taking it outside

without any real urgent tasks today and some beautiful weather, i decided that it would be best to spend the day outside. manning and i got everyone off to school and then went to the park. he played on the equipment a little and then we went to walk on the park's walking trail for a while before heading back to pick up the boys. (the trail at this park is fairly entertaining for manning with a creek, bridge, squirrels, birds, chickens in some of the backyards, ducks, geese, dandelions, etc.)

feeling brave, i suggested that the boys and i go for a bike ride after lunch. they were all for it and maddux has been saying that he is ready to bike on the trail (he had not ridden his big, pedal bike on the trail yet). it was a big deal for me too since i have never pulled the trailer on my bike. the trail has some pretty steep hills and i am not supposed to bike at all with my knee, but we set out anyway. i will say that we walked our bikes up and down hills a lot more than we rode (not strong enough to get up and a little too fast going down). but we did it! we only went 3 miles. we could have done more, but the boys wanted to head home for popsicles.

manning's really got a rough gig, right?

taking a break

and then just when we could see our house, maddux got brave enough to ride down a steep hill. against my advice, he petaled on the way down. i could see him fall around the corner through the trees, but it wasn't until i got manning and i safely down the hill that i saw he was almost 20 feet off the trail! it was all long grass and he wasn't seriously injured in any way - thankfully. i decided to play it with a "that was awesome!" angle and he was quickly laughing instead of crying, climbing back on his bike and heading home.

but we didn't head inside! we got out some water and cooled off. maddux asked manning to pour water on him. the water was like ice and felt really good. we have these sponges that we use as water balloons and had a few fights with those in the yard. maddux was laughing so hard he couldn't even come close to hitting anyone.

lovin' the nice weather! love.