Basketball shorts and cycling shoes.

Yesterday was Nikki's birthday. She just turned nine and was so very nice the entire day. She got some cool stuff, like a brand new mountain bike that she has been asking for a long time.  Since Kara had to work that morning, it was up to me to take Nikki on the inaugural ride of her new bike. So that means, getting the kids ready, which means shoes and occasionally clothes for the kids. It also meant pumping everyone's tires up, hooking up the bike trailer, and convincing Mollie that she can't ride because she goes way to freakin slow to make any progress whatsoever. A couple of marshmallows later and Mollie is a happy girl (I think I just told my girl if she doesn't exercise she gets sugar..... hope that Pavlov thing isn't real). London on the other hand does not want to go anywhere near the trailer, partly because five minutes earlier it was covered in leaves, dirt, and probably several spiders, earwigs, and box elder bugs (I vacuumed them out, don't worry).

Since we don't have a garage, the trailer has been out on our covered deck most of the winter, and let's just say, it's also pretty old. We got it when Nikki was little (as stated before, Nikki is now 9, NINE!!!!). So when Mollie steps into the bike trailer, the straps that support the bottom suddenly snap, except for one. I locate the one and touch it to test it's durability and it snaps as well. Good thing it's Amazon Prime day, because that's something we are so getting a new one of.

With the straps broken, the girls are pretty much sitting in a semi-flexible garbage bag loosely tied to a frame with wheels on it, that can occasionally go 25 mph (when attached to me). Their butts are literally about one inch off the ground, but it's OK, we're not going very far.

So we head out, everyone has a helmet (that's another thing, I NEVER wore a helmet when I was a kid. In fact I think I bought a helmet just so I could tell my kids the importance of wearing helmets so I didn't look like some hypocrite dad, anyway I digress.) All helmets have been vacuumed and are now spider web free, and we're off. Nikki is leading, Lukas is in the middle, and I'm dragging the two littlest's butts (literally) behind me. Within about 20 minutes of starting out, Lukas's pedal falls off, like to the ground. He has no pedal now, no way to have any forward momentum. Luckily we are only 20 minutes of kid bike riding out, so that means we are approximately 5 minutes of walking distance away from home.

Nikki's a little bit disappointed, but she's fine. She got a chance to ride her bike so she's happy. I unclip out of my bike. Well let me explain this, I have one bike, and it's my road bike that I do races and stuff in. So I use clipless pedals, which is great unless you just want to jump on your bike and run to the store for something.  I just want to clarify that I wasn't dressed all hardcore tour de France to ride my kids around the neighborhood. Yes I had a helmet on (just in case we crashed going 1 mile an hour) but the rest was a T-shirt and basketball shorts.

Basketball shorts are like the men's version of Yoga pants. They are comfortable, easy to put on, we are technically dressed when wearing them, you can also sleep in them, but most of the time, no basketball is done while wearing them. Just like majority of time that yoga pants are worn, no yoga is being performed... implemented... effectuated... accomplished (OK now I'm just using the thesaurus). You get my point, I was just dressed normally.

We're walking back and I decide to take off my cycling shoes because I don't want to ruin the cleats, and lo and behold, one of my cleats has broken off and is now sitting there on my bike pedal.

The round part is my pedal, the other rectangle part is what is supposed to be attached to my shoe.

So if anyone is keeping track, this month, every single one of our vehicles has gone out of commission. The Rendezvous, the minivan, my motorcycle, and now my bicycle. I'm afraid to touch the kids razor scooters.

We made it home, in about ten minutes, with London standing up in the trailer, dragging it even further down so it is now touching the pavement as we walk home. Lukas stops at every opportunity to look at a rock, the canal, a beaver (that actually was pretty cool, it was swimming in the canal) and we finally get home, where I sit down in the front yard, pull London out of the trailer and put her on a little Buzz Lightyear push wagon that immediately stops making the sounds and lights that it normally works. That's vehicle 5.

I think I'll take the bus tomorrow.

I think she's actually standing on the lawn through the trailer.