Benjamin's a Bike'n

"I'm a bike rider Now!" Benjamin says today. Ben has been on a week long 'high' since he finally learned to ride his bicycle. He wanted to let everyone know about how excited he is to ride his bike. So I asked him a few questions.

SG: What do you like about riding your bike?
BEN: I love riding on two wheels. I like turning the bike. I like playing with my friends on the bicycle.

SG: How far have you ridden you bike?
BEN: Around the block, oh and also I went all the way down the street to my friend Tyler's house--and Anthony's house too.

DAD: Was it hard to learn to ride the bicycle?
BEN: No

DAD: What was hard about learning to ride?
BEN: Getting my foot on the petal was hard. Turning wasn't very hard though. But stopping was easy because all I had to do was turn the petal backwards. When I went around the block, I did get mixed up and went forward when I wanted to go backwards and stop. Sometimes I use bushes to stop.

DAD: Who taught you how to ride the bike?
BEN: My grandpa Dennis did. He told me to "look down the street" It was way easier to do. He told me to put my foot on the petal too.

DAD: What kind of bike do you have?
BEN: It's called the WIPEOUT! It is blue, red and white. I like my bicycle!

It has been really great see Ben shave so much fun with his bike. He runs home from school and the first thing he does is jump on his bike and ride around the street. Thanks Grandpa this week for taking time to teach him--he will remember that for a long time. We have a family bike trip planned as soon as Dad gets his flat tire fixed!



Enjoy the pics!

-Shayne

Peralta Trail Hike

For a time now, I have wanted to hike the Peralta Trail in the Superstition Wilderness. Well, Saturday, was my day! This is definitely one of the best and most popular day hikes there is in the area. Fortunately we had an early start, which let us enjoy most of trail in some solemnity, but the return hike was filled with hundreds of hikers, boy scouts, horse back riders, dogs, etc. I love to know that others are enjoying the easily accessible natural areas near town, but i like it even more when it feels like we are farther from the city than we really are.

The hike was made even better by the mild, overcast weather and the the amazing green on the hills. I was hoping to see a few more wildflowers, but they just were not yet in full bloom, I did take several pictures however of some of the early comers.

The trail seemed to be moderate in difficulty, which took about 2.5 hrs for us to complete. The real reward of the trip is the view of weaver's needle from the Fremont's saddle. The view reminded me of Devils Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. With the steady stream of hikers ascending the canyon to that point, it made me think we should sit and wait for the alien ship to arrive and play us a MIDI concert! But instead we turned around and enjoyed the greats view back down the canyon. Enjoy the pictures...

Here is some information about the trail ---> azcentral.com

Angels vs. White Sox

Spring Training is here!

It has been a bit of a tradition for us to go to a spring training game. This year we saw the Angels and the White Sox at Tempe Diablo Stadium with the cousins. Thanks Jeannette and Austin and Riley, for a great day! Great weather, great fun, lots of treats, oh yeah and they played some baseball... Check out the pics.

Ben's Coyotes Mascot

Ben has become a crafter. He loves to color, cut, outline, fold, paint, decorate and anything else. So when I asked hem what he wanted to blog about today he held up his latest creation, and said that he wanted to put the Coyote's mascot he finished coloring and cutting out, on the blog. Here is it...The coyote image came from a coloring book from school. He is the mascot for the Phoenix Coyotes Hockey team.

"Secrets of Droon"

This is an interview with Spencer about his favorite book series, "The Secrets of Droon"

Shayne: First of all Spencer, what is "Droon?"
SPencer: Droon is a magical place of wizards and sorcerers and all sorts of magical objects. Droon has magic because... There was magic in both worlds but it was taken away from a evil princess named "Samaldra"

Shayne: Why do you like these books?
Spencer: I like reading them because it is about a magical place and I like fairy tales--they are cool!, The major characters are: Keeha, Eric, Julie, Niel, Max. My favorite character is Eric, who got powers from Droon by accident. He has glasses. The other characters are Spar, King Zello, Queen Renut.


Shayne: How many of these book have you read?
Spencer: I have read 27 so far, I want to read all of them!

Shayne: What is your favorite Droon book so far?
Spencer: Wow, that is hard to choose, I think it probably book #1, because it was the beginning, and they did a lot of things and I found out about all the characters and the map and everything.


This is a picture of the author here. Here is fun game that I like of the Secret of Droon

Ben's Field Trip to Stuffington Bear Factory

This week I went to the Stuffington Bear factory with my Kindergarten class. I picked the white bear, because I like polar bears. WE got to see how they cut the shape of the bears. We got to feel the fabric that makes the bears. And, we also got to see how they stuff the bears. It was really funny when they blew the stuffing into the air as a joke!

I named my bear "Jo Jo" I like my bear! It was fun having time at the stuffington bear factory! It was cool having a white bear!

-Ben