My Latest Mtn Bike Adventure

I took the afternoon off work on Friday to go ride my mountain bike at the local state park, because, for probably the only time the rest of this summer, the temps were below 80 degrees and the humidity was low so I HAD to take advantage of it. This was my first time back on the mountain bike on actual off-road trails since my weekend trip to Pisgah Nat'l Forest in North Carolina about a year and a half ago where, on about mile 38 of approximately 40 total miles we rode that weekend, I caught a tree with my right shoulder going way faster than I should have on a trail I was not familiar with. I believe that crash, while it didn't really hurt at the time, contributed to my need to have shoulder surgery in January of this year.

So, here I was. My first time back on the bike, and while I was just riding at the local state park, these are no easy trails so I didn't get much of a warm-up. My trip started at the bottom of the mountain on some moderate trails that eventually led to a paved road for a VERY steep climb to the rest of the trail system at the top of the mountain. When I took the paved road I decided to lock my front suspension to get better power from my pedals to the wheels to make my climb a bit easier. The problem was that I forgot to unlock my suspension when I resumed riding the rocky, rooty, skinny, uneven trails at the top of the mountain. I approached a large rock with a drop-off about a foot high that was perched on a downhill section of the trail. I thought nothing of it because it didn't look too bad and I've ridden it plenty of times with no incident. Unfortunately, because my front suspension was locked the momentem of the bike carried me off the drop off and kept on carrying me straight over the handlebars until I was face first in the dirt with my bike on top of me. If it had happened to someone else I'm sure I would have laughed hysterically because I KNOW it looked funny, but it wasn't funny this time because it happened to me and it HURT! The end result...

...a busted up forehead and bike helmet split completely in two (picture looking at inside front of helmet above). The helmet definitely did its job by absorbing most of the impact. If I hadn't been wearing it I would have been in a pretty bad situation, because, as it was, it took about 15 minutes for the dizzyness to wear off.

But, that's part of the allure of the sport...at least for me. Life can be boring (and severly damaging to your general fitness level) when you live 40+ hours per week in a cubicle so I jump at the opportunities to get outside, get some exercise, and add a little excitement to my day whenever they present themselves. Besides, my new scar is a good conversation starter! For example, the family and I were having lunch downtown today when a little boy (about 5-7ish) looked at me in the restaurant and asked, "Hey, what's wrong with your head?". Thanks, kid.

Palmer Walking

The broken leg definitely set him back, but at just over 1 year old the boy is finally walking on his own. The two videos below were taken last weekend. Just a few days earlier, Mel and I were sitting in the floor across from each other and he would take one or two steps and then lunge for us knowing that we would catch him. Even more impressive is that last night (only four days after he really started walking on his own) I watched him climb by himself up the slide part of the pastic slide in the kitchen, turn around, and intentionally push himself off to slide back down...no help from anyone. Of course, he lost his balance hit his head and nearly freaked out, but whatever...

Trip to Morgantown, WV

Okay, so the only reason I'm posting pics to the blog at 11:15pm on a weeknight is b/c Cassie already has pics up from our visit this past weekend. I can't say I'm surprised...she has no life to speak of. :) We had a great time and appreciate Cassie and Justin hosting us for a couple days.

Watching Harrison imitate Justin's laugh was one of the highlights of our trip to Morgantown last weekend. Lucky for you, Justin, his impersonation still needs some work.

Lucy enjoying her evening walk.

Harrison and Bailey had a great time playing together...especially in the playroom downstairs where they could be as loud as they wanted to be.

On Saturday, we took a little drive through Morgantown to see the sights. As you can see, Bailey was mesmerized!!!

I spent some time teaching Palmer the ropes of driving during a break in our trip home on Sunday. He now knows how to turn on the windshield wipers...in fact, he is quite skilled at it.

Bailey chillin in the backseat watching movies on our trip home. She certainly had plenty of time to do so. The night before we left to return home Palmer decided he didn't need to sleep much. The result was that he was asleep before we even got out of Morgantown. He woke up two hours later around lunchtime, but, after that, he slept off and on for the next five-and-a-half hours. We literally did not make a stop from the time we left New River Gorge in WV until we got to Greenville!

