New Wheels

Check out my new wheels! I have wanted to get a bike for awhile now as I used to really love biking when I was younger and now that the boys are older, I thought that it was about time.

The boys up until now have not been big bikers, preferring their scooters. We do not have the best neighborhood to bike in (our neighborhood is pretty much just one U street so not too many places to bike to without going out on the main road). In fact, up until this week, Kyle was still using training wheels. I had told the boys while we were still back at the beach that I was going to get a bike when we got home and we were going to hit some trails and they both whined a bit about how they did not want to ride bikes and only wanted to do scooters. I told them that they at least needed to give it a try.

Kyle was nervous about trying his bike, but turns out that he only needed Jeff to get him going twice and he was off. More than ready, obviously. Kyle is most definitely hooked and absolutely loves his bike. Then Jason came out and found, surprise, surprise that he loves biking too. I usually try not to rub it in when I am right, but this time I have enjoyed teasing the boys about how reticent they were…I even did a little “told you so dance”. They really do get a kick out of me.

Did you notice the cute flowers on my bike? I usually do not go in for overtly “girly” things, but for some reason I really liked these flowers:

Even the handle bars have flowers. How cute is that?

So now every day we have been going for bike rides and we all really enjoy it. The trick is finding good places to bike within biking distance (for now). Turns out that I am going to need to get a hitch to put a bike rack on, since the back racks do not work on my car. So I am still looking into that. We have tons of great bike trails around here, so once I get the bike rack we will be set.

Oh, and we now need to get Jason a new bike as he outgrew his. Luckily the one that Jason had is perfect for Kyle who has also outgrown his old bike. We checked out new bikes for Jason and turns out that he is big enough for an adult frame, just a little bit smaller than mine! Will someone please tell him to stop growing? He is actually only a 4 or 5 inches away from being 5’ tall, and with me only being 5’2”, I am realizing that it won’t be too long before he is taller than me. His feet are already bigger than mine…but I digress…

I am really excited about biking again. Neither of the boys are big on hiking, unless they are with their friends. But they are really excited about biking the local trails out here. And I am enjoying a fun way to get more exercise.

Gotta run as it is getting late. Oh, and if you happen to get NPR’s All Things Considered program (locally it is on WAMU 88.5 at 4pm) you might get to hear me! I participated in a political discussion about Palin and the election from a “mom’s” point of view (there were 8 of us…3 Democrats, 3 Republicans and 2 Independents). It was really interesting and I hope to have more time to write about it tomorrow. Of course there is no guarantee that I will make it in the program (we talked for over an hour and I am not sure how long the piece will be) but it will be interesting to listen and find out!