Early Morning Bike Ride

This last weekend we headed to AZ to meet my newest little nephew and be there for his baby blessing. It was a quick weekend full of the usual: swimming, shopping, motorcycle rides,  suffering through a "boy movie" on the highest volume possible, going out to breakfast, haircuts, and hanging out together. 

One thing I really wanted to do was go on a bike ride with my dad. My dad has been biking for a while and a little while ago my mom started joining him on his 18 mile round trip route to the new Gilbert Temple and back. My mom had a busy weekend so I thought it would be a good time to talk him into taking me with him. I have recently strapped my running shoes back on and so I thought a bike ride would be pretty easy peasy. I actually really didn't know, but I figured I would being riding a lot faster than I run so 18 miles couldn't be that bad. Well, I was dead wrong! ... And I learned that about 5 miles in. Two days before I had gone to a bootcamp a lady in my ward does and I had extremely sore muscles from that. I'm pretty sure I felt the leg burn about mile 1. Thankfully the route was pretty flat and on paved roads. But I was super slow!! (in my defense though, I learned later that I may have had my bike in the wrong gear the whole time) I tried my darndest to keep up with my dad that looked like he was riding through a meadow of flowers on a lazy afternoon. All I could think about was my sister Amanda on her mission. Her and her companion are currently on bikes and I don't have a clue how they ride day in and day out. 

Aside from the hard work it really was a super fun ride. The morning was beautiful and it was really fun for me to be out with my dad.

 The best part of the whole ride was when we turned on the street that took us to the temple. My dad says it has been really fun to watch the progress being made on it each time they ride.

As unflattering as this picture is this was proof we had actually made it...and we still had smiles on our faces.

I totally ruined my dad's riding time average and he told me he didn't even break a sweat, but I'm pretty sure I did enough for the two of us!  I was grateful when we finally made it home and although toward the end I would cringe anytime we rode over uneven ground I would love to do it again.  I hear they make padded shorts and if that's the case I think I may consider trading in my running shoes for a bike. I definitely learned that day that I have some pretty tough parents. I brought my mom's phone and it told me I burned a good 1100 calories. I'm not totally sure that's true, but I was feeling pretty dang good about myself as I waddled into the house. 

I did a terrible job of taking pictures this time, but here are a few I took of the weekend...

 The kids are always excited to see what cool new toy Grandpa has. This time they watched a movie in 3D.

 Addley also enjoys being among the crazy.

 Baby Drew was so fun to meet.  He was so sweet and made Addley seem so big.  

 My sister took us to the fun ice cream shop she works at. Jase always says he wants ice cream, but ends up way too distracted and would much rather play. He was watching a movie on a big TV while playing arcade games and his ice cream sat melting. 

My mom's favorite thing is to get pictures of her and my dad with all their grandkids. They're getting themselves quite the crew now with just as many grandkids as they have kids.

And one last thing, one of my most favorite things in the ENTIRE world has always been sitting next to my mom in sacrament meeting and listening to her sing the hymns! We're not necessarily a family known for our singing voices, but you would never guess listening to my mom sing those hymns. I remember loving it as a kid as well ... And lucky for me I had the chance to sit next to her during two sacrament meetings this last week!!