Bike Adventure

Illness has been going around our house for a week now, but Saturday morning we all woke up and everyone "seemed" to be symptom free.  We had family pictures scheduled for that evening, but had a few hours to kill and wanted something fun to do.  We decided to go get frozen yogurt at our local self-serve shop, and I suggested we ride bikes.  It's only about a 1.5 miles from our house and we are all big bike riders.  I made sure everyone had full tires and Cody put the chain back on Hailey's back that had come off during the week.  I loaded the little boys in the trailer and we were all off.

Dad dragged behind with Lauren because her legs are so short and she can't go as fast when she pedals.  The bigger kids and I got to the yogurt shop only to find that it had gone out of business.  Bummer!  Guess we hadn't been there in a while.  But the kids were really disappointed, so Cody suggested we ride the extra half mile to the convenience store (Maverick) and get frozen treats and drinks.  So we meandered our way through parking lots and pushed our bikes through a small feild and got to the store.  After we got our snacks, we sat outside at the table and ate.  Perfect day!

When it was time to hit the road again, I noticed that something was wrong with my bike and realized that the back wheel was coming off.  I got it fixed just enough to make it the two miles back home...maybe.  When I attached the trailer again and got everything situated, I noticed that because the wheel wasn't connected perfectly that the back break was rubbing, making it VERY hard to pedal.  That was going to be a long ride home (btw, we decided to take the back road so we didn't have to depend on parking lots.) Not far into the ride, Lauren's pedal kept coming unscrewed and wouldn't stay on for some reason.  So I loaded her into the trailer with the two boys and hung her bike on the back of the trailer.  So here I was, pedaling a bike that was partially braked, towing about 150 pounds.

We made it back into the neighborhood and as we got close to our street, Hailey's bike chain came off again!  Dad was trailing behind us and I told Hailey to just wait for him.  I had to get home before my legs collapsed.  We finally all made it home and Lordy, I was beat.  My bike will probably be heading into the shop sometime this week.

Later that evening, I spent an hour getting everyone cleaned up and ready for family pictures.  Any mom knows how daunting that can be.  Right as we were heading out the door, Devin started screaming that he needed to throw up.  And a big storm was blowing in, and we were taking pictures out at the Great Salt Lake on the beach.  Halfway to the lake Devin threw up all in his car seat, and then several more times.  My photographer friend, Angalee, met us at the lake and we laughed at the 40 mph winds beating us to death.  Between sick Devin and horrible weather, we decided to reschedule.  It was a CRAZY day!!