Milt Bernard Memorial Bike Ride

We enjoyed attending the memorial bike ride on Saturday. Dix had to work so I was a little worried about the logistics of it all. Six kids, one adult, six bikes, one bike trailer, one Suburban...sounded a little tricky. I dropped Hayden off early, along with his bike and my bike. Hayden and the rest of the scouts were going on a nice long ride, so they wanted an early start. I just left my bike there because several people were already there setting up tables. Then I came home and got the rest of the kids up and ready, found out that two of the bikes we wanted to use had flats, figured out alternates and loaded up as much as I could in the Suburban, put the rest in the Bishop's truck and headed off. Mark and Dale met Hayden there and took him and Porter for a ride, while I got to go on a nice, relaxing ride with four little kids. Yes, loads of fun. Okay, things I will do different next time: 1) Make sure that everyone has a bike that is the right size. We were fine on this point until I realized that Landon's bike tire was still flat even after Dix checked it out, and we didn't have time to repair it. He rode Porter's old bike. Porter is like a foot taller than him and Landon looked something like this.Landon was very unhappy, but he was a good sport.
2) Don't let Turner ride his own bike. The kid is crazy. He won't stick to the right side of the path for anything. It's like he's challenging everyone coming the opposite way to a game of chicken. I kept riding to the left of him and trying to crowd him over and then he would just get really mad and stop totally. I wished he was in the bike trailer. Eventually I put him in the bike trailer and towed his bike behind. It was much better that way. Wished I had done it a lot earlier.

3) Bring a high chair or stroller for Cooper for the lunch. He didn't do so well sitting on the grass and eating out of a little basket.
4) Spend less time riding, and more time picking blackberries. It's the best part about August! All the free wild berries you want!




There was a really good turn out for the event, I thought. It was hard to tell how many people showed up because people were constantly coming and going.
My younger kids spent a lot of time playing in the trees while all the adults were visiting.

Porter caught a garter snake and was trying to scare people with it. Lucky for us, we didn't have a very skitish crowd!
Landon enjoyed holding it for a long time. They finally let it go in a bush.

At next year's bike ride, we should have three more adults--hopefully Dix won't be working, and Grandma and Grandpa should be back from their mission--and hopefully we'll plan better so that we will all have bikes that work!