No More Braces!

Before (December 2009)

 :

After (December 2011):

Very First Family Bike Ride

Finally!  We can ride bikes as a family!  Of course, when our kids were little, we had the trailers.  And the only place we would ever ride was in Yosemite.  But since the kids got too big for the trailers, they would ride their own bikes.  This year was the first year that our youngest, S, joined the others riding her bike around Yosemite Valley and our campgrounds.  But, our 11 year old, B, still cannot ride a bike.  So when the others went riding, I would stay with him.  At home, we just never went.  I did buy one of those trainers that fit behind a bike, but B ended up being too heavy for that.  While at Yosemite this year, my best friend suggested a tandem bike.  I'm sure the thought came up in the past, but not recently...I just never thought about it.  Maybe I figured it would be too expensive.  Anyway, I mentioned it to the Daddy and the next thing I know, he is emailing me that we are getting one for FREE!  At his company's Christmas party, one of the managers won a tandem bike.  During a conversation, the other manager mentioned he was working out.  E asked if he rode the tandem bike.  He said no, so E offered to buy it.  The manager said no, he could have it!  So the following Saturday, he brought it over!  It is awesome and B is finally riding a bike with the family! 
Today, we rode to a new frozen yogurt shop, had some yummy yogurt, and rode back.  It is just around the corner from our house, but it was a start.  I'm looking forward to many more rides.  The problem is getting to a nicer, safer area to ride, but at least now we can!
Here is a picture of B & E when we first got the bike:

Family

We got a suprise visit from our family in New York this week!  My husband got a call on Monday from his Uncle Ray saying that he and Aunt Vonnie were in a town not far from here.  Driving 3000 miles to bring an aunt to live with her daughter, they took advantage of being out here to visit us. We hadn't seen them since our last visit to NY nine years ago.  We had a wonderful visit of catching up, talking around the table and playing games. We went out for Basque food, something unique to this area. (Not exclusively, but not common, either).  All of the kids happened to get sick at one time or another, so all of our appts were cancelled, which worked out well to staying home and visiting.  We took them to the dollar theater, 8 of us got to go, for $8, not bad!  We saw Tangled, loved it. It was so great getting to know them.  Makes me want to go back to New York in the not too far future to visit the rest of the family.

We took some nice pictures this morning on their way out. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the memory card in :( But I did get these while we played Yahtzee: