I just spent the last four days relaxing at our house in Celo, NC. In my company was Bridget, the kids, and Bridget’s mom. We ate great food, played card games, enjoyed the new toys Santa brought, and explored the National Forest from our door step. Yesterday Bridget and I started the day of milking the cow and a few other small farm chores and ended the day with a hike around the area. It felt great to spend some quality time with the wife. The kids seem pleased with their haul from Santa. My legs soar from the Sunday hike up to the top of the ridge line behind our house. Life is good.
The Family
Sometimes there are difficulties getting going when you have a crew of 45 and 3 old buses. Today we made it all of the way to Burnsville before needing to reorganize switch the canoe trailer from one bus to another.
I have been shopping at BioWheels since their early days next to the French Broad Co-Op. Matt and Eric have been great coaches and support as my family’s biking habits have changed. I have been a huge commuter cyclist since my days in elementary school.
Over the last few years Bridget and I have branched out beyond bicycle commenting to mountain biking and endurance riding. When you go from 20 miles a week to over 100 miles a week on the bike you notice how your body fits to your bike in great detail. Bridget was complaining about significant pain from long rides. She was ready to give it up. I asked the boys at BioWheels about it. They suggested Bridget get a bike fit. As a result Bridget is enjoying her daily work commute better and has seen improvement on her long Sunday rides.
We spent a little over an hour with Eric at BioWheels getting Bridget and her bike fitted. We gained a tremendous amount of wisdom about how your body works with your bike. I’ll post addition clips from that fit session as part of an ongoing series about cycling and developing a solid relationship with your bike and your bike shop.
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Last Sunday marked the end of the summer season for us. The pool closed for the year and the kids would start school on Tuesday. We took the opportunity to spend the whole day hanging with some of our best friends laughing it up poolside.
Why have grass to mow when you can have fresh organic food to eat? The garden in our front yard is a place for kids to pick and eat beans, berries, tomatoes and mint leaves and even catch bugs to feed their toads. It provides inspiration for a busy mom and dad to decide what to make for dinner.
We began ripping up the grass and planting sunflowers in the front yard in 2004. The sunflowers we started with, continue to bring the tiny yellow gold finches and squirrels to feast. In addition to the sunflowers seeds we plant every year, we like the volunteers that pop-up here and there giving the garden a wild feeling. [click to continue…]
We love the waterfalls of Western North Carolina.
It’s Cookie time again. It seems like yesterday that Wild was on the Today Show and the cover of NewsWeek. When she set out last year to meet her goal of selling enough cookies to send all of troop 071 to camp none of us had any idea that she would end up getting so much attention.
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The fam plus 1 is taking a relaxer day from the beach. After waking up very early in hopes of getting in a morning beach session, the kids decided against it. Complaining of bathing suit rash and sun baked skin, the idea of hitting the beach seemed to exhausting to them.
We arrived Friday afternoon and went straight to the beach to start things off right. After about an hour in the ocean I was stung by a jelly fish for the first time ever. I looked much worse than I thought it was. Bridget about melted fearing my arm would blister up and fall off. With the help of advise from friends on Facebook, vinegar, a hot shower, a few beers, lots of water the pain and fears subsided.
Saturday we spent 7 hours at the beach. The kids loved it so much they did not want to eat or snack. They played in the waves and sand. It was great. We were warn out and sun baked.
Sunday was an attempt at recovery from exhaustion from the long day at the beach. We checked out the Fort Fisher NC Aquarium. Ate at Flaming Amy’s Burrito Barn. Then hit the beach around 6pm to find high tide, rough waves, and the kids still not ready to be back at the beach. Nice thunder storm brewing behind us and a beach break that did not want to be nice persuaded me to take the kids home.
So now it’s Monday. We spent a good deal of the morning playing with yearbookyourself.com. It was a big hit with the kids. They also found a calligraphy set and had a blast. Playing pretend and now getting ready to hit the pool. I have my fingers crossed on afternoon at the beach.
