I want to ride my bicycle

We have this thing going on around these parts. 

This is my "parlor" which resides right inside my front door. Guess what it is? A bike shop. And I love it that way. 

 When I am riding on my favorite bike in the whole world (well, one of my favorite bikes in the whole world), this is my view (which accounts for most of why I love this bicycle).

Caleb bought this for us last year, and since our baby is no longer a baby (waah!) and we have a in-house-babysitter, we have ridden it this year. And we have loved it. 

Loved it enough to hang it on the wall in our library.

Tandem bicycling is not for everyone. Turns out there is a huge personality thing that goes along with it. You either love it, or you don't. Check out this quote that I found on a bike website one day:

 "Tandem riding leaves no compromise... you either cycle straight into a new honeymoon or you cycle straight into the divorce court! There is nothing in between."

For us, it has been the new honeymoon. 

 Plus we live in a gorgeous mountain valley which boasts miles and miles of gorgeous country roads to explore. Bonus.

But that is not all, no that is not all! (Name that book)

Possibly even more than road biking... we love mountain biking. And some time a few months ago when I was not in my right senses I signed up for a race. 

 Which turned out to be SO FUN.
These photos are slightly confusing because the start and finish were in the same spot, so this sign says START on the other side of it where we watched the ladies finish... but it says FINISH in the photos of the start. You get it.

 There I go! The leader of the pack! Just kidding, there's a bunch of ladies ahead of me.

 Nearly every time I bike and I'm really cruising nicely, I have the batman song in my head. Is that weird? I'm always like "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh BAT MAN!!!" And then I go faster. Because I am batman.

FINISH! At the Start sign. You get it.
I finished it! It was 8 miles of up and 1 mile of down. It was rocky and steep and difficult and gorgeous. The categories were 'beginner' 'sport' and 'expert', with age categories within each of those. I opted for 'sport'.
I was 9th out of 20 in my category, which I was stoked about. My first goal was to not be very last. Goal achieved!
My second far-off-dreaming-goal was to be in the top half. Goal achieved! Barely. But achieved.

Best cheering section a girl could have! I lurve these kids. They be raggamuffins, but they're my raggamuffins.

 This is my buddy Katie (and her little bundle of cuteness) who signed up for the race the night before, which worked out awesome because she was the only one in her category! She got first place! That's the way to race, man.

And when I arrived home that night, this was waiting for me:

 Because my sister Katie is awesome and she loves me.

Caleb started mountain biking this year using his old beater mission bike. After two rides, guess what he did? He sold his Carbon Fiber road bike. He bought an aluminum one instead and had money left over to also get a rockin' new mountain bike. Because he loves it that much. Because it's that awesome.

We have had SO much fun biking this summer. We go multiple times a week, some times the kids come along, sometimes we go with our awesome biking friends, sometimes one of us is busy so we go alone. But the very bestest times of all are when we go with each other. Just us two. Because we are the best of friends. 

 And sometimes we ride under rainbows because we are magical.