I spent the seasonal slowdown meshing the outdoors with suburban cubicle hell. Verily, the girls did too. They can hate me when they are 16, but they love every minute of it now.

G and I did 3 rides on her new bike, the 2nd one 5 miles to my office on mups and bike lanes. She watched Netflix and ate Captain Crunch while I worked, then we rolled another 5 home. 100 yards from the end of rush hour traffic on FLW blvd, with one driveway left to cross, she got happy and squirrely and turned right into me, premature celebration like the one that nearly broke my thumb on the last 200 yards of Kiwanis. A lesson i will not forget, and neither will G. She bounced off me and into the street. I pulled her back onto the sidewalk while she screamed.   I’m still shaken, but how is she gonna learn to ride in the bike lane if she doesn’t practice? Teaching her to get into granny to climb the canal and bombing off it dispelled the fear of God racing through both of us. *smiles*

here are some bad videos of sessioning the tunnel at Shea\92nd.

The next ride we hit McPump, and the trail. 4 hours ripping the track and 2 1.5m laps on singletrack off the Long Loop – a good day for a tinyHuman and her new bike. She fell, she got up, she had snacks, she rode the jump line on her 20″. I rode it 20 times til i could land pointing down. Beckie rode the 29er and ran. Outdoor fun for everyone.

Alana has learned to run! Sorta. 20 feet at a time. She pumps her legs and slopadoodles 20 feet down the hall, nearly crashing, recovering, then slopadoodling another 20.

Alana rode to the Eagle and back on her 12 inch. She has no power in her stroke, but has begun to combine core with turning. We went down a 1% grade, me in front, stepping 2 steps back and 2 steps sideways, and her steering each direction after me chattering about that damn kid Dylan again. She did not dead-sailor and flop out of the saddle on turns, finally a sign that she is getting it. She began to get braking, when i say pedal forward, and pedal back. But those are similar and confusing words for a Podford; they process very slowly when the cpu connects to the leg api. Like G with her new bike, Alana gets better with more saddle time.

we pedaled, we sang, we played with the remote control car and climbed.

the last day of vacation we hiked Pinnacle Peak. G made it the whole way, albeit with some nudging. Alana did fine, just fine for such a beautiful little girl on such a big pitch.

the first day back at work i wanted to kill everyone and quit, not necessarily in that order. If I could have every day to play outside with my girls, it would not last long enough. I am strongly considering becoming a stay-at-home dad.