It has finally happened!! This is a momentous occasion. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but Avery has been terrified of her bike ever since Josh took the training wheels off it over a year ago. To be honest, I’m not even sure when or why he took them off. She didn’t want them off. I think Josh was just seeing all the other kids in the neighborhood zipping around on two wheels and thought it was time for Avery to ride on two wheels. But she didn’t want to! So then basically she just rode her little Hello Kitty razor scooter for the next year and a half! Whenever we would go for bike rides she would ride her scooter. She had NO desire to ever ride her bike. So there it hung in our garage. Finally, on Monday night (July 23, 2018 for the record) I decided it was time.
I told her “You are going to learn how to ride your bike tonight.” It was about 7:00 and Josh was going to take Drax for a walk. I got her bike down and Josh started to say “Come here Avery. You’re going to learn!” Avery then freaked out and sat crying on her bike saying “No! I’m scared!” Then Josh responded by also freaking out and saying, “Fine. You can go sit in your room then!” Nope. Not the right way to handle it. So, being the calm, rational, expert parent I am... I told him “You go take your dog for a walk with Gabe and Caleb and I will stay here with her.”
When they returned about half hour later, guess who was riding up and down the street on two wheels. Yup! Me. Just kidding. Well me AND Avery. She was such a pro! She only let me hold onto her back of her seat once or twice and then once I explained what she needed to do she got all like “no mom, don’t touch me! I can do it!” And she just kept at it until she’s got it! The hardest part of riding a bike is getting started and that’s what took her the longest to get (about 20 minutes of trying) but soon she got the hang of pushing one pedal forward then getting her balance and starting to pedal both feet. Once she got going she easily rode down the street the whole way! She was so proud of herself and kept saying “I can’t believe I learned how to ride a bike today.”
So now she’s a pro and she woke up this morning eager to go for a bike ride again! She loves to ride around the neighborhood and practice her turns in peoples’ driveways. She’s already almost two tall for this Hello Kitty bike so a new one will probably have to be a birthday gift next summer. But we are so happy to finally have her biking so we can go on real family bike rides!
In other quick news, Caleb went to a special Water Days Scout camp where they just had some fun games during the day. Here he is with another boy that is actually in his class - yes they are the same age. Caleb's at one end of the growth chart and Benson is at the other.
And then we went up and picked some Huckleberries on Sunday (July 22) at Kelley Canyon. It looked like a lot people were up there picking so I think the area we were in might have gotten picked over, but as we moved around a bit we did find some! I think we may go back again another day! There were a lot that were still green the bushes.
Finally, we also went up to Yellowstone and went swimming at "The Firehole." I did not expect it to be so busy but there were a LOT of people there. It would've been more fun with about 75 percent less people there. Or 100 percent. But the kids still had fun and Caleb even broke the law and "cliff jumped" off a little rocky area that was about 7 feet high. Even that high I was against, but Josh scouted the water below first and made sure there were no rocks. Some other crazy people were jumping from much higher!
And one more thing! Soccer ended for Avery and Caleb! Here are their team pictures! (Caleb's is missing Camri Call) Football will start up for Caleb next month and then Avery will probably do dance in the Fall. Gabe is trying to decide about this fall but I think he will do soccer again!
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