A Weehoo 4th of July

I hope everyone had a great Independence day weekend!  We sure did! Family time, new friends, and some fresh air and we were happy campers.

Neva couldn't wait to get back in the Weehoo, and I was happy to oblige.  The hitch system is easy to use, and gives my wheel plenty of clearance.

The trailer comes with 6 different sized shims to fit a variety of seat tubes, and the hitch pivots around really nicely, not hindering turns or movement. The trailer arm (left) slides over top of the hitch piece and locks into place with the pin. 

As many of you may have seen in the news, the Dallas/Fort Worth area (we are in Denton, TX) has been having lots of flooding with all of the rains over the past couple months, meaning that all of the trails are currently underwater or super muddy. So, with all of the construction around, and it being a holiday (ie. no one is working) we decided to explore where the new portions of the neighborhoods will go.

First we made sure that Neva was properly buckled in, and her feet were inserted into her cages.  The seat slides forward and back along the central bar to adjust to a growing child, and the cages have bungees on the back to secure the foot in place. 

Yup, that's the signal that it's go time!

The back of our cul de sac backs a wooded area, we have to climb over a big birm, but then have some dirt trails to explore.  While we are re-situating, Neva tells me about how big the bike tube was at the bike shop that she saw when we dropped off the tandem the other day that was for a 29er fat bike. We continue on our way, and find a nice cement path.  Unfortunately, it was for a golf course, so we quickly biked our way to the nearest road. There's a road extension that we use to get to our neighborhood grocery, so we decided to explore that instead. 

Here's the start of the path to get to the grocery store, but we will continue forward instead of turning, to see where it goes. Apparently, Neva says this is her "biking" face...hmmm, do I do that?

And neither one of my children could resist sitting in the big crane. 

Near the end of the construction work, we bumped into a lake with some trails around it within the trees. Yes, shade was a welcome friend, as 11am was approaching, and temperatures were rising here in north Texas. Here's a picture of Neva among the newfound foliage. I'm not sure exactly where we were, but at least there was a sign...

So was the end of our trail, so we pedaled our way back towards home.  Neva wanted me to take a picture of these because she said they looked like large Lego blocks.  Indeed Neva, indeed. 

We managed to find a firework show nearby, near Lewisville Lake, so we went there for an evening of fireworks.  Neva made a few friends and ran around with glowsticks and bubble guns for an hour after the show ended. Tip to parents : glowsticks are a great way to see your child in the dark. Flashlights, glow in the dark shirts, whatever, just tape them to your child and let them run!

Though this picture doesn't do it justice, this was one of the better shows I've seen. The fireworks were huge and practically overhead, giving a 3-D look to them. There were sparkly ones, and golden ones (Neva's favorite color), smiley faces, and ones that were shaped like Saturn or looked like nebulas.  Neva squealed the whole time, so I was happy. 

Sunday morning, and Neva was rearing to go again! She biked with me 2 miles of my 4 mile run, and when I got back, sweaty and looking for water, she said she wanted to give me a surprise.  The surprise was that we were going to run from our house, back behind the cul de sac, around some of the trail/construction area we had been.  Here she is in the lead, wearing one of her new exercise shirts. That's my girl!

After her shower, Neva wanted a haircut, so the whole family (except Christian) got their ears lowered. Neva picked out this haircut out of some pictures online. Even our dog Sammie got a trim. 

And so ended our holiday weekend, with biking, running, and haircuts.  I guess the weekend kind of went like an "If you give a Neva a bike ride, she's going to want a run to go along with it" story. Oh, and I can't forget, the ever so popular face painting!

Happy Independence day everyone!