Our family loves going on bike rides, and each year it gets better as the kids get faster. Last summer, we finally got Ethan off his training wheels (terrible invention – strider bikes would have been so much better), and he was waaaay to big for his bike, his legs barely moved up and down, and he could never go very fast on it.

Here they are earlier in the Spring on their old bikes:

This spring we went hunting for new bikes for all three of the kids. It took two trips to Calgary, and many stops, but we finally found what we were looking for. We asked to kids to pay for the bikes with as much of their birthday money as they had, and my family kicked in some to help us out. Ethor went from 12 inch wheels to 20. Adelaine also is on a 20 inch wheeled bike, and Ellie is on a 24, so her bike is the same size as her mom’s. According to the charts in the stores, these bikes are too big for them, but they fit and we really wanted to get bikes that had multiple gears, and these bikes will last them for many years. This has been a huge improvement and we are really able to cruise around town on the trails and roads now. Ethan is so thrilled and went from being the slowest to the fastest of the kids.

Naomi even talked me into getting a new bike for my birthday – the first new one since I was probably in my teens. The one I was using was given to me and had a bent front wheel (which rubbed against the brakes), very squeaky brakes, and a few other quirks.

The kids are proud as punch of their new bikes, and we are looking forward to many family bike rides this year.