Thanksgiving, Part 1

This year, we decided to go camping for Thanksgiving. We planned on staying in a cabin one night and then camp out the next three nights before returning home at the end of the weekend. We left early in the morning and stopped several times during our long 12 hour journey to White Rock Mountain in Arkansas. The actual amount of time to drive nonstop was about 8 hours. Still, it's closer than the closest mountains in my own state (which is also 12 hours away...we live in a big state, lol!)

On the way, we stopped at a Wal-Mart in Arkadelphia. We've stopped there before and loved playing on the 'hill' along side the parking lot. We live in a city/area/region of TX that is FLAT! So, we enjoy going to places with hills or mountains. The kiddos rolled up and down the hill. At the top of the hill was a McDonalds, but more incredibly, a very pretty colorful group of trees so I had to take some pictures. We also don't live in an area with a changing of the leaves, so to speak, and most trees stay green.

My toddler.


My kindergartener.


And the kiddos with my hubby.


We also stopped for lunch at a restaurant.


Finally, we arrived at our destination. The 17 mile drive up the mountain from the nearest town took about 45 minutes due to all the switchbacks and narrow mountain gravel roads. Definitely an adventure!!! Of course, due to a misreading of the map, we did at one point end up on some muddy road and had to back up our truck and rented uhaul trailer. That was a stressful 10 minutes. I had all confidence that we wouldn't get stuck but my kindergartener started crying at one point and said that he "wanted to be a rock star." I realized that he thought we'd never get out of it and he'd never grow up, thereby never becoming a rock star. If he weren't so serious, I would have laughed. But instead, I reassured him it'd all be fine. And it was.


There is also some trails at this National Forest Recreation Area. This was a very small campground with 8 places to camp, a lodge along with three cabins. It was an awesome place because it wasn't crowded but not completely in the woods by ourselves either. Beautiful and rustic.


This is the first place we have ever been that had the possibility of bears. Luckily, we didn't see any!


We stayed in this cabin.


Most of the furniture had been there since they were built in the 1930s by the CCC. I loved having a fireplace!


I could get used to just showing up somewhere and only having to provide your linens and food!


This is us behind the cabin (down the slope a little.) The place was full of high cliffs and bluffs. Right behind us is about a 60 foot drop. This is also the reason my kindergartener is not in the pic!


Walking back up to the cabin.


We loved staying in the cabin. We had a small visitor while there (think small, gray, long tail, thief of baby carrots.) Wish that we were able to stay in it longer but it was already reserved for the next several days. Since the weather got very cold, we planned to drive into town to stay in a motel the next night and then return to camp. More to follow...

Hands

I am trying to get a few pics for our Christmas card. Last night, we celebrated my kindergartener's sixth birthday at a restaurant (he wanted to eat seafood.) My hubby was at work out of town but I had my family with me. It was great that my daughters, one of my daughter's boyfriend and my brother (and nephew) all came! What do these two facts have in common? I figured that if I paid for my daughter's meals, the least they could do was placate me and put the silly hat on for me (for a picture, lol!) Well, I didn't get exactly what I wanted but I ended up with a few options. At one point, while my daughters were totally embarrassed at the thought of me even requesting such an idea, it was hilarious and we were all laughing. We hid in a corner while I took a quick picture (it's not often they're together at the same time and looking semi-good.) Afterwards, I also put on a silly hat thing and got a picture with my oldest daughter. I'm standing behind her and she grabs my hand and holds it. It makes me appreciate that we have a great relationship right now and that, at that moment, all was well. She's come a long way and has a ways to go but I love her very much. I love this picture. When I see it, we look ok...but it's the hands I love, our hands together.

Gotta love the internet...

