I will admit it was ambitious, possibly a bit crazy to attempt a 14 mile bike ride with our kids when just going to the grocery store with them makes me feel like I got in a fight with a lawn mower. But at the end of the day I kept telling Jason, "This was the best birthday EVER!" in my best Rupenzel voice. Yah for family adventures that work out well!!!!

The first amazing thing is we left at 8:00 a.m. We can't even get to 9:00 o'clock church on time so this was pretty surprising. Two minutes into the ride I called to excuse Jadon from school. Jason was feeling a bit guilty that Jadon was missing school. It is easy for us to "forget" he has school when Jason has the day off and Noelle is typically home anyway. He shouldn't have worried. Jadon and I worked on sight words for a good twenty minutes while Noelle did her own reading. Then we did a major grammer review. The awesome thing about doing "school" in a car with everyone is that we all got a review. Jadon learns a lot from things like this. He know knows all about synonyms, antonyms, homophones, verbs, adverbs, contractions, interjections, adjectives, etc. The review took the rest of the car ride and was actually pretty fun.

We got to Jackson and drove straight through the gate to the park. BONUS! It is National Park Week so we didn't even have to pay to get in. Definetly rmembering that for next year!

We parked at Taggart Lake, hooked up the trailer, buckled everyone in and then we were off! Jadon was a little racer right out the gate. Noelle needed a little of a lotta bit of motivation. I had told them to dress warm thinking it would be colder than it was an she overheats pretty easy. (There was still snow on the ground, but because of the temp it was easy to get warm). We made it a couple of miles and she started to sob because she was done. She just isn't as fast as Jadon and I had to build a certain speed because of carrying the trailer so Jason hung back with her and tried to keep her motivated.
 

 We stopped for lunch at mile five. I was having the best time just enjoying the view and being with my family. I was a little worried about Noelle though so I was somewhat inclined to turn around, but we passed somehone who suggested we doing the Jenny Loop and I am so glad we did. It was 2 more miles up an ever-so-slight hill, but then. THEN it was amazing. The path winds down and around the lake right up close to the mountains. The smell of pine needles was just glorious and the wind was just a soft warm caress. Jadon and I peddled side-by-side chatting about this and that. (At this point Sydney and Micah had fallen asleep). The path started sloping down and Jadon pulled in front of me. Suddenly he was decending down a steep hill and I realized I didn't even know if he knew how to use his brakes! I was panicing a bit, but then I hear this "WAHOOOOO!" and I knew he was alright. That is a moment I want to freeze in time forever. When your boy is big and little at the same time--and you think your heart will explode because you are so proud of his invincible spirit and courage.

We were so proud of both of the kids for biking that far, and I'll be honest, I was proud of Jason and I too. It wasn't really that streneous, but we were both worried we would have sore bums. :) In the end the slight discomfort was forgotten when compared to the awesome memories we made. Yah us!