Adventures in Cycling

Last week we had some amazing weather. So nice, in fact, that I decided we needed to go on a little bike ride one afternoon. I have never taken my kids on a bike ride before, with or without Nate. In fact, I just barely got a bike at the beginning of the winter, for the first time since high school. I'd never ridden it before. But we'd just had all our bike tubes replaced, I'd finally figured out how to get all the tires back on the bikes and strollers, and I even figured out how to hook our little jogging stroller/bike trailer thing on the back of my bike so I could pull Leah. We just had to do it. I did a couple practice runs with the kids in the stroller through our backyard to make sure it wasn't going to fall off in the middle of a busy intersection, and I was feeling confident.
The plan was to have Addison and Bryn switch off riding their bike in front of me while I pulled the other two kids. And so I reminded the kids how to use their brakes, and we were off to the duck pond. It was so stinking fun. I was having a heart attack the entire time as I hoped and prayed that Addison would remember to stop at the street, look both ways, etc. And we were doing great. And then the blasted chain fell off his bike. Which is actually Bryn's bike. Luckily, I had taught myself just the day before how to put a chain back on a bike. So I hopped off, charged Addison and Bryn with keeping Leah entertained, and went to work somewhat self-consciously, since we were on a busy street in the middle of our ward. Really nice. After much frustration and several minutes, I got the chain back on and we started up again. Other than Addison forgetting to look in front of him a few times and running into yards, we had a great time and made it all the way to the duck pond, which is just over a mile. I was highly impressed with Addison's leg muscles.
We met our friends and fed ducks and played on the playground for awhile, and then I decided that we probably ought to think about getting home and starting dinner. Side note: Leah had napped for about 45 minutes total that day, which is much, much less than necessary or usual. So she was not really appreciating much of anything. Anyway, we started off with Bryn leading the way. Bryn was a much more cautious driver than Addison, and the way back is slightly uphill, so we crawled along for awhile, Addison backseat-driving all the way, until she tired out and he was back at the wheel.
Leah was downright cranky by this point, so I was relieved to pick up the pace a bit. Bryn was trying hard to remember to talk to Leah and entertain her a bit, but there was just so much else to look at! What's a three-year-old to do, after all? And then the blasted bike chain fell off again. You've got to be kidding me. Right on that same extraordinarily busy street in the middle of our ward. So I got off the darn bike and started trying to fix it again, my hands totally black, my body totally sweaty, and my blood-pressure through the roof as Addison knocked my bike (attached to the trailer) over and the kids just couldn't seem to remember Leah, despite the fact that she sounded like a fire truck. And then a nice lady from our ward pulled to the side of the road, car full of kids, to check on us. And one of them got out and politely handed me an invitation to his eagle court of honor and hopped back in the car. I handed the now-greasy envelope to Bryn and got back to work. And they waited. And waited and waited and waited. While I was fumbling around trying to fix this blasted bike chain (learned the day before, so not exactly a pro yet) and not scream at my kids and soothe my baby at the same time. I was rather uncomfortable. I reassured her several times that we were just fine and would be on our way in just a minute.
And cars kept stopping to make sure we were okay (we have a very loving and caring ward), and finally the clouds parted and the sun came shining through and the bike chain went on! We got the heck off that road as fast as possible, and it was a good thing too, because about the time we did, it fell off AGAIN! DAH!!! Let's just say that the kids were trying to avoid me as much as possible by that point. I can't understand why though, because I was a veritable ray of sunshine. And Leah was missing a sock. Great.
Anyway, the long and short of it is, we got it back on, booked it home, and got there just as Nate pulled in the driveway. Overall, it was actually kind of fun. We will be doing it again even (since Nate fixed the darn back wheel of Bryn's bike). And we came out of it relatively unscathed, nothing lost but a cute little Leah sock with a pink bow on the side, and my dignity.