All in all, both the trip to WV and the trip home were quite successful and the kids did wonderfully.

Palmer's First Cast

We're always excited to show off our childrens' "firsts"...first crawl, first word, first step. Well, how about their first real injury...like a broken tibia and fibula. At only 11 months old Palmer certainly beat me to my first cast. I think I was in middle school before I actually had anything casted. Luckily, P hasn't shown any annoyance at his new friend, it's not slowing him down from crawling all over the place, and he is only scheduled to wear it for three weeks.

We're not positive but we think it happened while he was sliding in Mel's lap down one of those big inflatable slides at "Pump It Up" here in Greenville. The only plausible explanation is that his foot got caught under Mel's leg as they went down the slide, b/c she says he started crying when they got to the bottom of the slide and pretty much didn't stop the rest of the time they were there. This all happened on Saturday morning (4/24). He was in a good bit of pain at times throughout the day on Saturday, but at that time we had no clue what the problem could be. We finally pinpointed to the area around his foot when we came up with our hypothesis about his foot getting caught during the slide. It wasn't bruised or ever swollen all that much so we figured he may have just sprained it. We gave him some infant Motrin which helped and decided to watch him throughout the weekend to see if it would get better.

It did, in fact, get better; although he couldn't support his weight on that leg when he tried to stand up and would topple over onto the floor. So, when that trend continued through Monday Mel set up a doc appointment for the following morning. Dr. Moll referred him to the hospital for x-rays whereupon we learned it was broken. I met them at the hospital (after having been at work for a whole 45 minutes) and a short time later I found myself holding him in the casting room having the kind of father-son bonding moment I didn't think I would be having this early on.

Good news is he should be better soon and that it was a very simple break that will heal up with no impact to his ankle joint. Let's just hope he doesn't manage to wiggle out of the cast during the next few weeks.

More Palmer Videos

April Pics (Including Easter)

Here are a few pictures from the month of April...yes, the month that is only 14 days old at the time of this post. This post is as big as many of my other posts that cover an entire month!

The daycare was closed on Good Friday so I took off work and kept the kids while Mel worked. We went to the zoo that morning and then met Mel for lunch downtown before heading home for a nap.

Bailey definitely enjoyed the animals and Palmer showed interest from time to time, as well.

Here we are at the church on Easter morning.

Bailey and Palmer on the church grounds Easter morning.

The kids hanging in front of our church. You know, its not THE most beautiful church I've ever seen but there is definitely something about it that I love. I guess that's a good thing, huh?

Palmer looks thouroughly unimpressed with the flowers Bailey is giving him. At-a-boy!!!

Bailey got a pig neck pillow, among other things, in her Easter basket. Mel picked it up for her b/c whenever we travel and Bailey falls asleep her head falls over b/c she is in an upright position. The only problem is that the neck pillow is a little too thick and it makes her look like she is wearing a neck brace. I'm not sure she'll ever actually fall asleep with it around her neck.

Since my birthday was on Easter I opened a few presents, as well. Palmer loved the tissue paper while Bailey loved helping me open the boxes.

Bailey with her Easter basket and the eggs she and Mel dyed.

We headed to the Greenville Drive game this past Friday night for the Drive's first Friday night game of the season. I know the kids are too backlit to really show up well but I wanted to post this pic anyway. We had great seats...second row off the visitor's dugout on the third base side.

Our stadium has a children's playground in the stadium that we visited a couple times throughout the game. Bailey, of course, was in her element.

Palmer had a good time in the playground too; although, we kept him away from the actual playground equipment b/c there were some crazy kids running around in there. Poor P wouldn't have survived long.

The Sunday following Easter our Sunday school class held our annual Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was supposed to be Palm Sunday but it got rained out. Unfortunately, a number of people were out of town (or watching the final round of The Masters) and didn't make it so the kids in the picture represent maybe one-half of the total number of children that belong to our class!

Bailey finding an Easter egg under a slide in the church's playground.

Here, Bailey is checking out what's inside one of the eggs she found.

Palmer at the Easter egg hunt.

Palmer Eating and Clapping

Here's a short video of Palmer feeding himself and clapping. He's been doing this now for a couple weeks or so but I'm just now getting some video of it up on the blog. I hope everyone can see the video this time.