Today was such a lovely day, and our one goal for having fun was to go on a family bike ride before Daddy had to leave for work. We recently installed Mikayla's new bike seat on the back of my bike, and she absolutely loves it.
We started rounding up the gang about 1:00. It took about 15 minutes to find everybody's helmet (including Mikayla's) and get them adjusted just right. As we were leaving the driveway, Luka started screaming. I looked over to see him laying near the edge of the driveway, under his bike, and in the bushes. Apparently he lost his balance just trying to get on.
Once we recovered from that episode, we headed down the trail. About 5 minutes later, TJ saw a park where he knew there was a drinking fountain, and he just HAD to stop. So we all trucked into the park to get a drink. As we were leaving, however, Luka decided he wanted to go first, but we had already started to leave, so he stubbornly just stayed in the park and refused to move.
Scott circled back around, surprised him, made him laugh, and got him back on the trail.
Crossing Woodlands Parkway, and waiting for the crosswalks signs, took about 5 minutes alone. Once across, Luka decided he was still mad, and started riding real slow behind us all. I mean, so slow Mikayla could have crawled faster. We had another little heart to heart at the stop sign, where I told Luka to turn around and go home with me, because the bike ride was no longer fun, and we didn't want to continue with someone who had a bad attitude and couldn't keep up. Well, he decided to put a smile on his face, so just like that, he snapped out of it and became the "leader."
We had a pleasant ride for about the next 10 minutes. TJ has learned to skid, and so he took the opportunity to do so every time we had to stop before crossing a road. About 2 miles from the house, he skidded to a stop, and all of a sudden there was a loud "hisssssss." His tire immediately went flat. We asked our leader, "Luka," to stop while we took care of TJ. We were figuring out how to get everybody home with one less bike.
After about 3 minutes, I realized Luka had not in fact stopped, and I set out to catch up to him. Well, let me tell you, once that kid decided to ride, he didn't stop. After about a minute, I started calling for him. I had to ask everyone on the trail if they had seen him, and they kept pointing me in the right direction. (Mikayla, on the back, didn't seem to mind at all.) I was starting to get nervous, as I continued to pass forks in the trail, and had to guess which way to take. Finally, after about 6-7 increasingly frantic minutes, I caught up to that little guy, wondering what he had done wrong. Geesh! Let's just say there was a one way discussion at this point in time.
We made our way back to Daddy and TJ, who were just about to give up waiting on us. Daddy hid TJ's bike in the bushes, and had TJ hop on his bike bar for the ride home. I was thinking "Hey, people in Holland do this all the time, right?" Well, Poor TJ was quite uncomfortable on that bar, and we had to stop several times to readjust, until finally he ended up on Daddy's seat, while Scott stood up the whole time and pedaled.
Once they were finally situated, we were homeward bound for sure. Well, not quite. About 30 seconds later, I heard Luka scream, and looked back to find him splattered on the sidewalk, under his bike again, holding his leg. I motioned to Scott to just go on home without us. I went back to pick up the pieces, and worked to convince Luka that he was more scared than hurt, and that we were almost home. He said he tried to run over a pine cone and "it didn't work very well."
On our way again, we finally made it to Lake Woodlands and W. Panther Creek. As we were crossing the street, we passed Daddy and TJ in the mini-van, headed to pick up TJ's bike from the bushes, and then to buy new tires.
Next time there is a sunny gorgeous day, maybe we'll try to find a mountain to hike instead.
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