4luvandlife

Henry did his first mountain bike race at Elk River a couple of weeks ago. It was 3 miles. He has done a lot more than that at Theo plenty of times. The 3 miles at Hillside in Elk River was different though. It was a lot more climbing and roots than I expected. Henry had to walk quite a bit. When we walked the mosquitos would feast. It was rough on the little guy. He was tempted to quit (he even had some tears) but he kept at it and finished. It was another good reason to be proud of him on a pretty long list. Henry said some funny stuff during the race. A couple of my favorites were, "I'm getting pretty dirty, maybe I should take a bath." and "I hope I get a scratch, that would be cool." After the race he scored a digital camera from the drawing. He was very stoked. It was a good thing too it may have convinced him to give bike racing another try.

How is your summer so far? I got Henry and Wyatt out for some of the Decorah activities over the weekend of the 4th. One of my favorites was Biking the Trout Run path to the fish hatchery. There we were welcomed by a celebrity. The juvenile Bald Eagle that was born on camera before much of the world. He was circling his nest in big circles and screeching loudly. Very cool. Beautiful actually. He doesn't have his bald white head yet but he still seems proud. Another good session was a Dunning Spring hike with just Henry. Dunning was raging and it filled the heart to see it with little H. He then proceeded to hike up the bluff like a pro. We went well into the mountain bike trails after a brief sit down to enjoy the view of town. I then heard the call of Whippy Dip and headed over for a Whopper Tornado with chocolate ice cream. H chose a small vanilla cone. We hung out at the Whippy Dip for a while and then proceeded to the dike. After finishing the treats we walked dow...

The boys went up a size in bikes. Henry went from 16 to 20 inches and Wyatt went from 12 to 16. They can both go like the wind now. Wyatt about blew my doors off the first time coming out of the driveway with his "16er". Henry put about 25 miles on in the first 3 days with his "20er". Last week we rode down to st. Anthony falls to celebrate the bike path being extended to the river. He rode 14 miles! And he could have done more. Henry has fallen in love with the trails at Theo worth. Been on them 3 times and it's hard to get him off them when it's time to go. Wyatt rides in the baby seat but we call it the Woogie seat I asked Henry if he wants to try a race. He says he will try it in three years.