pictures and bike war

Lots of pictures. It has been a busy few months. I included some 'fun with mattresses' shots, egg hunt at a friends church , Teilee skipping down a rock at the park, Landis asleep at dinner, and the 'day I found Landis in the sink' photograph.

Silence is generally the first indication that a child is up to no good. One day Landis had been quite for a few minutes and when I went to find him he was happily sitting in the sink with all of the hairbands and random objects from a drawer underneath him. I believe he climbed up on the toilet onto the counter and into the sink, but I missed that part!

Yes, Teilee is skipping down the rock is that fearless or careless? Whatever it is we call it fun!

So we rode to a new park yesterday, it was awesome! There was a mountain bike/trick course nearby with ramps and jumps and cool stuff. Well I though it looked like fun and ventured in with Nick and the kids watching nearby. You professional bikers are not allowed to laugh at my novice (okay maybe a little) in the following story. There were a lot of ramps about two feet wide that curved, rose, fell, and even a cool ramp that placed you riding on top of an old tree. I selected a path and as I ascended up a ramp I realized quickly that I was too close to the left edge and was desperately trying to pull my bike the other way. At the peak of the ramp it was apparent that I was going over. "Maybe I can jump the bike off", I thought. I pulled hard on the bike in a vain effort to hop it down the three feet gently landing on the ground. This resulted in little to no impact, as I have no biking skills and had no idea how to make a bike do that. So over I went a tangle of limbs, bike, and fear. I heard the crunch of some bone inside my body as I landed hard on my left side. Fortunately this was probably just a rib bruising and nothing more serious. My injury toll is this, bruise on my right thigh, scrapes and cuts on my knees, left arm, fingers, and left shoulder, some whiplash in my neck, sore back, and a bruised rib. Yes, I was wearing my helmet and later pointed out to the kids that "this is why we wear them". As the kids were watching I rose from my fallen position as quickly as possible (and after a few curse words) and waved and smiled to where they were. Nick had already joined me and was assisting with righting my bike (and untangling my limbs from it) so we could ride home. Today I feel sore and silly, let this be a lesson that sometimes determination is no match for skill. The rib hurts the most but I can't take pictures of that so I included a couple of the leg bruise.

Although now that the course has beaten me once I feel the need to go back and conquer this enemy. Is there such thing as biking in full body armor? Jessi and Ryan, maybe you guys can teach me a few nifty tricks of the trade.

On another note, Delta enjoy your trip! Finnally a real vacation, enjoy and bring back lots of fun things to show me!