Bike Rides with Katharine

Yesterday morning, Corey accidentally said "bike" as he was getting ready to go to work. Katharine jumped up and said "Ok!" and got her socks and shoes. "I guess I can take her for a minute..." He got her on his bike, and Peter got ready too, and they left for a ride around the block. I knew Corey had a meeting that he had to get to, so I went and got my socks and shoes on too, a jacket, then got the trailer hooked up to my bike and went to find them. Katharine took me up on my offer and gave up her shotgun for a ride in my trailer. She likes it! Soon Peter was done and so we went home, but K didn't like that... This is her look when I tell her it's time to STOP. (I think I'm in trouble...)

And this is the look when we GO!

Looks like she approves! So we went again. Peter got off his bike, he was ok to ride in the trailer. It turned into a 45 minute ride around the neighborhood, doing a loop in every circle two times. She did NOT want to quit. As I tried to make it more interesting for myself, I did get up on the sidewalk a few times, and noticed her say "Ow" when we went over the bump up to driveways. When we had to go back inside, I might have done those a few times on purpose to get her to willingly stop the ride. It worked. Yay, so we went inside. Time to take care of sick kids. Natalie threw up yesterday morning, so it was her turn to stay home sick. We watched Bluey and after an hour of that K took a nap with her on the couch. 

These two are BFFs. Natalie puts Katharine to bed with her up on the top bunk bed most nights. Katharine looked so cute with her hands tucked under her cheek. 

Sweet little thing.

Hyrum still feels unwell, but no throwing up today. Sophi went to school but texted me around noon that she felt a little upset stomach. She wanted to stay for ballroom tryouts though, so hopefully she didn't expose anyone. I was able to sneak away to the temple during their nap. (Have I mentioned how nice it is having Hyrum home?) The flowers there were beautiful!

And after I got home from that and got dinner ready (chicken and potatoes) I wanted to go on a ride. I texted Corey of my plan and he came home to go with me. And then K got wind of what was going on. We decided to try and take her with us!  

Katharine, are you ready for some real mountain biking?

She did so great! We rode to the trail head and kept going, and she made it past the first bridge! Corey said "She made it further than Joseph did!" haha. 

She didn't like the bumps, so we tried to go slow. Some of the bumps were unavoidable though, like on what we call "avalanche hill" which was not covered by avalanche debris this year, but was just it's normal very steep and bumpy technical trail. Corey got off and walked with K a few times cause she didn't like the jolts. Not sure how we teach her to stand up to give her rump some protection. 

We'd check in with her "You ready? Go more?" I thought our fastest way out would be by the second bridge, cause I thought there was a way to the road from there. We kept going, Corey had to walk with K a few times, we paused and took a break, and were trying to figure out the least painful way for us to finish this ride. We got to the second bridge, and that was when I saw that while yes, there was a little water building there, there was unfortunately NOT a way to get across the creek. Drat. So then our options were either go up to the third bridge (would have required biking across snow patches and getting across some fallen trees, not a great option) or just heading back down the trail. K wouldn't like the bumps, but it seemed like the better choice. We went slow to try and keep her happy. Corey walked a few times. One time I walked with both the bikes while he carried with her. She was happy if she held him while he rode, but that did not look safe to me. He tried it a little bit. Then he figured out that if she'd sit on the seat, he could just hold her waist and the bike was carrying her weight, and that worked. He still had to balance holding one hand, but he felt confident and went down most of the trail like that. We were grateful when we got off the trail onto the paved road. The end was in sight. I looked back at Corey, who was riding with her. She was starting to zone out and fall asleep and he could feel her going limp in his arms. "This is trust!" he said to me, haha, funny. Yes, trust of a child. Later he said he was thinking more of the trust of the child's mother! That is true. As we rode, I was like the visual signal/ protector from the cars - I kept looking behind us to see if cars were coming and made sure they saw me and also let Corey know if he had to stay close to the side or if he had room to spare. We were glad it was all downhill and were making good time. At one moment when there were no cars coming, I was able to capture the moment on video. In there Corey says "When your biking buddy gives up on you..." I took this screen shot to share with the college kids.

Mel said "Nice meme Mom". I told her I was just quoting Corey. So it was fun and I'm very grateful we made it home safe. I'm glad Corey's more comfortable biking with kids on the shotgun seat. I would not have been able to ride with Katharine like that. I would have had to walk or phone for help. But we live to tell the tale. This morning, as Corey was getting ready for work, I was trying to get her from Corey so he could leave, and I made the mistake of showing her the pictures of her biking from yesterday. She said "BIKE!" Uh oh... Corey didn't have time to go, but he did have time to get the shotgun seat put on my bike, so he did that and then today Katharine had a first time riding shotgun with me!

We didn't go far from home, so I wouldn't be stranded if she gave up early, but we did great! I was on my way home and on the paved road when she said "Dad..." signaling she was all done, and I put one arm around her tummy to hold her as we kept biking, but maybe she could tell I was new at this, and she didn't totally give her support to me. She held on to my arm for a minute while I still held both my handlebars, and that worked well. We made it home after a 45 minute ride again. Not bad for a one year old! Natalie was home sick again today, as was Sophi. Natalie felt weak this morning but was feeling much better at lunchtime. She made a picnic for Peter and Katharine in the backyard. 

Katharine enjoyed playing kitchen outside. 

Owen had a trumpet lesson today in stead of next week, cause next Thursday is Joseph's graduation from BYU. So I was grateful to get this arranged so we don't have any conflicts with that. The flowers at Ms. Kyra's house were AMAZING!

Wow o wow. Love it. We should probably plant tulips in our yard. 

They last such a short time, but that's two weeks of joy that is probably worth it. Corey and I went out to eat at Bandits tonight and had a good talk about life and our roles. I want to do better and meals, for him, as he feels I usually don't prepare enough. I admit that I'm a bit of a minimalist there. What I think is sufficient probably could use a little extra. He also said he feels that I tend to disappear and abandon him on Sundays, which I don't see, but I'm going to try and be more aware, cause maybe it's true. He also said he feels that he shields me from a lot of the realities of how hard life is, but I disagree with that. I think I'm well aware of what it takes (I just took 6 kids to Texas by myself) and that he feels like a martyr unnecessarily sometimes. So that's a little what we talked about, if you wanted a peak into our conversation. We both agree that we're both 100% in and that we both do a lot, it's just that there is A LOT to always be done. We're both pretty sure that our marriage will make it! And lastly, I'm up at 4 am Saturday morning April 20th blogging this. I've been up with Peter who was in the tub for an hour to help his tummy - He threw up yesterday while we were on our date, and woke up needing to go to the bathroom, but not being able too cause he was bloated and gassy, so I just put him in the tub to try and help him relax. Sophi threw up yesterday morning at 3 am too, so she stayed home yesterday, but good news: she made ballroom! Good job Sophi! We've all had it coming out of both ends this week, man. It hasn't hit me though, but I'm waiting for it. Abi felt sick yesterday and didn't go to her GMS music class. She's also likely going to miss the Chamberpalooza tomorrow, darn. She said she was hoping to get sick during the week so she could miss school and cause she can't get sick on the weekend cause she's too busy, but here we are. It's 4:30 am, I'm going to sleep for a bit and then "tomorrow" (today) we have soccer games, chamberpalooza for Lily, and a violin spring concert. Maybe we'll have to miss the concert if Sophi still feels sick.