No more little bike for him.

Here's one of the flower things that we have out behind our house. The flower is made up of a whole bunch of tiny little flowers. Each one of these had that little purple thing in the middle. My hand helps show how big it is. Pretty cool. It's probably poisonous.

With the slope in our backyard the kids don't have to try too hard to make it all the way down the slip-n-slide.

Last weekend we went back to De Soto State Park. And this time it was green! Here, Kevin and Cade stop to cool their feet. And I'm happy to report, Cade did NOT fall in the water.

Isn't this dragonflly pretty? I've never seen one like that before.

This waterfall looks a lot different than it did last time we were there.

I love this boardwalk.

This is looking down from the waterfall and watching Cameron get soaked.

All that walking wore someone out!

Dana is in charge of crafts for the VBC next week. She volunteered to make 2317 boomerangs for all the kids to decorate. Ok, maybe more like 70 but we've been spending plenty of time cutting these things out and still have quite a few more to go. Why is it that every time she volunteers for something it means work for me?

Still with me after all that? Good. Thanks for reading!