Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Yea! We finally got a break from the heat yesterday, and it was actually enjoyable to go out and do some physical activity. (at least for me) Yesterday morning, a neighbor a few houses down was having a small garage sale. Knowing that she has a girl a few years older than Emma, I thought I'd go see if there was anything good that we could use. It was definitely a short walk worth making! I snagged a handful of items for just $2, and on top of that, she offered to bring us her daughter's hand-me-downs in the future. Can't beat that! Oh, but it gets better. When I got home, I sent Dakota over to look at a bicycle attachment she was selling. It was one of those that has an extra wheel, pedals, and handle bars, and makes your regular bike turn into a tandem bike. We'd seen them before and thought they looked neat, but since they can be kind of $$$, I thought it best to just keep our eyes out for a used one. Well, when Dakota went down to talk to the neighbor about it, she ended up just giving it to him! He said he tried to pay her, but she wouldn't take anything for it. I like neighbors like that!

And now for the physical activity part... later in the afternoon, when it was so nice that we actually wanted to be outside, we decided to go for a bike ride. First, we took the girls around in the bike trailer, so we could all go out. And afterward, Dakota put the new bike attachment on the back of his bike, and he and Emma went for a ride. Emma was kind of scared at first. It's higher up than her bike, and she doesn't get to control the speed. But off they went, with Dakota promising to go nice and slow.



After a while and they hadn't returned yet, I started to get a little worried. I hoped Emma hadn't fallen off or caused Dakota to have problems controlling the bike. Finally, when they returned home, Emma had a big smile on her face and said it was so fun! (Much to my relief!) But then the tears came when we told her it was time to put the bikes away and head in for baths. So mean!

While Ashlyn and I were waiting for Emma and Dakota to get back from their bike ride, I snapped this picture. Ashlyn is ALWAYS trying to find things to climb and get into, so I call her a little monkey. And the funny thing is, monkey is one of the few animal sounds she can make. So when I'm pulling her off of something she has just scaled for the 10th time, and I call her a monkey, she makes monkey noises at me. The picture below is of her doing just that. She had figured out how to get onto the bench by herself and was climbing all over it, making her monkey noises. (Notice the blurry hands and body--it's because the girl just does not stop moving!)