What an awesome day.  With our passports finally renewed and Bradley having the day off, we headed down to Bellingham for one of our regular stock-ups.  We shopped at Trader Joe’s (my favourite), made a stop at Target  (my other favourite), picked up a bunch of summer clothes (a birthday gift to me from my ma – so awesome), had a picnic lunch, and played at the Tot Lot, which Grae loves.  Gracen slept on the way home, we got through customs quickly and painlessly, and we arrived back in Canada to find out that my new bike and baby seat (a gift from my dad and brother – so unbelievably spoiled, I know) was built and ready to be picked up. Sweet!

After dropping off all of our groceries at home, we headed downtown to Denman Bike Shop to retrieve my metallic mint beauty.  We had a bit of an issue as we don’t yet have a bike rack and  it didn’t fit in the back of our SUV, but luckily Brad was a very good sport and rode it home / took the Canada Line while I drove home with Miss G and made her dinner.  

Just as we were finishing up our meal (very close to Gracen’s bedtime) we heard the ring of a bike bell outside. Gracen immediately shouted “All done!” and ran to the front door.  She was so excited (as was I) that I couldn’t resist taking her out for a ride, despite the bedtime looming near.

It’s been years since I’ve ridden a pedal bike, but “it’s just like riding a bike” held true to its claim.  We cruised around our neighbourhood doing loop after loop as Gracen waved to strangers, said hello to passing puppies, and gave me a play-by-play of what she saw – “Green tree!”, “Red car, black wheels”, “Grae Grae pink seat, Mama black seat”.  And each time we’d circle past our house, a “No home. More bike.” could be heard in protest. 

To say that we both loved it would be an understatement.  In fact, we stayed out until 8 p.m. (an hour and a half past Grae’s usual bedtime – and bedtime isn’t something we normally mess with!) because we were having so much fun.  When we finally did have to call our ride quits, our little lady was not pleased… So unpleased in fact, that we may have come as close to a mini temper tantrum as we’ve ever been. I think she would have slept in her new pink seat if we would have let her.  With the promise of the bike staying at our house in the garage and riding again very soon, we managed to get our little bike-loving baby out of her beloved seat and into the house for bedtime.

Now to plan out a little bike route for tomorrow…

♥