Emmy/James

Our little neighbor girl gave Emmy her old bike. Emmy had a REALLY small bike so we were all thrilled that she got a bigger one. My kids love riding their bikes and ask to go on long rides all the time. I signed up for a 10K on Sat. and found out it is straight hills.

(is that an oxymoron?) I found out AFTER I signed up of course! So I decided to take the kids to a park 1.64 miles away because it has hills I could run.When we got there the kids were so excited to ride their bikes down the hill. I told them to start 3/4 of the way down because it was REALLY steep. Of course that only lasted a few times before they wanted to test their riding skills!

As Emmy kept inching her way up she drew a crowd. First of all she started riding her bike when she was barely 4 years old, can roller blade, ride a skateboard, do the monkey bars, and run for what seems like hours! SO I was just as confident in her capabilities as she was. She decided to go to the very top! I yelled for her to come down but I knew it would just eat her up if she wasn't allowed so I told her to come down on an angle. As the lacrosse team was sitting near by for half-time huddle you could hear them say... "is her mom really gonna let her go down that", "how old is she", "she's totally gonna biff it"!

She leans forward and is off.......

She flys down the hill with the biggest grin on her face and even gets a few cheers from the audience. I wasn't thinking of taking pictures of it then but OF COURSE she had to do it again, which again I begged her not to. She pushed and pushed her bike to the top and hopped back on.

James....

Anna....

I gave another reminder to go down diagonally. She notices the crowd and without batting an eye chooses to put her feet on the handle bars. (show off) As she looks to make sure all eyes are on her, her bike started coming STRAIGHT down the hill. The huge smile on her face quickly turns to fear as you see the bike start to wobble. She flipped

off of her bike and rolled down the hill. Peddles from her bike are flying off. She was SOBBING. I ran over to console her. (Reason there was not a good photo)

As I looked her over to make sure she was ok (it was a pretty good fall) she sniffled a few times and said "Gwate... now my half to go back to my yittle bike"

As I am trying to fix her bike, James is holding Emmy making sure she is okay. He so sweetly said, "I wish it were me" to which Emmy so sweetly replied, "or Anna right?"!

The bike needed tools. I called Jared to come pick us up. He brought the jeep so we couldn't all fit. James said he would ride in the car with Emmy. Anna didn't think that was fair so James said he would ride with me home while the girls drove in the car.

As I hop on Anna's bike I notice the tires are flat. It FOR SURE couldn't have held up the whole way home so of course James said, "take my bike mom, I will ride Anna's". We started to ride home and James yells back at me saying, "this is SO humiliating" He said he would have to explain to his friends if they saw him riding home why he was riding a pink bike!

I love that kid. I need that kid. He is SO good to all of his sisters and especially me. Without any fuss he is always the one to sacrifice.

James didn't see anyone from school, Emmy's ego is a little bruised, and I feel a little more prepared for Saturday so all in all I think it was a successful long ride!