Riding Bikes

This is from a bike ride we took a little while ago. It was memorable to me because of how cute (and frustrating) Micah was and how beautiful it was that evening.

This particular evening we drove down to a pathway near Utah Lake so Julia could ride her newish bike. We had been meaning to get her a bike so she could start to learn how to ride a bike, but we just barely bought her one this summer after Julia kept seeing all her new friends here riding their bikes. She has training wheels on it still, but I'm thinking a little bit longer and we will take them off and teach her to ride a bike for real. She started out really unsure of herself, even with the training wheels, but now she is willing to go faster and farther.

Micah has been feeling left out just sitting in the stroller whenever we go out with Julia and her bike, so this time since my mom was coming with us I brought a little bike my parents have at their house so Micah could ride a bike. My mom followed Julia with Camden in the stroller as Julia rode her bike and I stayed with Micah.

It was slow going. He would pedal a little, then ask me to push him. Then want to stop and look around. Pedal, push, stop, repeat. Mom and Julia got really far ahead of us.

Then Micah saw some pebbles in the path and he had to stop and put them in his basket. He got back on his bike and we went a little farther, and then he noticed that the entire side of the path was full of pebbles! It was a very exciting discovery for him. So he got off his bike started putting handfuls of small rocks into his front basket.

 He did that until his basket was brimming over with pebbles.

 Meanwhile, I stood around and enjoyed the scenery. At first I kept trying to get him to get back on his bike and keep moving, but after a few minutes I realized it didn't really matter if we caught up with Julia or not, or if Micah rode his bike far. He was having fun with his rocks, so I just let him do his thing. We didn't make it very far after that, just a couple more feet, before Julia and my mom caught back up with us heading back the opposite direction.

And here is the third child trying out the bike, at home.