Centennial Trail Bike Ride, Mirabeau Park Trailhead

Two things have brought a lot of joy into our lives lately. First, this incredible Spring weather has prompted us to bust out the bikes and our load up the Wiggles in our new bike trailer. And second, the Spokane area is criss-crossed with SO MANY bike trails! We are having a good time exploring the area via family bike rides. Plus, since it is tick season and the ticks are worse than normal I am just fine leaving the forested hiking trails for a few weeks while we pound some pavement on our bikes. Erik flicked twelve ticks off his pants on a hike the other day! Somehow there was only one on me. Still, gross.

This Saturday we met Matt and his boys at Mirabeau Park to hop on the Centennial bike trail for a ride up to the Barker Street bridge. We just loaded up that bike trailer with all the snacks and baby essentials, bundled up Wiggs, and cruised an easy 9 miles alongside the Spokane River. I had a blast following the boys on some off-roading mountain bike trails that paralleled the main paved trail. My nephews are so much fun. They are little outdoorsman through and through. We stopped every so often so the boys could re-fuel and throw rocks in the river. Somehow, anytime we do anything with the Lucas's we end up throwing rocks in water, boys will be boys!

Tate has been a little firecracker this week. She is beginning to take steps on her own, climbs on everything, mastered climbing up and down the stairs with ease, says lots of fun words, jumped on the trampoline for the first time, sits and babbles aloud with books pretending to read, eats all her fruits and veggies, has mastered the sippy cup, and loves exploring at the park. I went up to babysit my nephews in CDA this week and little 4 year old Gavin kept asking me, "why is she SO CUTE?". I tried to explain to him it is because her parents are so good looking, but the joking comprehension was above him. The truth is, we have no idea how we got so lucky with a happy, well behaved, people loving little girl! She is so full of life and love for the world around her. She turns one at the end of the month, I can't believe how fast the past year has flown by. It has by far been the best year of my life.