Logging the Miles...

We have been logging in the miles over here at the Goodwin house...

And guess who the newest Goodwin bike trail rider is?

Yes! She has mastered her little bike... well, mastered might be a tiny bit of an overstatement... but she has gotten the hang of it enough that Jeremy thought it was time to bring her bike on the trail with the family.

She road about a mile and then tuckered out and got back in the bike trailer. Jeremy very creatively hung her bike from the handle with some small bungee cords... with the wise words of caution, "Uh, Jen? Be careful when Abby gets out and you get off your bike... it could flip over because it is back-heavy." ok...

We continued on our little journey...

About 4 miles in, we found a small park with a pond. I pulled out our cooler and made some PB&Honey sandwiches.

At some point, the girls found a caterpillar which they named, "Bud."

Daddy threatened to feed it to the fish. We had been seeing some pretty nice sized fish jumping out of the water. The girls kept telling him no, he couldn't use their caterpillar as fish bait... Bud was their pet.

So, while the girls were happily eating their dinner and Bud was curiously crawling all over them, their food and the ground around them, Daddy quickly snapped him up and took off running... NO. JOKE.

The girls got up and rain after him yelling, "NO!!!"

He didn't listen. That caterpillar was flying through the air into the water before they could stop him.

The above picture is blurry (because I'm half laughing/half yelling for him to stop!) but do you see the grin on Jeremy's face?

They all stayed over there watching to see if a fish would eat Bud.

Then, the girls had an idea. The water was coming towards them because of the way the wind was blowing... Bud was slowly floating back to them.

Jeremy got bored of waiting for a fish to bite and headed into the woods to look for mushrooms. The girls patiently waited for Bud to float to them, using sticks and pieces of grass to try to catch him.

Guess what?

They DID catch Bud and rescue him from being fish bait.

Yes, people, this stuff happens on our bike rides... never dull, never without incident.

The girls took off running to show me how they had rescued their pet from Daddy and the water.

Safe and sound...

Saying goodbye... because Mommy said that Bud lived at the park and he should stay there. In the grass. Not in the water like Daddy thought.

A quick picture with Bud and we were off again...

For the last mile, Abby rode (and cried) on her bike back to the truck. She was tired and not happy about having to practice her bike riding. That girl LOVES her trailer.

At the end of our ride, we logged 8.25 miles!

Between our other bike rides, running and walking, we have logged a lot of miles this spring already!

Jeremy's total would be way higher than mine because he has been running 4-6 miles a few times a week on top of our bike rides.

But, I think I am at around 30 miles already. It is probably more than that... I should have been keeping track all along. I'm going to keep track from now on though and I'll try to keep an updated total on my side bar. If you feel like it, keep a total on your blog too! Let's see how many miles we can log this summer!

As Leslie Sansone says, "The more you sit, the more you want to sit. The more you move, the more you want to move!"

 

These boots...

These boots of Abby's were made for, well... everything. This girl loves her boots.

She has loved boots for a few years... even wearing these ones with her Christmas dress in 2010!

Before we left for our bike ride, Abby wanted to try riding her bike. She actually did pretty good and I know she will be riding by the end of the summer.

But, she had those cute boots on... silly girl.

The boots rode her bike, they rode in her "carriage" as she calls it, they played on the swings...

They climbed the playground...

They went down the slide...

This girl loves those pink boots.

(We were not in motion during this last picture. She turned around to see what Elayna was doing before getting buckled in.)

Yep, these boots were made to go everywhere Abby goes!

 

2012 First Family Bike Ride

Last Saturday, we went on our first family bike ride of the year.

It was great to get back out on our bikes and go riding together.

The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cold.

It took us a bit to get started...

Annalise had her shoes on backwards, the girls forgot to go to the bathroom, Abby didn't want to wear her helmet, I forgot my phone in the house, Annalise needed her hair pulled back out of her face so it didn't bother her on the ride... I need to go back and read my own tips post!

We made it out though and headed to the park...

Jeremy and I took turns continuing our workouts while the girls played: he ran first and then I went for a bike ride when he came back.

We drank some water and then headed back home!

We were only gone about an hour and a half but it was some great family time.

This ride was around 4.5 miles... I'm sensing a much longer ride coming soon!


 

A Bike Wash

Now, there is nothing abnormal about this dad sitting on his sidewalk, working on a bike.

A dad cleaning a bike, getting his family's bikes ready for spring.

Dad's do that.

But, how often do you see this?

We look like we have 15 kids!

Jeremy pulled out our new Schwinn bikes, our old bikes and then some of the neighbors brought their bikes.

We had a regular, old bike wash going on at our house. Right on our sidewalk.

The kids didn't seem to care that it was 50 degrees outside and windy. Or, that they were washing bikes with cold water.

They took turns bringing their bikes to Jeremy so he could clean the chain.

Then, they returned to the bike washing line...

grabbed a brush or a sponge and happily went to work!

They helped each other...

and worked together.

I'm sure we had neighbors peeking out their windows at us.

But, the bikes are clean and the kids had fun!

My neighbor said, "Well, your life is never boring, is it?"

"No... living life with Jeremy will never be boring!"

 

Biking for Health

Biking for Health

In 2009, my husband and I started working out regularly. We were both doing well and loosing weight. He was into running while I took turns on the treadmill or the elliptical. But it was a hassle to get our family to the gym, put the girls in some kind of childcare and fit it all into our busy schedule. We soon let our gym membership go.

Working out became hit or miss for us…

In spring of 2010, I started having some weird physical symptoms. I couldn’t work out at all. Any kind of activity started a chain of symptoms and it wasn’t worth the days of recovery from just one workout. Around the same time, Jeremy noticed that running was doing damage to his knees.

In the midst of all of this, our girls were learning to ride bikes. Jeremy wanted to get us bikes so that we could go on rides with the girls.

I kept putting it off thinking that I’d never use a bike. Bikes were for kids. Not moms.

Plus, I was dealing with being sick and up to that point, any exercise was not good for me.

With great persistence, Jeremy found us both used bikes online. We got them and went on a few family rides that summer. Staying active is an important part of our health that we couldn’t ignore and we wanted to build those healthy habits in our girls.

I loved that biking was an activity that I could do! Unlike other kinds of exercise, biking seemed to have no ill results for my body. I could go on long bike rides and not worry about needing days to recover. Not only that, but Jeremy could bike without hurting his knees.

We’d found an exercise that we loved. I’d found something that our family could do together. A priceless combination.

We didn’t need childcare. We didn’t have to drive to a gym. We could hop on our bikes right at our house, go for a big ride and get great exercise as a family.

Biking connects our family in unique ways as we strive for healthy, active lives. We bike through trails, have a picnic and spend quality time together. Biking achieves something healthy for our family that a gym could not provide.

Schwinn has added to our biking experience and they have helped make family biking a big part of our lives through quality biking equipment.

Our Schwinn bikes are the perfect addition to our family biking journey. A healthy journey that will continue to benefit our family for years to come.

Come on over and visit us at the Schwinn Joy Agent facebook page!

I'd love to hear from you there or here in the comments... what kind of exercise/activity does your family do together?