Let's go ride a bike

Hip Hip Hooray! School is finally out! I truly love summer and having the little's around. To celebrate that they were finally free, we decided to go to Virginia and try this awesome bike trail called the Virginia Creeper. The whole trail is actually 34 miles long, we only did half. Yes half of 34 is 17, so we rode 17 miles on our bikes. The trail is all downhill. We took a shuttle up to the top, that in and of itself is a beautiful thing! To not have to ride up was real swell! There are some crazies out there that ride up and then ride down again. We didn't want to join that elite team. 17 miles! Our amazing older little's did the whole thing! They didn't complain that it was too long or that they wanted to stop. They just kept peddling on. As we rode to the top the weather was a little cloudy. We were hoping that it wouldn't rain on us. Alas, that was not to be. Right as we got to the top of the trail, it started to rain. Not a light drizzle, no no, full on down pour. It was not great. The shuttle man unloaded our bikes, told us good luck and left two adults and three smalls standing in the rain. There was a teeny tiny bite sized bathroom that had an overhang that we stood under. M was crying saying that she didn't want to go down in the rain. We all used the bathroom and then took a picture

This picture doesn't do the weather justice. It truly was raining hard enough that you could almost see the cats and dogs falling from the sky. After we took this picture, we said a prayer that the rain would stop and we would be able to ride down without getting wet. We said amen, put on little B's helmet and the rain was just a drizzle. We put him in his seat and it was just a drop here and there. By the time he was buckled in, the rain had totally stopped. It was so awesome to have an answer to our prayer so quickly. We told the offspring to say a thank you prayer and tell Heavenly Father thanks for such a quick answer to prayer, and off we rode.(After another quick picture of course!)

When we first started out, it was pretty cold. I kept praying in my head that the kiddos wouldn't get too cold. Another answer to prayer was when the clouds parted and the sun started to shine. It stayed out long enough to warm us up and then it got cloudy again. So, then we got to go on a beautiful trial and not cook or freeze. It was awesome!

If that isn't beautiful, I don't know what is!

The only annoying thing was that K's peddles kept falling off. We hadn't brought a wrench, odd I know, but we didn't have one. So, we had to stop often and tighten his peddles. I will say that it was pretty funny to be behind him and see him peddle and then all the sudden his foot wouldn't have anywhere to go because the peddle was on the ground, so his foot would fly out to the side. Every time it happened you would hear,"Oh dear, lost a peddle!" 

The trail used to be a railroad line. The train was taken out in 1956 and now it's a beautiful, downhill trail. We went on a Thursday, so four people passed us, but other than that, we were alone. Truly, M, K and little B did awesome! 

The trail was pretty bumpy, but little B didn't seem bothered by it and he took a quick little nap . *Helmet disclaimer. He started out with a helmet, but it kept sliding down over his eyes and he didn't totally love that, so we took it off.

This was on the side of the trail. We decided it would be good to stop and walk around for a minute. We only stayed at this spot for about five minutes, but it was long enough that K was able to throw rocks into the water and little B was able to get out of his seat. M liked the waterfall, but was nervous that it was going to start to rain again and if it rains, then she thinks there will be lightning and if there's lightning, death is soon to follow. So, as to keep the peace, we didn't linger too long.

Look how gorgeous that is! There were a lot of bridges that we got to go over, but this one was the coolest. All the other ones were just flat like this one,

Sometimes we were really high up and could see the tops of the trees and the water below. Heavenly Father has made some pretty amazing places!

K is pointing to the starting point and M is pointing and the finish point. 17 miles! They did it! It took us four hours to do the whole thing. I have been proud of our kids before, but to do 17 miles on a bike and like it made me extra proud of them! After K's peddles had fallen off a thousand times he did say that it was annoying, but he was smiling while he said it. M said that her bum hurt from the bike seat, but she didn't say anything until we were done. We all loved the creeper trail and think that we might try doing it again in the fall when the leaves are changing color.