I was eating lunch an hour ago at my favorite restaurant with my toddler (who loves baked potato soup there.) A woman came up to me and started talking and then I ealized she was a classmate of mine! Even though I hadn't seen her in many years, I knew her via her profile pic on Facebook. In talking, I realized that we had kids near the same age (the first two were only a year apart.) I told her that I didn't know she had kids around my kids' ages...and that back then, I had no other friends with kids and had been so lonely. For clarity, my oldest is 25 and I got pregnant right out of high school two months after I got married....sigh. All my friends then were in college or working and certainly not having kids, much less married. I felt alone and didn't have anybody to share experiences or stories with. She only keeps in touch with one person from high school (and I was similar that I only had one bff from school too.) We laughed as we now keep in touch with others via the internet. I wish I had known then...

When I had my kindergartener, I joined an online mom's group (which eventually became private) and have become close to many of them (even meeting some in real life.) Last summer, I drove two states away to meet a couple moms who were going to the zoo for the day. I made it a mini-vacation and stopped along the way to do some ancestry footwork for some of my hubby's ancestors.

Beforehand, I updated my 'tree' on ancestry.com so that I could figure out exactly which ones came from the area I was going to visit. I was able to locate the cemetary where a few were buried (similar to my own experience finding my own great grandfather in Feb 2009.) I called and the place sent me the map and whereabouts of the burial places. I found the gravestones of my hubby's great grandfather and great great grandmother who died in 1891. While looking at my printouts, I noticed a wrong date in my information online on my tree and totally forgot about it. That is, until this week.

I got a message about the date from someone else working on their tree (which coincided with mine.) They are from Norway. We've exchanged a little information and I emailed some of the pics I took from the cemetary trip last summer. I think it's so cool that other countries don't seem so far away and that I'm not as lonely as I used to be....with the internet.

Here's a picture of the site where three of my hubby's ancestors are buried. It was a good trip.

List of random observations

I read this from one of my online mommy friends and laughed out loud at many of them. Thought I'd post it because they seemed hilarious (and I love any good reason to smile or laugh.)

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my 10-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

23. Even under ideal conditions, people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey* but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

What?!?!?!

My kindergartener wanted to know what we'd be doing that day when I picked him up from school. When we got home, he suggested we go to the 'prk.' He is learning to put sounds together to form words. Since he was so close, I said, YES! We went to the nearby park. I was near the end of having read my third book in the trilogy (from Stieg Larrson) and I thought it'd be cool if the kiddos could play while I read the last pages.

We arrived at the park and I went to sit under this pavilion in a spot where I could read and watch the kids. I noticed a couple older teenagers on a bench across from me when I was getting comfortable. A page or two later, one of the teens said, politely, "Excuse me." I looked around and noticed they were filling up their cigar with something and it clicked as he continued talking to me. "I just was letting you know I was doing this." I considered this for a second as I quickly responded. I'm sure they couldn't see the shirt I was wearing as an emblem on it was the state of Texas and a big star (it was from the Texas Probation Association) from which I was a member all those years working for the Probation Department. I said that I...didn't care (I really did)...but that if my kids came around...could they please move. It really wasn't a question or request. I then returned to reading, or rather trying to read.

I considered the situation while looking at the pages not being able to read for a few minutes afterwards. On one hand, the teen was very polite and considerate (not something I see every day especially in my neck of the woods.)I guess he was giving me the opportunity to move if I didn't want to be near them when they smoked (or the smoke.) On the other hand, hello?!?, they're illegally smoking marijuana (and possibly something else) in the park during the day. I wanted to give them a lecture right then and there about a whole bunch of things including their health concerns while smoking, being a role model, drug testing/job applications options, getting a ticket/being arrested for committing a crime...you name it, it all went through my head in just a few seconds. But I go to that park frequently and lived nearby, I didn't want to have any backlashes in my attempt at morality to strangers. I was ambivalent. As it turned out, I stayed there and realized a few minutes later that they moved. Apparently, they decided against it, or they chose to move elsewhere to 'do their thing.' And my kids luckily never came around during any of this...

