Thursday, April 3, 2008

What we did last weekend


Hi - Chris here...posting on our family blog...

The children like to ride their bikes to school and we're perfectly happy to oblige them in that regard. It means less "I can't walk anymore...I'm too tired...can you PLEASE carry me?"

It is a bit difficult, however, for Chase to ride with his training wheels on the sidewalk (or "pavement" as they say here) because the paving stones are often uneven, and riding over the cracks and bumps causes him to lose his balance when using his training wheels. So, he's been asking for us to teach him to ride without training wheels for several weeks now. Plus, his cousin in California, who is 4 days older than him, sent us video of her riding her two wheeler without training wheels over a month ago, so that was a litttle bit of extra motivation for Chase.

We first tried a few weeks ago by taking Chase to a park and having me run along side him while he tried to get the hang of it, but there were too many people on the pathways that day and it was still a little too cold, so he was pretty frustrated. Now that we've been having some warmer weather more consistently, he was starting to pester again...

So finally, this past Saturday, we went out to a dead-end road near our house to try again. We did once up and back with only one training wheel, but then he insisted he was ready. So, just like Isabelle did when she learned, I took the second training wheel off, and away he went. Luckily, I had Isabelle filming using my phone. We took a few more videos with my phone, but when we got home, we realized they were really poor quality, so we decided to go back out with the better camera and take some more. When I got back, I had a little fun with the video editing software, but I think the results are pretty fun...

5 comments:

Chris said...

Fantastic bike riding Chase!!! We are so proud of you. Jonathan has been working on the same thing, but it looks like your parents are way ahead of us, we make him practice in our short uneven cul-de-sac. Not nearly as nice of a place as where your dad took you!

Great job. Keep up the good work!

Chris

Malsy (THE Moe of DMOE) said...

Great Job Chase! what a big Step! Gibson would love to be there riding with you (and his mommy would love being there to hang with your mommy too!!) Thinking of you guys!!!

Jan and Larry Myers said...

Chase on not giving up or giving in! Congratulations! What a hot biker!! You are a champion!

And who was that cute girl I saw riding behind you for a while? Was that the adorable Isabelle?

Rebekah said...

You go, Chase! And don't let Isabelle zoom past you like that -- go catch her! Ha!
Love,
Rebekah

Leslie said...

Awesome footage and video. Love the song choice too! Way to go chase!