Bike Riding

Kevin has been teaching Camille and Jason how to ride bikes with no training wheels and they are doing awesome! We had been going on walks the last couple of nights and Jason has been cruising on his balance bike and Kevin said, "I bet he could ride a two wheeler since he is balancing so good already." So the next weekend, Kevin took all the training wheels off of the bikes and off they went. They both picked it up pretty quickly actually. It was hilarious and sad at the same time watching them learn though. Neither of them has had a bad crash yet, but every time they are riding their bikes they just cry the whole time. Even though they are riding it perfectly and have nothing to be afraid of.

Kevin is such a good dad to teach these kids how to ride bikes. It has been a while since he first taught them and Camille is SO good at riding her bike now. She hops on anywhere and can ride everywhere. The other day we took them to a bike path (which we had never been on so we didn't know what the terrain was like). It had such big hills, but Camille would pedal as far as she could, then would hop off and push her bike up the rest of the way. Then hop back on and ride more. I am just bursting with how proud I am of her and how much she has learned.

Jason is great at riding his bike, but he still prefers his balance bike. He hasn't learned how to use the brakes on his bike, so if Kevin isn't home when we walk places I let him ride his balance bike. On the same bike ride mentioned above, Jason was doing so good riding his bike. But going down the hills he wouldn't push the brakes so he was going SO fast. I was sure he was going to crash so hard. But a miracle happened and he didn't ever crash. Kevin was trying to teach Jason how to push on the brakes and Kevin said, "isn't it kind of scary going so fast? Don't you want to be able to slow down?" and Jason surprised us when he said, "No, I like going fast." Even though he was terrified. It was funny and made me chuckle.

We have the sweetest kids, and they have the best dad. Although life is sometimes crazy, I always feel grateful for the family I have.

A Tornado Where?

Well, we have officially been welcomed to the mid-west. We had our first tornado and then shortly after our second tornado. The part of Iowa that we live in is on the outskirts of "tornado ally". I knew that in our time here we would probably see a tornado, but I didn't think that we would see one so soon after moving to Iowa.

We heard the sirens for the first tornado going off around 6:30 PM one evening. I quickly got the kids to bed before any bad weather started so they wouldn't get too scared while Kevin went over to the shop and put in as much equipment as he could so that no hail or anything would damage it. By the time Kevin got back, there was a tornado probably 1 miles from our house. It was either going back up, or hadn't come down all the way yet, but it was big. At least big to me. Kevin and I sat on our front porch and watched it go by.

I was surprised at how calm the weather was for having a tornado close to us. The only other tornado I can remember was when I lived in Ephraim, UT and Manti had a tornado. I didn't know they were having a Tornado at the time. But I remember it raining so hard and the streets were flooded and we were outside playing with all the neighborhood kids while the town over was having a tornado.

I feel grateful that the Tornado did not come any closer to our house and went up quickly. I felt like my prayers were answered to keep us safe. Especially because we are not prepared for a tornado. I really need to get some 72 hour kits ready.

The second tornado was a couple weeks later. Kevin had been out driving, and he got back just before the tornado was coming our way. I felt so grateful that it was when Kevin was home and I didn't have to go through it by myself. This tornado had a little worse weather, but was further away from us. It actually went by North Liberty instead which is about 15 miles north of us.

I feel grateful that we haven't had any huge destructive tornado. And that the kids slept so well through them. Now I can say I have seen a real tornado with my own eyes.

A Fun Little Hike

I wanted to get out and explore a little bit now that we are here in Iowa. About 4 miles down the road from us is a little hill with a walking trail on it. I thought we would go explore one day after church. Sadie was sleeping and so was Kevin, so I took Camille and Jason on a little hike and it was beautiful.

I wasn't sure what it was since I had never been there before, but it just seemed to be lots of trails that interconnected with each other. There was not a wrong or right was to go. And it actually went pretty far back. I was surprised with how long the trail could be. I let the kids choose which way we went each time we got to a fork in the road. It was so fun to not know where we were going. For a minute I was worried that we would get lost and have to trek through the growth to get back to our car. But thankfully the trail we chose led us right back to where we started.





















It was so beautiful and green and luscious. I was worried about ticks, because I am a worrier. All things aside it was a beautiful hike and I am excited to take Kevin back here someday to go on a little hike with us again.