Beautiful Day Riding

I took the kids to FDR Park today to ride our bikes in the beautiful weather.  I quickly learned that Ella still has some work to do on the whole "enjoying" part of riding our bikes together.

It's so hard because, at times, she loves it.  However - if she falls once then she freaks out and biking is something that was created by the devil.  She will have nothing to do with it.  Then that snowballs into the other kids.  See - if Ella refuses to get on her bike then none of us are going anywhere - and the other kids know it. Fortunately peer pressure usually wins out and Ella climbs on her bike and woefully trudges ahead until she forgets all about the bad parts and is loving it again... for the moment.

We stopped by the skate park at FDR park at about 1:00 and it was early enough that there were some other kids there that were our age.  We mainly watched from the sidelines but Robby was particularly intrigued.

I think that the awesomest thing about today was Sammy - and how he helped out his little sister.  As I mentioned, Ella doesn't like riding bikes.  Sammy knows this and immediately volunteered to stay with her all day.  "Dad - you can ride up with Robby and James and make sure that they don't go too far ahead.  I'll stay back with Ella."  I thought he was full of it, but other than a few minutes at the skate park he was, literally, at her side all day long.  When she fell a few times, he helped her up.  He helped her walk her bike across the road at one point.  He guided her through some puddles.  He really impressed me today.  He's a great kid...

James and Anna both agreed, I think, that lunch was the best part of their day.  They both ride well, and enjoy riding, but when got our Cheesesteaks from Tony Luke's the smiles lit up their little faces.  I don't have any pics of them devouring the steaks because I was doing the same thing to my steak at that time.

It isn't easy getting out with all of the kids, their bikes, and my bike too - but we did it.  This was the first time that we were able to get all of the bikes on the rack and also my bike broken down and put into the back of the SUV.  Now that we've done it once... I think we're in trouble because I know I can do it over and over again, now.  Woo hoo!

Tomorrow... Bike Adventure With The Kiddos

Stay tuned...

(since I wasn't posting - I will try to throw some recent pics up that I've taken.)

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Winter Cycling... Part 1?

As I've alluded to, I recently started biking a lot. I picked it up again late in the summer and haven't stopped since. I biked quite a bit in college until my bike was stolen - and I had better stuff to do than get a new one. Finding myself with more "free time" these days, I figured now was a good time to pick it up again (and - hey - there are worse vices to have, right?) One day with nothing to do, I borrowed my Dad's bike, and went off for a ride and fell in love again. So fifteen years later I start riding again, the bike hasn't been stolen yet, and so here we are.

It's been an extremely mild winter in Philadelphia which has proven pretty awesome for the bike riding habit. However, I have not really had the opportunity to bike in the snow. Until today...

I'm in Pittsburgh this weekend and brought my bike, knowing that some snow was expected. Dude - biking in the snow is freakin' tough. I mean, the roads are okay but I went biking on the Yough Trail (part of the Great Allegheny Passage.) Who knew that cutting through unpacked snow is significantly tougher than riding on a paved street? So I abandoned the trail pretty quickly and hit the roads. Guess what - the hills in Pittsburgh are no joke either. I had a couple of tough climbs (none on the linked map, though) and then got to ride the downhill, completely terrified of crashing on the slushy and icy country roads. Pure perfection. All said, I didn't really go too far today - but I tried it. I need some new gear to cover my frosted feet, but other than that I think it's something I can tackle.

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Location:West Newton, PA

Tales from the First Ever Valentine's Dance

The build up was incredible. Imagine the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl and multiply that by 10. That was the hype generated in the Morris house for this year's first annual Father Daughter Valentine's Dance. Ella, in particular, has been talking about it for weeks.,

"Dad - do you think we can go? What if it's Mommy's weekend?!?!"

"What on earth are we gonna wear?"

"What if they don't let you bring BOTH daughters as dates? Will you pick me?"

The questions clearly swirled through their youthful minds with thoughts of princess dresses and thirty of their bffs screaming and dancing to Justin Beiber.

After we got the go ahead from Mommy (it was her weekend) we started planning. The girls had picked out Christmas dresses that they weren't able to wear at Christmas time - and they were perfect. Red. All we needed now were some accoutrements to make them look glamorous. Mommy let us borrow some dress shoes and tights and the outfits were set.



We put on some of Grandma's make up (thanks mom) and we were ready to roll. (I wore a red dress shirt, pink satin tie, and a black suit - no picture - sorry guys.) We were off...

The evening started with waiting in line for pictures before we could dance... ... ...




Ella pointed out, EVERYONE is inside but us...





After a brutal 15 minute wait we were in. They danced like fools, ignored their dad, and had an awesome time. I appreciated the hummus and pita and the Italian hoagies. A fun night was had by all...





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Live Blog From Valentines Dance!!

Here is my attempt at a live blog...


Justin Beiber and Maroon 5 ROCK!!!!


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