Biking with the Ahlstroms

Ryan Ahlstrom invited our family to go mountain biking with his family.  He wanted us to go from Veil to Breckenridge.  I have wanted to ride this trail since we moved here 11 years ago.  I was so excited!  Between the river rafting and the bike ride, Ryan became my summer activity hero.  While some of my kids are avid bike riders not all of us were sure we could do it, and none of us are "mountain bikers".  Plus Jason doesn't even have a bike, and while he rides a bike in our basement almost every night (amazing!) he hadn't ridden a bike on a street for about 10 years (he went with men in the ward when we first moved here).  Ryan obviously didn't want to get stuck up in the mountains with us, so he made us do a "practice run" one early morning.  It might have been one of my favorite summer mornings.  We all woke up early, Ryan came and picked up us and loaded everything into his truck.

He had all the equipment we didn't have including this awesome bike "trailer" thing for Dane that hooked onto the bike he brought for Jason.  He pumped up our tires, put oil on our gears and chains and even brought helmets for all my kids!  AAANNNDDD yes, everyone except Megan doesn't wear helmets when they ride a bike.  They all have helmets, but it had been so long with they rode that they boys didn't fit them anymore.   

Eve rode in the chair on the back of my bike.   There isn't a lot of pictures from the ride because... well... I was riding a bike AND we were hardly ever together.  All of the teenagers took off and we didn't see them again until the end.  Eve and I were either alone or back with Jason and Ryan for some of the time.  It was beautiful and a great way to start a morning.  It was actually really hard and I was scared I wasn't going to be able to do it.  I was very pleased with myself that I was able to do the whole thing with out needing to stop and have a melt down.  haha.  Seriously though.  I learned a lot about myself on the bike ride and I learned how my mental and emotional strength (which is very strong) can be in command and help strengthen my physical strength to accomplish what I need to accomplish.  

At the very very end Megan fell and hurt her knew pretty bad.  In fact it was her first day at work and she was late.  But she was a trooper!