Halloween

I was at the grocery store yesterday morning. I was buying some chicken to grill and a few extra stuff I needed. I noticed a few older guys shopping together as well because one was wearing overalls and a kind of cowboy hat and I thought my kindergartener would have like to have seen him, lol! Near the checkout, they were behind me and as I was putting my things in the basket, one of them asked what I was doing later (as in making conversation about Halloween.) I mentioned that the plan was to grill some chicken and to catch up on tv...and for some reason unknown to me, I mentioned how much I loved dvr (being able to tape programs to watch later when I have more time) and how paying that extra $10 a month has made my life so much better. I could tell he had been drinking alcohol, although not drunk, but I guess to get up and moving that day. They were all kinda rough looking, not scruffy, per se, but as if they have a hard life...the kind where you put in manual labor each day, if they were lucky. He said, "Wouldn't it be nice if that's all it took." I responded, definitely. Then as I walked away, I thought to myself that I felt extremely blessed and fortunate. I have a really good life and I'm happy. I wish that little money was all it took to make everybody in the world happy.

We enjoyed trick-or-treating! My youngest has a slow speed...the kind where he stops and listens to the noises, looks at the stars or the pumpkins, or talks about the decorations in the yards. Definitely not on a mission to get lots of candy but to just take in the whole experience. We were able to split up so that I could just walk around with him slowly as he enjoyed the evening.

I eat the small chips...

...in the basket at mexican restaurants. This drives my daughter crazy. She, of course, loves and eats the big unbroken pieces from the top after she dips them in the hot sauce or chili con queso. But I prefer the smaller ones in the bottom of the basket. I can use them to dip into the hot sauce (even though I really am not a fan of spicy sauces or dips) or guacamole (that I love so much.) These little chips taste the same as the big ones, they're just not always accessible, convenient, and are sometimes flawed. But they taste the same as those big perfect ones on top. I think they're better though because you don't have to break them to eat them and are the perfect size for me.

I thought about this whole chip thing as I waited for my friend at lunch last week. I've had a friend for over twenty years who lives about thirty minutes away. We don't really have a whole lot in common. She was the girlfriend of my hubby's coworker at one time. We remained friends with her even after the coworker parted ways. I think she and I have a bond due to time...even though we live semi-close, we eventually only saw each other about once a year for a decade or so. In the last two to three years, we started meeting more often at a mexican restaurant near where she works for lunch and exchanging information about our lives and finding out what's new with each other.

It's nice to know someone so long that you immediately know certain things like if they're happy or sad or whether they've lost or gained weight. It's also great having an impartial person to be able to vent to about your family, brag about great things happening, or to just sit and talk with (when there is nothing going on.) She's gone through a couple husbands, I've raised a couple girls, we care about our those people close to us...we've become a special support group for two who meet a few times a year.

My friend is like one of the little chips.

Backyard picnic

My kindergartener had planned on having a picnic. We were thinking about going to a park to do it but ended up just doing one in our yard. It was lovely! I sat with my camera and took picture after picture. The kiddos ate their sandwiches, grapes, chips and drank grape kool-aid. I sat this morning and uploaded the pictures and looked for a couple that might stand out. While there were some cute ones, two really stood out for me of my toddler. He was enjoying his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Of all my kiddos, he is the happiest, usually never grumpy (other than when he wakes up, of course) and loves to smile!



I love his little dirty fingernails too! He's just precious!

So proud...

Since about two or three weeks after school started, I was summoned to my kindergartener's class for a parent-teacher conference. There was a gap between my kiddo and the other kids in the class. I had that pit in the bottom of my stomach because I had not studied with him during the summer as I should have. So...we started studying each day to learn the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet along with the sounds of each with the flash cards that I made. It was slow starting but after a trip to Academy (a local sports store,) where he saw the perfect boots, I found the perfect motivation.

My kiddo loves anything having to do with ranches and cowboys. He loves tractors, construction vehicles, and/or anything related to ranches. These particular boots he saw were the perfect ranch boots. They weren't pointy like cowboy boots but were rather rounded like the boots his dad wears outside to work.

So we practiced each day. Finally, today, he got all of them right! I don't know who was more happy or proud....him, or me! But he felt the feeling of doing something with a goal, practicing, and then the feeling of accomplishment! It was a great feeling! We bought those boots! He didn't have time to wear them though as it was near time to go to bed by the time we got home. But....this weekend, we go to our in-laws farm and they just bought a tractor. That is heaven for my kiddo! I've already made the next set of cards to learn next (numbers and sight words.)

