A rainy day bike ride

Our lives have been so busy lately with every weekend full but this weekend was free so we decided to go on a long bike ride (one of our family's favorite hobbies). Well the forcast didn't look so promising wiht a fairly good chance of rain but we decided to go anyway.

    We packed raincoats for everybody and headed off, it was sprinkling a little but nothing much.

 We feel very blessed to have nice trails to ride on. We have to ride a couple of miles to get to the trail but then we can ride on it a long way. We took it through town where we stopped at Pamida. Ken and the older 3 went in to look at bike helmets while Megan and I watched over the bikes. The shoppers came out with chips instead of a helmet, they thought they might be a nice addition to our packed lunch and they didn't like the selection of helmets.

We went on some trail that we hadn't been on before and had a lot of fun! Going up and over the highway that we have to drive on every time we go to Grandpa and Grandma's was exciting. :-)

We stopped to eat our lunch of to the side of the trail and we found a blooming tree (I think maybe a wild plum). We had such a good time enjoying all the beautiful world God has made.

As we ate it started to feel a little cooler out. I was thankful for having a t-shirt, 2 fleece sweatshirts, a rain jacket and gloves on! Ken (my hot blooded husband!) was thinking maybe Aaron and I weren't so silly after all for wearing gloves.

We rode a ways after lunch and it started to rain a bit more. We decided to turn back but still had about 9 miles to go to get home. Aaron was growing quite tired and not sure he could keep going very well. I decided to see if I could attach his bike to my rack and then he could ride in the trailer too. It worked! I tied it on with a bandana that happened to be in my jacket pocket.

Ken got the kids adjusted and then he had quite a load to pull!

We were getting more than a little wet! (and looking ever so stylish in the process!)

But really, we had fun even though it was wet. Nobody got that cold except with our wet jeans. The brand new leaves on the trees looked very pretty with the raindrops on them.

Mara was looking stylish too, she had decided to wear a sweatshirt, then a poncho and then a jacket on top. The poncho hung out giving her a little yellow plastic skirt.

I found flowers already up! They were looking so pretty and I am sure they were appreciating the water God was sending (This was our first rain in around 3 weeks I think).

And of course we had our normal "repair time". Thankfully Ken is much more prepared than last summer and he had a whole selection of things along. This time Jonathan's bike had problems several times with the chain.

After a while the rain let up and Aaron was rested (and Ken was weary!) and so he rode again.

We found more pretty scenery to enjoy!

When we arrived back in town we decided to stop for an early supper at a brand new Mexican Restaurant. We had fun eating there and were more energized for the next few miles home.

Now Ken and I are sitting around with legs that are more than a little sore! I love our bike trip adventures! I so enjoy being able to spend time outside with my family enjoying God's wonderful creation. I like the fact that we are getting some exercise which is good for our bodies too. On this ride I also had fun collecting trash and aluminum cans along the way. I was able to fill 2 grocery bags with trash and one with crushed cans (which I then threw in a donation trailer for Camp confidence). I could have picked up a lot more, I guess I will work on that on our next bike ride.

  What fun things are you doing this weekend?