Sunday, August 31, 2008

Bicycle Break Through

Back at the beginning of summer I raised the training wheels on Amanda's bike and I informed her that by the end of the summer they would be coming off; much to her dismay.

Well, on Saturday August 9th, while the kids were out peddling about the neighborhood, I noted that Amanda really wasn't spending much time on the training wheels any longer: She was riding and didn't realize it. So without any warning, I grabbed a wrench and yanked them off. Again, much to her dismay.

With the deed done, I had her mount up and ran alongside her up and down the street twice, letting go occasionally. She was really close, but not quite there. So we came back to our driveway where she dismounted and I went on to talk to Mommy.

After a few minutes Amanda came up behind me, picked up her bike, hopped on, and rode away. By herself. Without assistance. Way to go Amanda!!!


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

It had never been my intention to ignore the blog for the better part of the summer. But as so many of you know (all 3 of you that read this), life happens.

Despite a plethora of home and health issues which seemed to dominate the season, we were afforded the opportunity to go to the beach thrice during the break.

The more notable of these treks was our second annual trip to Virginia Beach (VB) with the entire Tokarski clan; including Nana, Pop pop, Uncle Jason, Aunt Debbie, and cousins Nick and Brianna. Blessed with a wealth of good weather, we spent a great many days just enjoying the soft sand and warm sun.

We also had a few memorable outings during the week. The first was a rainy-day trip to the Virginia Aquarium. Even though many of the exhibits were closed for a major renovation, there was still a good deal to see, including a Ray pool, large sea turtles, and a pen full of young alligators.

Our second VB outing included just my clan and was to Ocean Breeze Water Park. Ocean Breeze is a nice little water park that has grown from just 4 mat slides when I was a kid to a full fledged water park with tube slides, a wave pool, and a kiddie area. Alex once again surprised us and tackled such reasonless anomalies as the speed slides and a torture device that mimics a toilet flushing called The Hurricane. (Guess which part of this equation your body mimics... :P )

The other little deviation we took was to finally rent one of the 6-seat bicycles frequently seen peddling up and down the Virginia Beach boardwalk. This was a great workout for Mommy and myself as we rode end to end on the boardwalk; nearly a 6 mile round trip.

Special thanks go out to Nana and Pop pop for our vacation. Without you, it wouldn't have been possible.

All in all, everyone had a good summer. Now, on to school...