Thursday, December 18, 2008

One horse open sleigh




We left for a walk in the snow up and over the hill to Haggens about 3:30 in daylight and after some dinner and lite shopping we started back in the dark about 5:30 and got home an hour later. I pulled one or two kids at a time and got a great workout.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mountain biking in the snow!

Note: Additional Pics on Mike's blog




The snow started about 6 pm last night and only came down for a few hours, just enough to allow some mountain biking but deep enough (up higher on Galbraith) to make it tough but still fun.

I took off about 8:10 to meet Mike and John at the Whatcom Falls tennis courts who had left from their side of Bellingham at 8. I got there a bit too early and kept circling the round about just to keep moving and warm. It was 22 degrees when we started out. (25 when I got home 3 and a half hours later).

Finally headed up Galbraith and instantly knew it was going to be a long tough haul, just riding up the switchbacks of the Miranda trail had us walking. yup walking up the lowest trail. We'd stop and regroup every now and again and at our first stop I couldn't drink out of one of my water bottles already frozen up. Once up a bit higher we decided to stick more to the logging roads, but that was still tough as that was where most the snow was and 5 or 6 inches deep to keep you on your toes or else you'd slip out pretty easily.

Made it to the kiosk and rested a bit then off to Cedar Dust and Rock n Roll before riding the pipeline road all the way to Samish Way. We laid the first tracks on Rock n Roll and Pipeline, a bit tough on RnR but the powder was flying on Pipeline. We continued out the other side of Galbraith onto some upper trails of Lake Padden before riding half way around the lake to a trail that took us to Fairhaven and the Taylor dock and the waterfront trail with a fierce headwind all the way into downtown Bellingham.

The guys headed back towards their places and I road through an alley and finally weaved my way to the Railroad trail back up to Lake Whatcom and home and a nice warm cup of Hot Chocolate. I wonder how Debbie knew to have the water already boiling, perfect timing. (The kids had just come in).

Truly a great ride with friends on some of the best trails Bellingham has to offer on such a beautiful day!

Saturday, December 06, 2008

BMX racing!

We spent a couple extra days after Thanksgiving at the grandparents so Jacob could try BMX racing at the track in Sumner. They race year round rain or shine at Riverside Park organized by River Valley BMX.

We went out to check out the park on Friday and to give Jacob a chance to ride the track with his 16" 'mini bike' as he calls it and Grandpa's 20" BMX bike. He was faster by quite a lot on the real BMX bike and we spent some time after getting back to the Grandparents to take off the reflectors, chain guard and other stuff they don't allow on the track when racing. Alex had fun running around the track and would 'race' Jacob on foot and he'd cut the course and win every time. I think they both had a great time.

Saturday morning we had a big breakfast and got to the track around 10 for sign ups and allow Jacob some more practice time on Grandpa's bicycle. We got there about 45 minutes too early. Sign up is from 10 to 11 and we had too much time to wait around for them to get everyone registered and announce the moto's. Jacobs cousin Johnathan came and signed up too, so we got some good visiting in while they warmed up. I think Sophia was thinking about trying it after seeing all the other girls who signed up.

Jacob was in Moto 11 and Johnathan in Moto 13. They put kids together based on age and classification. Jacob is 9 and a Novice, but there were not enough 9 year old Novices so they bumped him to the next group and was in the 10 Novice moto. Two nine year olds and one ten year old made up his Moto. Each moto races 3 times at this track gaining points for each race (1st, 2nd, 3rd...) and the one with lowest points after all three races is the winner. Jacob was very excited and convinced he was going to win his moto because the other two in his moto were girls. His first race proved it was going to be tough. He raced hard but finished third. Here is the video:



His second moto was a little better, I think he paced himself a bit better and was up in second place only to get passed in the last rhythm section. Third race he finished second and was very excited about that. One of the girls crashed, but he was just as excited about finishing second.

With three kids in a moto, they give trophies to the top two, but Jacob and Johnathan were not going to go home empty handed... First time racers get an award just for racing. Jacob and Johnathan waited and were called up and got trophies that were almost taller than Alex.



Done in less than 2 hours and everyone had a great time. Grandpa filled the kids up with sugar from the concession stand and it didn't rain, so all in all a great day at the races! I'm sure Jacob will try the races in Mount Vernon next summer. He is saving anything and everything to get a BMX bike for himself. Even selling some of his old video games.