Dirt Bikes/4 Wheeler

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I’m Back & Better Than Ever

Seriously, I really am better than ever! For so many reasons but I’ll stick with just a few.

First, we had such a fabulous Saturday! I have plenty of pictures to share though not as many as I’d like. We all went out for some dirt-biking and four-wheeling. And by all, I mean the following cast of characters:

  • Myself
  • Aidan
  • Daniel
  • Mondo: Daniel’s best friend and cousin by marriage
  • Dalles: Mondo’s oldest son
  • A.J.: Mondo’s middle son
  • Ernie: Daniel’s cousin
  • Mike: Daniel’s stepbrother
  • Jacob: Mike’s son
  • Mariah: Mike’s girlfriend
  • Angel: the ever present dog of Mondo

We had three dirt bikes, a four-wheeler, and my camera for entertainment.

By the end of our day, Daniel, Ernie, Mike, Mondo, Dalles, and Jacob had wrecked to some degree. I only have pictures of Mike, Dalles, and Jacob because sadly, the really good stuff happened when I went to the store and shortly before we left and my camera was already packed up. Let’s just say that the later ‘accidents’ were extremely funny (though a bit scary with Daniel’s escapade) and it sucks I didn’t get photographic proof of them!

Mike was the first to wreck. He was coming down a hill and seemed to temporarily forget a huge mud puddle and went smack into it. The front wheel and nose of the bike went down into the mud and he went off the side down into the mud. That was pretty funny, but it gets better.

As Mike was wrecking, his son Jacob was on the four-wheeler not 50 feet away. He got stuck in some mud himself and the back tire was completely submerged. The other boys tried to help him out but Mondo eventually had to get over there.

Shortly after the mud bath, Dalles attempted his first ever ride on his dad’s (Mondo) dirt bike. What shortly follows is both funny, a little scary, and made everyone proud. Mondo and Ernie were showing Dalles how to start the bike and how to ride it. Mondo was going to follow him on the four-wheeler kind of like how a dad holds onto a bicycle when you first take off the training wheels.

Well, the bike got started, Dalles took off and just went with it! Next thing you know, he’s getting a little squirrely, hits a little dirt bump but holds on. Then there’s this little lip/dip/bump combo and I thought for sure he was going down. Nope, he holds on. Until he got a tiny bit of air and hit another bump and then he became separated from the bike. He kind of jumped off and rolled a tiny bit and just laid there. Of course Mondo was right there. But Dalles was having no more of that, he got on the four-wheeler and sped away.

It was awesome how good he did for his first try ever. And though he claims he’ll never ride again, I know next time, he’ll be begging for another ride on it. We were all very proud of how good he did. I’ll have pictures later.

Now the next one, I was not present for but I hear it was the best of the day. Ernie did the same thing Mike did-came down the hill and aimed for the mud puddle-only when Ernie did it, the nose of the bike went smack into the puddle and stopped flipping him clean over the handle bars full on into the mud. He was fine until he tried to stand up at which time he went full into the puddle to almost his chest. He definitely one for the most dirty award.

Mondo had a pretty good spill when he was going up a hill, caught a little air and combined that with a sort of wheelie. When the back wheel made contact with the ground, it reared up and Mondo just let go and the bike took off up the hill and rolled a bit. Mondo himself fell backwards a bit but wasn’t hurt. That was pretty cool to watch but again, the camera was put away so I didn’t get a shot of it.

The last, and scariest for me, dare devil stunt happened when my lovely husband was getting ready to ride his beast of a dirt bike for the first time. It’s a 500-if you know bikes (which I don’t really), that means it’s big with tons of power. He was standing on the trailer getting it started. Ernie held the bike once it was started so Daniel could get on. Well, when he swung his leg over, he hit the clutch or whatever and it popped into gear.

What happened next happened so fast that my heart stopped and I thought we were going to make a trip to the ER. We had the trailer at the top of a hill with a path that went right down into a sort of bowl. The path was steep and was not the way Daniel was going to go down. Or so he thought.

When the bike kicked into gear, Daniel wasn’t even really half on. But it took off and started down the hill. By some miracle, Daniel held on and rode down the steep path only half on (though he did have his helmet on thank god) and holding on for dear life. I’m telling you this bike has too much power and is a bit scary. All of us just stood there for a second, it took a bit for us to register what had happened. About that time, we see Daniel shoot out from the bottom of the path and start riding. Fully on the bike and safe with no apparent injuries. He did just putter around a bit because I think he got a bit scared. That kind of broke it for us and we just started laughing. The boys were amazed he made that, I was relieved he was okay, and Aidan was just laughing because everyone else was.

So yeah, an eventful day riding to say the least!

Second, we went to Daniel’s uncle’s aunt’s house for an Easter egg hunt (yes, that’s a mouthful). But it was a blast. She took eggs, drained all the goop out, colored them, filled them with confetti, then taped the top. Call me a dork but this was the first time I’d seen this and was amazed by it. Aidan had a blast there too.

Third, we went back to Mondo and Mandy’s for Ernie’s son, Trenton, birthday party. Kids everywhere. We were all tired from our adventures. All the bikes had to be washed from all the mud caked on and it was just madness. Aidan decided to grab the hose and the brat has surprisingly good aim and I ended up soaked. Do you realize you cannot rush a toddler with a hose without getting completely drenched? I found that out.

It was such a good day of family fun and hanging out. We are all exhausted and poor Daniel had to leave for work this morning. I know he is still a bit sore from his harrowing ride down the hill.

I will have plenty of pictures to post, including Dalles’ first ride (and crash!). If you’ve read this whole thing, you are a trooper! But it was worth it, right?

Happy Easter!

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Photos From Our Weekend

These are just some of the photos I took. I will have some more when I get my film developed. I got two rolls of pictures of all the boys having fun plus I took these and more with the digital camera.

The boys pictured with Aidan are his cousins Dalles and A.J. The one guy on the dirt bike is Daniel’s best friend Mondo (who is married to Daniel’s cousin, hence why the boys are Aidan’s cousins).

Anywho, it was a blast! I rode the 4 wheeler but I didn’t really like it because I was too nervous and unsure how to handle the thing. But Aidan had a blast and so did Daniel. It was us, Mondo and his family, and Daniel’s step brother Mike and his girlfriend and baby. Quite the crew.

I’m exhausted today but I can’t wait until we can go again. Just being able to spend some quality time with Daniel did good for both Aidan and I.

Please go check out my Flickr page (the link is to the right in the sidebar) and check out the new pictures I uploaded from this weekend, our adventures on the road, and some photos from Daniel.