They have a big sleepover tonight at a friend's house. They were so excited last night they could barely sleep.
Since we live 45 minutes away from Kingwood now and the cost of gas is so high, they got up early to ride with Wes. They are hanging out with Aunt Heather today until Wes gets off work.
Andie-girl has been with Heather for days now... she gets spoiled over there and I think she might be considering moving in. Hopefully, she comes to visit us from time to time.
So that just left me, Madison and Jake... all alone. What should we do with all of our free time?
I know, let's ride our bikes to the library. Madison was all for it. Jake... not so much.
He drank 2 glasses of water and wanted to pack a bag of snacks and water bottles just in case we couldn't make it. He obviously has no perception of time or distance. It's not like we were crossing a desert or anything. The library isn't THAT far away and we only have to climb a few hills.
Finally, we convinced him.
We dragged our bikes out of the shed, aired up all the tires, and off we went.
The weather was amazing. Bright and sunny with a cool breeze blowing by. It was a wonderful day to be outside in the country enjoying the weather. This was my best idea EVER! I would have patted myself on the back if I hadn't been so worried about crashing my bike.
OK, here we go... the first hill. This is the smallest of them all. We walk it all the time so it shouldn't be too bad.
Zoom... there went Jake flying up the hill. He stopped at the top and watched Madison and I peddle up to him. We were huffing and puffing so much, I didn't think we were going to make it. We were only 3/4 of a mile away from our house at this point and I started to get a little worried.
On we went and eventually we got out of our subdivision. We had recovered from the hill and were starting to enjoy our ride again. I was appreciating the scenery and thinking, "Thank you, Lord, for this amazing day. I am so thankful that I am healthy and able to take bike rides with my kids."
We turned on 150 and started up our last hill (or so I thought). We peddled and peddled and peddled and finally made it to the top only to discover that was a small hill compared to the one we were getting ready to climb.
We coasted down the little valley... and started the next climb. We were going along pretty well until I got a cramp in my hip... then my calves... then my thighs. UGH.... I was in a lot of pain. AGHHHHHH, I screamed, as I jumped off my bike.
The beautiful breeze I was thanking God for earlier felt like a tornado pushing against us. Not only were we going up hill but we were going against the wind.
I had to walk and push my bike up the rest of the hill. I was sweating and beat red by the time I made it to the top. What was I thinking? There was no end in sight. The hills went on and on. Each one looking bigger then the one we just climbed. It sure didn't feel this hilly in the car!
Jake was encouraging Madison and I. "Come on guys, we can do it!" I wanted to hook myself up to his bike and make him pull me the rest of the way.
Finally, we made it to the library. I am sure we scared the poor librarians to death when we walked inside huffing and puffing looking for the nearest water fountain. Maybe we should have packed those water bottles.
After drinking and drinking, I finally plopped down into a miniature chair in the kids section and told the kids to hurry up and pick a book. I just realized I had to carry the books back and I didn't want to add too much extra weight to my bag. Not quite the scenario I envisioned earlier of us leisurely looking at books and making our selections.
I checked out the books and walked back out to our bikes ~secretly hoping that someone had stolen them while we were in the library.
No such luck... we climbed on and decided we needed to refuel our bodies at The Hop, a local hamburger restaurant in town. Surely we would have more energy if we could just eat a little something.
We made it to The Hop and ordered fries, cheeseburgers and cokes. Not exactly the best choice for athletes such as ourselves ~ but we were starving. I considered just sitting there for the rest of the day and waiting for Wes to come by but I knew he would never let us live that down!
After inhaling our burgers and sitting in the air conditioning for 30 minutes, we were feeling much better and decided to make a stop at the grocery store for hot dog buns. We planned on cooking hot dogs outside on a campfire tonight and they were light enough to carry home.
We started off towards home, I was dreading the ride. Whose bright idea was this anyway?
I started praying, "Please, Lord, help us get home... Well, let me rephrase that, Lord. Help us make it to our home...not your home. We don't want to be on the news tonight!!
Thankfully, the ride home was mostly downhill. We were coasting down those hills so fast I had visions of crashing my bike and knocking out my two front teeth. I didn't even care at that point, they make implants now that look just like real teeth! I just wanted to get off that bike.
We did it. We made it home. I was never so happy to see my little, unfinished house in all my life. We got off our bikes and our legs were buckling as we walked. I don't know if I will be able to move tomorrow but we did it. I wasn't a quitter!
I walked into the house and stepped over Madison who had collapsed on the floor in front of a floor fan. (At least I wasn't that bad!)
Jake said, "Mom, that was fun. If Cameron brings his bike over tonight when he spends the night, Can we do that again tomorrow?"
Ask your dad... I don't plan on getting out of bed tomorrow... or maybe, EVER!
