Back to the Bikes

I mentioned in an earlier post about bikes and what a great time we have on family bike rides. We have been so blessed by my brother, who has graciously hooked us up with bikes & accessories over the past several years. He is an amazingly, creative guy whose profession is designing graphics on bikes, helmets...all sorts of accessories. The coolest part is that he works for what we think is the best bike company in the world...TREK! (Did I mention he designed the graphics on Lance Armstrong's bikes & the racing team's identities? That's our mom's favorite detail to add in when she brags on his work) My parents can brag all they want though...they've seen his talent since he was a young guy, obsessing over and re-creating on paper his favorite bikes and semi trucks. We're glad he chose the bike industry over the 18-wheelers...we couldn't fit 2 of those in our garage!

So we have the ultimate hook-up with some great quality, American-made bikes and they happen to be sporting graphics that my own brother designed! I won't do justice for his amazing design work and talent...he does a quality job in everything he does though...most importantly being a family man for his wife and girls.

Then, to top it off, he hooked us up with a bike trailer to pull our kiddos in. Braden graduated from the trailer a couple years ago, when we happened upon a TREK Mountain Track bike at a garage sale. We snatched that tag-along up so fast and have by far recouped the $10 we paid for that gem. Coolest part about it...it is the exact color of Brent's bike and looks like it was bought as a pair!

Brent & Brooks going for a ride

For this summer's adventures, we've took family rides to the ice cream shops, we rode on some awesome trails in Fairfield, Iowa (where Brent grew up) and took the whole set of bikes on our 1st Labor Day camping excursion. We gave nearly every kid in our camping group rides around the campground and Brent managed to sneak away on some trails with a couple of buddies. Apparently the trails were quite narrow and the trees jumped out and grabbed Brent's toe. He is still suffering tonight and thinks it's probably broken. Thankfully our friend, Maria, was with us and she put her nursing skills to work and taped up his bum toe.

Brent getting some TLC from everyone at the campsite.

Regardless of the outcome of our rides, we think of my brother and are so grateful every time we hook up the bikes and ride off together for some q.t. The boys could ride for hours and we're given the great chance to get out and explore the great outdoors!

Thanks a bunch for the hook up! We'll keep saying it..."We LOVE our bikes!"