water and wheels

Yes, water and wheels is exactly what this past week has been all about! Henry and Walter spent every morning going to one of the local Pedalheads bike camps, with the intent that they learn to ride without their training wheels. Sam tried last summer with Henry but it did not go well and we've learned that Henry would fare better with someone else teaching him. When I went to pick them up after the first morning I was surprised that their training wheels were already off. Henry was just showing me how he was doing, from a beginning wobbly morning, when suddenly he did his longest ride of the day there in front of me. And then just like that, he got it! He was zooming around me, no kidding, for 10 minutes as if he had been biking for years. I was so, so proud of him! (and so relieved!) Walter, however, was upset that he just couldn't get it that first day, like Henry did, but we kept reminding him what Henry was like last summer when he was 5. By the second day Walter was going with his teacher hovering over him and by the third day he showed me his amazing longest ride ever. Proud, proud boy and very happy parents! Today was their end-of-week bike parade for all the parents and they both went around all by themselves, big smiles bursting out as they were earnestly watching where they were going. That's the stuff of summer, right there. (To keep it real, Henry also did a big wipeout today and ended up with a fat lip and bleeding gums where he had landed on his teeth. All is well though. Sigh.) The boys have also been in our backyard pool often the past couple of weeks - a pool that neighbours across the street just randomly gave us. Thank you kindly! It's like having 3 boys in a bathtub ... it gets pretty squishy ... but still amazing what games and competitions and imaginary stories they can come up with even in such a small pool. Yesterday Nana and Grandad brought cousins Hunter and Mira down for the afternoon and the five of them had a great time together. It's so fun to watch cousins who actually really, really like each other play together. After the pool and ice creams and soccer and basketball and relay races and A&W we all went for a spectacular evening walk along the water here in Esquimalt. We could see Ogden Point straight across with a huge cruise ship currently docked, the Inner Harbour tucked in out of sight to our left, kayakers and sailboats bobbing about and a count of 10 seaplanes taking off or returning in the time that we were there. It was absolutely gorgeous and a great way to cap off the day. Sam finally pushed through all his work hours today and is now on holidays for a few weeks ... so August will have it's own set of adventures soon enough. Like last year, I find myself at the halfway point of the summer here on July 31st ... in a word, tired. Just wanting to get done any and many items on my to-do list but knowing that realistically I never will. It will be nice to re-evaluate tomorrow and make up a new list and enjoy August for what it will be. And by the look of our calendar: fun and busy!