Adventures in Bike Shopping, Buying and Crashing

It has been time to purchase a new bike for the boy for quite some time. We had bought his last bike about a month after Dustin's accident. Riley and Dustin had gone to the bike shop in WR and picked it out and we were talking over when he should get it. Well, after D's accident, I decided the sooner the better. We went in and he took me right to the blue Trek Jet. I remember thinking how big it looked for him.

Now here we are, buying yet another, because he has outgrown the one from 2004.

I went to the bike shop on Friday while the kids were with the sitter, then I got Riley from home and brought him to the shop to give it a test spin. Meanwhile, I have Jason G. on the phone asking him advice about choosing a bike and whether or not to "trade in" Riley's other bike. It was a zoo, but we made a decision and purchased the Trek Mt 60 and we did not trade in either of our bikes (saving them for that garage sale, Ed and Sallie!). Thanks, Jason G!

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Ok, so we picked up the bike on Sat morning and headed to Granny and Paw Paw's for the day. By the way, they had a used girl's bicycle just Reagan's size outside the shop. She of course loved it and wanted it. I told her we would look for one for her another day. She said (all in one breath), "Ok, I want one that is white, with flowers on the bike and it has white wheels and a white basket on the front." A perfect description of the bike at the store (that she saw for all of 30 seconds)!

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We are on our way and there is a loud motorcycle in front of us. To which Reagan asks, "How that motorcycle get in our trackik (traffic)?" Which led to an unfortunately long conversation about the fact that motorcycles drive on the same roads as cars.

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Ok, we get to G/PP's house and Riley is all pumped about trying out his new bike on Granny's driveway, because IT HAS 3 HILLS, BUT I WON'T GO DOWN THE LAST ONE BECAUSE I MIGHT END UP IN THE LAKE... He is talking in all caps at this point. He had a great ride, we took lots of pictures, so we all went inside to get our suits on for a swim.

We got some great video footage of Reagan jumping off the diving board to Allyn, but the big news is she is now jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side without floats or assistance!! This afternoon, she even swam from side to side in the deep end at our neighborhood pool! GO REAGAN! The video is on mom's digital camera, so hopefully I can download it soon and get it posted.

Back inside we go for a "warm bath" (as the kids call it) and to eat supper. Riley wanted to take one more spin on his new bike before we left. Reagan rode her scooter for a minute and thankfully still had on her helmet when she darted out in front of Riley. You have never seen such a mangle of kids and bike in your life. Both kids crying, Riley hops up and immediately says, "I'm ok, I'm ok, check Reagan, she's gotta be hurt bad. Oh, no! Is she ok?" He was so concerned and crying over possibly hurting his sister. It was precious. Both kids got pretty scraped up, but no serious wounds. We kept trying to tell Riley that his dad ALWAYS said, "If I don't come home bleeding, it wasn't a good ride." Sorry, D, it didn't make Riley feel any better! The only thing that made him feel better was covering it with a LARGE band-aid, but then he was fine.

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Bonus Pictures:

Reagan has this thing about spiderwebs. She is fascinated by them and she can see them from a mile away. She doesn't want to go near them and she wants YOU to get rid of them. On this occasion, she asked me to take her picture with the spiderweb!

Reagan going for a ride on cousin Allyn's shoulders. Allyn was there for her few days with Granny and Paw Paw. Before we left our house, I told the kids that she was there, and of course, Riley asked, "What about Tyler?" I explained that Tyler had already had his few days last week and it was Jenna's turn next. Reagan, grinning from ear to ear said, "What about Uncle Chad?" She knew she was saying something funny, like Uncle Chad would come for his turn to spend a few days with G/PP!

One last photo. Now this is a rare moment. Paw Paw drying Reagan's hair!

Quick Paw Paw has a styling utensil in his hand; somebody GET THE CAMERA!