Bike Ride

Today we decided to check out how Jack would fare on the new bike that he got for his 5th  birthday.  Jack’s old bike had no gears and was small, so he had to work quite a bit harder to keep up when we went on a family bike ride.  The new bike has 6 gears and is similar to Owen’s.  Jack is still a little nervous to start an stop as he cannot reach the ground from the seat, but he is excited to have such a big boy bike.The beginning of the ride was a race between Owen and Jack to see who could be the leader.  Neither one had the advantage and they kept overtaking each other again and again.  As boys seem to to do, they upped the competition and got faster and faster,and started taking more risks.  Eventually I had to nix the competition since the boys were deciding that it was the perfect time to pass when the boy in front slowed down to pass a walking group!!

Owen than vacillated between doing “fancy moves”  and slowing down enough to watch the grass grow.  “Fancy Moves” was my preferred activity for him- such as standing on his pedals and  having no feet on the pedals – which he found thrilling.  That is, until he decided to add to his repertoire – seeing how close he could get to the people he was about to pass, before he actually moved over to the left to pass them. 

Jack loved zooming ahead and then slowing down to weave violently back and forth while still staying balanced.  He did this crazy weave over and over, and was definitely doing it on purpose.  He has always had amazing balance, but I have no idea how he did not fall today. 

The boys were dragging by the time we returned to the car, but they were proud that they had ridden so far – 4.6 miles.