Family Bike Ride and a few other things ...

Yesterday marked our VERY first real family bike ride! By real, I mean that we ALL RODE OUR OWN BIKES! WOO-HOO! We were just going to ride around the neighborhood, but as we got to the end of our cul-de-sac, the kids requested that we take a ride to the park. We live really close to the park, but we have to cross a pretty major intersection to get there, complete with riding along a busy road for several hundred feet, albeit on an over-sized sidewalk. We let the kids ride on the road while in our neighborhood and they both did great; truth be told Nicholas wasn't our main concern--he's a great sport and pretty confident on his bike. Paige, however, just got her first "big girl" bike about a month ago and she's still learning the ins and outs of bike riding. More than that, she's the BIGGEST WHINER EVER ... a true trial for both her parents in any situation, let alone when riding along the street!! SO! I'm happy to report that both the kids did a great job riding to the park ... the only hiccup was when we stopped at the aforementioned intersection and realized that Paige hadn't entirely mastered the use of her brakes! I panicked, but Brian, with his catlike skills and reflexes, reached out and stopped her before she went into the street! After I recovered from my heart-attack, we carried on and made it safely to the park. Because we hadn't anticipated a ride outside our neighborhood, neither Brian nor I had money with us, and therefore were unable to fill the kids' requests for Ritter's on our way home. Instead, I made sure to dish them generous portions of ice cream at the end of our journey--they were VERY excited for the ice cream! Regardless of all the whining from our girl, the bike ride was very pleasant and we were extremely proud of our kids! After recounting the story to my mom this morning, I realized that I probably expected a bit more out of Paige than I should have ... afterall, I probably wouldn't have expected this bike ride of Nicholas a year and a half ago, which would put him at Paige's age now. Given her meager 4 1/2 years, she did EXTREMELY well (they both did--Nicholas is a natural athelete, like his father!) and I look forward to many family bike rides to come!

On a "nature note", we had a visitor this morning! Our BIG FAT SQUIRREL is back, and cuter than ever! Paige named him "Sparkles", which was the fourth try (her first was "Harold", then "Emma", then "Tweet Tweet" ... we finally settled on "Sparkles" at my suggestion ... this is the name of EVERY SINGLE ONE of her stuffed animals so it wasn't hard to sway her). He entertained us for quite a while, trying to get all the seed he could out of our bird feeders! I LOVE NATURE!!

Lastly, and definitely more seriously, Susie McCracken, a friend of mine from Church at the Crossing lost her battle to cancer today. She was a wonderful, vibrant, woman of God; I sang in the alto section of the choir with her for several years and can honestly say she was my favorite person at CATC. She leaves behind four beautiful daughters, a son-in-law and a devoted husband. While my heart breaks for her family, I can't help but rejoice for Susie! What hope we have in the Lord: all of our individual roads lead to Him. It doesn't get any better than that!!