Weekends Together

Our weekends are fuller of family time this fall than they have been since Jeff started coaching cross country four years ago. On Saturdays, we venture forth on family bike rides. On Sundays, we have home church together. In order to "fill the void" of bouncing all over the state in the back of un-sprung school buses on the way to weekly cross country meets, Jeff has instituted family bike rides on Saturdays. It started as a father-son outing, but it became too hard for Jeff to find time to take each kid on a special bike ride individually, so we converted it to a family ride. This is Jeff's show! It is refreshing for the planner in me to hand the reins over to Jeff in this case. He brainstorms locations and loads the van and plans the food, and I attend. Of course he knows I'll help if he needs/wants me to, (and I do tend to pack extra snacks and make sure everyone has their water bottles), but generally Jeff is content to handle it all himself. 

Thanks to the prolonged bout of thick wildfire smoke in mid September, the last Saturday of the month was just our second family bike ride. Our destination: Ellensburg, WA, on a small section of the Cascades to Palouse Trail. It is a long mostly gravel bike path that goes, as the name suggests, from the Cascade Mountains on the west side of Washington all the way to the Palouse region on the far eastern side of the state. 

Confession: I am not a biker. Bike seats make me feel as though I'm sitting on the blade of a knife and I am sore for days after each ride. I think in the future I could come to appreciate biking, but it would take several pairs of layered gel-padded shorts for that to happen. All of that to say, it takes great maternal effort not to be cranky during our family bike rides. The bike path we rode on Saturday was all lumpy gravel, and that painful bouncing combined with a slightly crooked wheel on my bike made it even more of a struggle than usual for me! But this was not about me; it was about family time being active and seeing new places together. 

Jeff and Jay were in their element, cruising easily along in spite off the rough gravel. Amber can fly on paved paths, but she, like me, struggled with the inability to glide smoothly on the gravel. Rose had a tough time too, since she was using a different bike while we waited for a new tire tube to come in the mail for her usual bike. After the first 10 minutes of bumping along in Jay's wake, Jeff and I decided that I would hang back with Amber and Rose while Jeff and Jay went on ahead. 

The girls turned around after 20 minutes of riding, and the boys turned back after 30 minutes. I didn't know it was possible to stay upright on a bike while riding as slowly as we did. It was anguish, perched on my seat-o-pain and rolling too slowly to stand up and relieve the pressure. I kept telling Amber to go faster, because she started wobbling alarmingly close to my spokes whenever our speed lagged. In spite of her discomfort, Rose was able to ride faster than Amb, so she kept riding ahead and then waiting for us to catch up. When we finally arrived back at the parking area, my watch told me that we had ridden 4.2 miles in 46 minutes -- five minutes slower than my 4.2 mile run I had done earlier that same morning! 

I dismounted gingerly and put up the kickstand with relief. Jeff and Jay arrived back at the car less than ten minutes after we did. 

The next order of business was the Jeff-proclaimed post-bike-ride treat. Since my lactose issues excluded me from last week's milkshake treat, and since Donut Month (October) was practically upon us, we drove into Ellensburg in search of some donuts. The first bakery was closed, possibly forever. The second bakery didn't have donuts--it was more of a bread and muffin place. So we defaulted to Safeway, where Jeff went inside and called me to tell us the options so we could place our orders. Amber wanted sprinkles. Jay wanted chocolate filling. Rose wanted the biggest donut possible. I chose jelly filled. Jeff had a Boston cream.

Amb under a moody gray sky.

In spite of the gravel, this bike path was nice because it was not right next to a busy road like many other bike paths, so even though the gravel was rough, it was peaceful.

Here come the boys!

DONUTS! 

SUNDAY, September 27th, we went to church in person for the first time in 28 weeks! Local guidelines are finally allowing masked, distant indoor meetings with groups of 50 or less. So our ward was divided into 4 groups alphabetically, with each group attending one Sunday per month. Since we're at the end of the alphabet, we get to go to church on the 4th Sunday. It was just a one hour meeting with people spaced too far apart for conversation, and taking the sacrament under our masks made us giggle a little, but it was so nice to be at church again! We'll be back in 4 weeks, Sunnyside Ward.

In the car, Amber said "THE WHITES ARE GOIN' TO CHURCH!" And for some reason, that made us all laugh.

Both Jay and Rose grew out of their Sunday shoes during the 6.5 months between church meetings. I allowed them to slip their shoes off once we were in our pew.

Masked church!

Sunday afternoon mancala. Amber is scary-good at this game and beats Jeff as often as he beats her.

Sunday evening gymnastics in the front yard. I sat in my rocker and watched them tumble around. Jeff  and the girls have been practicing their handstands and cartwheels for weeks now, and  they're improving! 

Slow-paced family time is as warm and golden as the fall sunshine.