#everydayonabike in June/July

The past two months have zoomed past. In less than a month, school will be back in session and summer will be over.

I've been riding everyday - or almost everyday, as usual. It's been more challenging in the summertime due to travel around the Midwest and western Colorado. And I've been forgetting to take pictures. But a bunch of awesome people have been filling in the holes! It's been so much fun to see everyone's biking pictures over the past seven months. In fact, the #everdayonabike tag now has 415 photos of people on bikes. That's right, we've collected far over 365 photos in a far less than a year. Now I'm wondering if we can collect 800 photos by December this year?!?

I didn't include all of the photos from the past two months. But I did include the highlights:

Making my first Target run by bike (7 miles one way) // Benny's last day of school

Getting prepped for a wedding weekend // Riding in Calgary

A hot, sweaty ride in 100-degree weather // