"Good job on your family"

July 4th, 2012 - Finally! It seems that the chilly spring weather has passed at last, and today I was able to get out with the kids and do exactly what I planned to spend most of the summer doing. We hopped on our bikes after lunch and biked from East Vancouver along the seawall to Granville Island splash pad and playground. With Coralie on her bike and Etienne safely sat in my trailer, we made our way in the sunshine. As always, I am amazed and so proud at how well my little girl can pedal around the city after only riding solo for less than a year. My little trouper travelled a total of almost 15kms today on her bike, and was only notably tired for the last 5kms...even I'm jealous of her energy sometimes!

Riding side by side along the seawall at the Olympic Village

Etienne just relaxing in the trailer behind me...lucky guy!

We spent over four hours of our afternoon running around in the water and climbing around the playground, Coralie taking full advantage of her height to use the water slide repeatedly, much to her brother's pint-sized dismay. Still about three inches too short, poor little guy! But he busied himself with many new friends in the muddy sandpit, so he wasn't sad for long.

Cooling off in the spray

Up to no good with that hose...

One of the benefits of heading out to Granville Island for the day is how close we are to Daddy's work, making it so easy for him to join us for a nice afternoon ride home along the seawall as a family. Etienne fell asleep almost as soon as we started up, but Coralie spent the better part of our trip back telling her dad all about her adventures from the day. I really appreciate the seemingly unique opportunity she has to be right next to us and share her stories instead of being stuck in a back seat of a car keeping quiet so as to not distract us from driving. I hope we never take that for granted while we grow as a family who use our bikes on our journeys around our city. I had a gentleman pass us on our way home who looked at me as he passed and said, "Good job on your family". Hearing things like that from complete strangers re-affirms that we are making the right decisions, even if they seem so unique to many of the families around us. All I can hope is that seeing us do it so easily will inspire people to do one thing...just try.

Pure joy while being pushed on the swing
by his sister...this is what it's all about!