Today was a good day!

ouch!

I had been doing so good exercising! I was in 'the zone!' I finally after a year of working out at the gym (of course, not every week) got up the nerve to take a class...zumba. It was so fun! I am overweight, have no dance skill and am slow, but I really loved it! Fastforward two weeks into the classes (along with my usual Sunday walk with my friend who walks SO fast) and boom....my knee. Apparently, I tore a ligament...sigh. I am hoping it heals by itself and I have no other problems forever afterwards. I had also decided on a six month goal beforehand too... I want to go to a lodge on top of a mountain (that you have to hike up in order to stay because there is no other way up it.) It looked awesome! I still want to go and will strive to do it. But for now, I hope to not gain back the weight I lost (a little, but it's still a loss as opposed to a gain.) So, I'm still resting and hobbling around....

http://www.leconte-lodge.com/

Rearranging...

Every morning, my youngest son will wake up between 6 and 6:15am. He then proceeds to wake up his brother by making vocal noises and/or throwing his monkey/sleeping buddies on top of his sleeping sibling, lol! Thus, I rearranged some of the furniture and moved their beds farther away from each other with the hopes that my kindergartener can sleep a little longer (because I'll sneak in and grab the 'noisy' one. Just a few months ago, I moved them out of our bedroom and into their own room and the toddler started sleeping in his crib for the first time. The twin bed is actually half of a bunk bed set from a relative (given to us twenty years ago) and it'll be eventually be a bunk bed set again (when the boys are older, especially if our older daughter is still home.)

Right after I finished moving the beds and dresser, the toddler climbed up and laid down in his brother's bed for a long while. I went and grabbed my camera because he seemed to look so cute. He's so happy most of the time. Right now, he's outside in the backyard playing in the dirt with his vehicles and backhoes (in light rain.)


Then, I played with him a while by throwing the panda back and forth to each other. I was able to catch a smile from him in the process.

Losing his first tooth...

...at school yesterday was a milestone! This is my kindergartener showing me his tooth in the little plastic tooth he got from his teacher to keep his tooth safe. He had been wiggling it for a couple of weeks (after he realized the tooth behind it had practically come through already.)


This is one of the toothless pictures I emailed to his dad (at his work) so he wouldn't miss out on it!


And, of course, placing his tooth (in the little tooth fairy box) under his pillow before he went to bed. When I was little, my teeth always were in a piece of aluminium foil, lol! The tooth fairy brought him a whopping $2. He was really excited this morning!

Stress....and the park.

This past month has been full of stress...particularly dealing my my MIL and trying to figure out what's best for her in the long run. And that's still going on as in the last month, she's gone from her ALF to the hospital, to a hospice and now to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation. It's hopefully the place where she'll either walk (or wheel a wheelchair) and then the decision will be made about where she goes after that... For now, she's physically ok.


We have gotten breaks though and have enjoyed having fun with the kiddos. We went to my kindergartener's favorite park recently and played all morning. Here is a pic of my kindergartener enjoying a break from playing.


He also took these two pictures (as he went around with my camera.)The first is of my hubby and I and the last one is of our toddler.

First day of Kindergarten

It's been quite an exciting week! My preschooler is now a kindergartener! Here is a pic of him just before we left to go to his school. Even though he said 'I HATE SCHOOL' during the summer, he was a little apprehensive and excited at the same time on the first day. It turned out to be a great day and he was very tired when he got home. He even muttered a 'I love school' comment on the way home. I asked him what was his favorite part of the day. He responded...two playgrounds. When I asked what that meant, he said that he got to go to recess two times. When I asked him what part he didn't like, he said...zero. Awesome!!



A couple days before school, I took this picture of my hubby and the kiddos taking rides around the yard. It was hot outside and I just gave them drinks for their trip, lol!

....empty pockets.

