Rode my bike to work today; discovered cool trail

After about 6,000 trips to and from work in downtown Minneapolis over the past dozen years, I finally rode my bike about 8 miles into work this morning and 8 miles home. I can't say exactly what prompted me to do it, other than we had a story in our paper a few weeks ago about people who commute to work on bikes and it seemed like a good idea.

Of course, it was a lot of work. My legs are sore now just thinking about the effort to get up some of those hills, even though they are gradual. But it was very peaceful and nobody cut me off in traffic or rode my bumper. It was even safe enough on the trail (that goes 90 percent of the way to downtown) that I dared to wear my headphones to listen to some classical music.

Cedar Lake Trail on an August morning. 53 degrees, no wind.

Trail goes right by Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

One guess which bike is mine... That's right the one with an infant car seat.

Baby stays for a visit

A note and the stuffed doll that we sent back to Ruby. The bear,  named Baby,
was left in the covers in the spare room after Ruby stayed at our house.

 My favorite is the picture where Baby is sunbathing. I found this lady on the beach, with 2 towels laid out, one was empty. I asked and she didn't mind if I put the stuffed bear down for a photo. She didn't care. Hopefully you can see it well enough.

A happy Ruby after her friend Baby returned today.

Under the shady tree.

Summer races by so fast, it's hard sometimes to smell the roses, let alone blog about doing so. Fortunately, I have a few minutes tonight before I head back to the office on Monday morning after not working for the past week (and 2 weekends). It was such a blessing to be at home.

We've been hanging out under the shady trees all week, working on lessons like no biting, sharing, the golden rule and telling the truth. I also tried to teach Levi and Ezra that sometimes the best way to teach something to someone is to let them go and make a mistake on their own first - instead of always demanding that it be done the way you think it should to be done right. Of course we're also telling jokes, taking bike rides, paying the bills and doing the laundry.

Below are some pics of the times we're not doing those things (they're slightly out of order, FYI). After you read the captions and glance at the pics, I encourage you to click on the first photo and enlarge them, then use your arrow keys to flip through large versions of each. You get much better views and it goes quickly.

Levi's golf lessons

Cousins at Como

Can't wait to see the lions.

Happy baby

Happy baby, Part II

Ezra's tball game

Big Island, cousins

Happy Couple

Jump? Me?

Briz

Notice the name of the boat behind her?

Nice night for a boat ride.

What I see when I'm on a run in the morning.

A mud pie that Ezra made.

Fifth annual night for neighbors in our driveway

Levi's birthday - playing his new flag football.

Levi got a backyard golf cup and flag for his birthday.

Ezra colored little squares with faces at the park.

At Yogurt Lab, where you pay by the ounce. Boys put in marshmallows, animal cracker-cookies and Fruit Loops. Yum.

At Applebee's while back-to-school shopping.

"

"Sooo big"

Levi's tennis lesson

Ezra at t-ball, Part II

Where we had the Last Supper on the old table.

And the first supper on the new Ikea table.

Adorable. (Ang and her family are nice looking too).

Cousins.

On Levi's birthday we went to Yo-Yo donuts. More like yum-yum donuts.

Props for Levi turning 7.

The short video below demonstrates a ball dropper that Levi got for his birthday. It was supposedly invented by Joe Mauer's dad. Joe endorses it according to the package. We only had it one day and already Levi was hitting them over the fence (see below).

We made a football field cake for Levi's birthday.

We went to a regional park near lake Minnetonka this week.

Ezra ate Go-Gurt at the picnic.

Roman and Ivy got tired out. Sign in back says Lowry Nature Center.

Ezra's bear, named Happy, celebrated his own first birthday just one day after Levi turned 7.

We went golfing on a par 3 course in Plymouth. Grandpa Jim won by 1 stroke over Levi. Ezra and I finished 4th and 3rd.

My Three Sons.

We went to a water skiing show and this strange hovercraft thing showed up. It is powered by the engine of the Ski-Doo.

I'd never seen Goldy Gopher water ski until this week. If you click
on the pic to enlarge you'll see him at the base of the pyramid.

We had a picnic at Lake Harriet this week too.

Seven Years!

Wow, it is incredibly hard to believe that our little Levi was just four hours old 7 years ago at this time. Now he is a big seven-year-old, sport loving kid. We had a fantastic weekend and birthday party today. All of his cousins were here to celebrate. Frisbee golf, pitching machine, golf hole, and flag football were just some of the gifts. Broadway pizza of course for dinner.

We are so blessed to be parents to such a fantastic little guy.

Big smile

Levi lost his second front tooth this week.