Dirk's First Bike Ride

A milestone in any kids life is their first bike ride. Wendy and I had worked for quite some time to try to get Dirk interested in riding a bike without training wheels, but we were just giving ourselves back pain from leaning over all the time. So Wendy signed him up for one private bike lesson ("I heard she's real good") and he came back, showing he could walk his bike and "glide" on it for a few second - i.e. coast downhill with his legs hanging out - I'm thinking big deal. But we go out the next day ... and by golly, Dirk gets it. While he looks a bit unstable in the picture below (click on it for a larger image), he recovered from this position and by the following day, he was able to start himself and bike a 100+ feet. The $75 bike lesson seemed a bit extravagant, but turned out to be money well spent. Now Kyle, the younger brother, has asked (insisted) that we take the training wheels off of his bike as he wants to learn! ;-)

We're visiting friends in Steamboat this weekend (I fired up the radon gas test in our basement) so I have to somehow fit Dirk's bike into our Toyota Sienna XLE minivan so he can practice and/or show off up there. Way to go Dirk - Mom and Dad are very proud of you on your first bike ride!