It's finally come to the point where my mother-in-law has run out of money. I took about a week to compose a letter asking my husband's siblings for money (because she will be about $700 in the hole each month.) Thus far, we've got the next month taken care of. I believe that everyone will pitch in and keep her there until she's medically not able to stay there. It's amazing that she really only has a few bills (rent, secondary medical insurance cost and medication)and all her life's savings were sucked up in just a year. Now, there are a couple of options (continue living in her assisted living facility or move to a nursing home.) I'd rather keep her in her place where she's comfy, the staff know about her (her personality, antics and what she likes,) and she has her own room (not a small room she'd have to share with someone and where she'd end up laying in bed all day.)I love her very much and I treat her as if she were my own mother (my own parents are deceased.) I really miss the person she was...

Sadly, this week, when I went to take her to her podiatrist (for her appointment she goes to about once every three months to get her toenails trimmed,) she didn't recognize me as being someone she liked. She hasn't known who I was for a long time now...but she knew I was someone who loved her and whom she could trust. But not this week...hopefully it was just a bad day for her. I was emotionally drained afterwards and really sad that she wouldn't get out of her bed, wouldn't cooperate with me and was just plain rude. It's part of the process though, of her Alzheimers...but it still made me cry.

A recent pic of my MIL hugging my youngest child.

Wow...summer went by fast!

We accomplished a whole lot...lots of little trips, family drama, and fun times for everybody. I have not posted here in a while (my brother threatened to delete the link to it) but have a lot of material for future topics! Here is a pic of my little ones playing near our closet in daddy's boots!

Mud's Best Friend

Yesterday was one of those hot humid days in which it rained off and on. We've had this kind of weather for about a week now since we're so close to the Gulf of Mexico (especially during hurricane season in which everything that happens out there at some point affects us too.) Mosquitos are very abundant so we tend to wear long sleeves too when outside. We decided to go bike-riding and my preschooler loved experimenting with skidding in the mud and riding fast through water puddles. The fact that the city was reasphaulting the road making it really muddy made our trip even more interesting.






Afterwards, he recharged (ate a snack, put on some dry clothes) and started all over. This time, he was on a mission...to find whatever was swimming rapidly around in the mud puddle in our driveway. As it turned out, after lots of patience and determination, he finally caught the tiny black water bug. Makes me wish I were five again...





For more SOOC (Straight Out Of the Camera), check out Melody at Slurping Life.

At the beach...

We went to a beach about an hour from my SILs house when we dogsat that week. It was a beach on a bay so the water was not deep and extended a long long time before finally getting deeper. It was perfect for my kiddos who aren't comfortable in the water. At first, my hubby took them in the water. They looked like this for about five minutes...shirtless.



But, of course, we have light skin and burn easily so I dressed them back up. Yes, we were the only ones with a toddler in long pants and long shirts, lol! But, as long as he didn't burn, I was ok with that!



My preschooler really enjoyed himself too in the water.



My hubby and I looked like this practically the whole time...laying on our stomachs in the water on kid level watching them play and blow bubbles in the saltwater. The water was nice and warm...perfect! I didn't realize until later that even though I was lathered in sunscreen, I had forgotten the back of my calves (which were exposed unfortunately while I was doing all of my soldier crawling.) But they were ok after a day or so. I had been to that beach before a few years earlier and had forgotten how much fun it had been...I'd can't wait to go again next summer.

Trying to clean...

I've been trying to clean up my kid's room. They have way too many toys from their siblings, nephew, birthdays, garage sales, rewards...the list goes on and on. These toys seem to accumulate and I think they reproduce each night because every day, there seems to be more and more toys. I have been trying to organize their room and make it more accessible to play (and I'll take and hide some toys in the attic until later to make more room as well.) Each time I go in there to clean, miraculously, they each need to follow me and see what I've uncovewred even though they were completely happy doing something else in another room. So, consequently, the room has not been cleaned even though it's been a work in progress for many days, lol! Last night, I saw that my toddler was interested in what I was doing, so I quietly left and let him play (instead of cleaning in there.) I came back in there 30 minutes later (he was just too quiet for such a long time) and saw this cute scene. The picture doesn't actually show all the cars he had arranged. I was impressed that all his vehicles were in lines and all faced forward! It's a new day...and I'm starting over...we'll see if the room gets done today.

Aquarium trip

I had been wanting to go back to the aquarium since I saw Julie's post. Since we had been so far away from home, we thought we'd go see a different one for a little while. We got there and one of the first things we saw was the huge area of those large fish and mammals swimming around. I was in heaven watching them swim around and could have watched for hours.



Lovely stingrays. But unfortunately, some nice lady told my preschooler that downstairs was an area where he could touch the stingrays...so we hurried through some great areas to find the elevator to go down to see them....sigh.



I feel like I skipped so much and wasn't getting enough out of the high rate of admittance in there by having to hurry through to find the stingray pool but after we got there, and patiently waited for it to swim close enough around to tough it finally, it was worth it (because my preschooler was on cloud nine!)



DH loved the dolphin area as did I.







We had a lovely time, albeit short, but I think it'd be great to return in a couple more years as well (to see the stuff BEFORE the stingray pool, lol!)

Back from Dogsitting!

My SIL at the bay went out of town and requested that we dogsit for her. She has four dogs who need lots of attention and specific needs. We were happy to help out because of so much she and her hubby have done for us as well as being able to enjoy their house/yard while there. We were there for a week and had a great time.

This is a pic of my hubby pointing out a bird on the pier for the dogs (they love to run toward them and have never caught one.) This pic shows three out of four dogs. Luckily, SIL didn't leave her foster dogs for us to watch as well (she volunteers for the local dog shelter and often has foster dogs that live with her.)


The kiddos loved playing in the whale pool!




And my preschooler learned to lay down in the water without getting water in his nose (something he hates.) He kept getting in this position!


The wildflowers down the road were gorgeous (I don't think the pics show how pretty they looked as you drove by.) This pic has some cows in the background that my preschooler insisted I have in the pic.

Hubby's Birthday

My hubby's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. He was at work offshore when it occurred so we celebrated it when he came home. On the morning we were to celebrate it, he woke up to a surprise birthday cake made by our daughter during the night (strawberry with strawberry icing.) I had planned on making a cake he really liked that day but decided against it after seeing she had made him one. At some point during the day, I mentioned to him about not making the other planned cake and he remarked that strawberry was his favorite. I was surprised to hear that and asked him about it. He then said that his favorite cake is one that his children made for him. And then he said that it wasn't about the gift, it was about the giving. I smiled really big...that's why I love him.

This is him just before we celebrated his birthday.


Here is most of us who were there. The daughter who made the cake refused to be in the picture...she's still a teenager, lol! My other daughter's boyfriend (on the left) cooked all the chicken for us. My brother and his kiddo is on the right. Of course, my boys are in my hubby's lap.


Here is a pic just before he blew out the candles (it's not really on fire...it has four and then nine candles for his 49th birthday.) I sneaked a pic of our other daughter sitting on the counter behind him (the cake maker.)

Bike riding

Yesterday was the first day that my preschooler and I went bikeriding together on our own bikes (without training wheels.) My toddler was in the front bike seat watching everything as well. Last year, he started riding his bike without training wheels (he had been riding with only one wheel after the other one broke for a long time.) He seemed interested in riding so I got my bike out, pumped more air in the tires, and off we went! He was really good at listening and staying on the right side of the road. His little bike is small but perfect for beginners and he feels confident enough now to even try a few tricks. He was so cute standing up as he pedaled when he was going fast. It's hard to imagine he's five years old already. It was so enjoyable and there was little traffic so I asked if he wanted to go further (to a nearby park where there was a little trail) and he was excited. By the time we got there, we were sweaty and took advantage of the mushroom looking thing that sprays water down as we rode our bikes through the water making us a little less hot. We had a great time and he is going to want to even more often now (I just wish it weren't SO humid because it makes the hot weather seem so much hotter...but that's summer here.) Today, we went and bought bike helmets (we couldn't fine his yesterday) and now all three of us have them.