Back in the saddle again....

and loving every minute of it.

Dave took this week off of work so he could finish up his never ending internship. We decided an hour here and an hour there just wasn't cutting it. So, he took a week off, from ALL of his jobs, in order to teach as many first aid classes as possible. Which, by the way, will mean he will have all of his hours in by Sunday! Anyway, it is so nice because although Dave is teaching every day, for the most part he is home. That coupled with the fact that we have a beautiful forecast this week means.....BIKING, BIKING and more BIKING!!!

We went on a 25 miler this afternoon with the girls out to Antelope Island. On the ride I learned a couple of valuable lessons, first...the power of food.

Sometimes I think Dave and I get a little too confident in our biking abilities. Let me explain, today we knew we were only going to do 25 miles so didn't feel the need to prep much for the ride. We skipped lunch. The only thing either of us had eaten all day was our 200 calorie smoothie for breakfast. It didn't last long. On the way to the Island I began feeling a bit sluggish. It was hard for me to maintain our 14 mph pace. I pushed through and was able to avoid an all out bonk by stealing a handful of the girls' fruit snacks and animal crackers when we reached our destination. On our ride home I was feeling great and marveling at the effect a small handful of kids snacks was having on my performance. I could tell Dave was feeling a lot better too. We were keeping a steady pace of about 20 mph. It only lasted 10 maybe 15 minutes before I felt the sluggishness creeping back in and our pace slowing down.

The second lesson....cattails DO NOT belong in a bike trailer. Emma spotted some golden cattails along the road and begged Dave to pick some. He obliged and picked each of the girls a souvenir. The next thing we know Emma is screaming and hacking. A look inside the trailer revealed the girls covered in a heavy coat of cattail seeds. They were up their noses, in their mouths, eyes, EVERYWHERE. It was slightly amusing, especially when Ali took a big bite of hers.

All in all it was a great ride. The weather could not have been more perfect! We also passed some killer scenery spots I am dying to go back to with my camera. I'm simply giddy thinking about the other rides we have planned this week.