As has become a tradition over the past couple of years, the kids participated in an around the neighborhood 4th of July parade. The parade has a fire truck leading the kids and then an ambulance bringing up the rear. This was the first year the kids have both ridden their bikes without training wheels. I don't know if Quinn remembers that last year he took his scooter instead of his bike and how bad an idea that was, but this year the bike was the only option. I got my bike out also and Quinn and I both rode over to the parade staging area.
Catherine didn't want to ride over and thus got carted over in the car. Initially Catherine was still asking for help when first starting starting up, but she could ride really well once she got going. Today though in the parking lot while we were waiting for the parade to start we managed to teach her how to start on her own. So that was good.
Since I had a bike this year I didn't have to run along and get winded like I did last year. But I also believe this year the fire truck was moving at a much slower pace (I believe I even heard a couple of other adults make basically the same comment). Quinn spent the entire race at the very front right behind the fire truck. I had the mini hand held camera and took pictures as best I could, but you can only do so much while pedaling along on a bike.
Ginger elected to not bring her bike. Initially she was going to ride with Quinn and I was going walk with Catherine, but then Catherine insisted she go with her. And since before today Catherine would have needed help starting up we thought being on a bike would be an inconvenience. So because of that though Ginger ended up have fast pace walk the entire race, which she managed to do right up until near the end where Catherine put on a burst of speed and more or less caught up with the rest of us up at the front.
After the parade the kids were able to hop into the fire trucks much to their enjoyment. At least Quinn's and numerous other kid's enjoyment, Catherine had no desire or interest in getting into the fire truck. In a surprise turn of events though Catherine decided to bike home and Quinn elected to ride back in the car, so Ginger took my bike and rode home with Catherine.
After that we had an extremely quiet fourth. Last year we were very busy all day after the parade, this year though with poor weather and no one we knowing having a gettogether (or if they were we weren't invited) we ended up being boring old folks and staying at home. We did the mandatory grilling of meat out back for lunch (Quinn actually ate a cheeseburger for lunch so that he could play Spider-Man on the Wii, Spider-Man is officially my hero), but dinner ended up being Chinese take out while we watched the Capitol celebration on TV (and I should note that nothing says patriotism for one's country like Chinese take out).
No comments:
Post a Comment