Spring Break?

Clearly, it's been a long time since I've been in school, so the whole concept of 'spring break' is a little foreign. However, I'm beginning to see the value in it -- even for (or especially for) those of us who haven't been in a classroom for decades.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind since last summer when I sold my place in Boston, moved to Seattle, bought a house, got acclimated to 3-year-old twins (and, more importantly, vice versa), adjusted to working remotely, and a million other things. Factor in the rain we've been having seemingly non-stop for the past month or so, and it comes down to this: I want a spring break.

While we're not planning anything crazy, we do have a few things in the next week or so that I think will serve that purpose. First off, KLC and I will be going this resort/spa type place for one night (without kids) on Sunday. Neither of us has ever been, but it's one of those you-can-be-pampered-as-much-as-you-want places called Suncadia, which is about a hour an half east of Seattle. Can. Not. Wait.

After that, we will be going to the Oregon coast for a long weekend with KLC's mom. For those East Coasters who have never been to Oregon, it is very spectacular and unlike the coastline in New England that I've seen. I've only been once several years ago, but I thought it was great. We got a great off-season/last-minute deal on a house in Lincoln City and you don't need to say the words "firepit" and "beach access" to me more than once. I promise some pics, if I decide to exert enough energy during either of these excursions to press the button my camera.

Bikes!

One of my first introductions to pedaling came from the very sophisticated machine known as The Big Wheel. I have very specific memories of blazing around Peter Circle on it (ok, I might not have been going quite as fast as I thought.) From there, it was onto Schwinns and 10-speeds and the rest. I have used a bike regularly as an adult for commuting and traveling, as has KLC, so we both were really excited to get the twins out there.

In anticipation, KLC and I bought the kids their first bike helmets a while back. The problem until this weekend was a lack of, well, bikes. No longer. This past weekend, we were able to find two nearly matching -- one slightly used, one new but on sale -- 16" bikes with training wheels. One is even a Schwinn, bless its heart.

These pics show the first day out. It took a little while for them to get used to the idea of not pedaling backwards -- hence stopping -- but soon they were both getting the hang of it. (As an aside, I know that push bikes are all the rage these days for getting kids on bikes very early. I'm sure they're great, especially for learning balance. However, I stick by my Big Wheel experience as a way to get the whole pedaling thing down.) We're looking forward to this rain stopping so we can get out there for the next round.