New Wheels

A bike enthusiast and good friend (you know who you are and we thank you!) helped us acquire used bikes over the past couple years and fix them up. And, we now have bike seats for both boys and are loving it.

Jim has been biking to work for the past two years and I got a bike in the spring. It is just a mile and a half to town (and his office), but going on bike makes a 25 minute walk into a 10 minute ride. Oh, and by the way, that walk is 35 minutes if I'm pushing 80 pounds of stroller and boy and closer to 45 minutes if walking at a four year old pace; he's actually quite fast, but his walk is something like this: run - check out a rock - run - remember you wanted to look at a tree 20 feet behind us - run back - hear mum calling... you get the picture.

Over the past few months we've been working toward getting us all on bikes and it is wonderful! I think biking with Rowan is one of my favorite things to do with him. I love having him in front of me as we can talk so well and it changes the balance on the bike a lot less. I biked for fun in our driveway as a child, but have never seriously used a bike as a form of transit before. Oh, I've flirted with it, but I don't enjoy biking... or at least haven't in the past. Getting to church in 10 minutes yesterday was so wonderful and I love being able to zip to a park on Saturday and not spend half our time getting there. These bikes are making the car-less life much easier!

And, if you could see Rowan's excitement! He sings as we bike in on the Lade Braes Path and quacks as we pass the duck pond. It is such fun.

Getting Jonah on Jim's bike was a bit of a challenge after an initial mishap that scared Jonah a bit (nothing much happened and Jim was never out of control, as it was in our driveway on the test run - just scared Jonah a bit.) But, now he is on, he loves it!

Jim is working on our bikes when they need it. And while we are definitely unsure of what we are doing, we are learning.

And every new venture needs some sewing - right? I needed a thin hat to fit under Rowan's bike helmet... so I used an old sweater of mine (one of the ones with short sleeves - cute, but entirely impractical) and made Rowan and I both hats for biking.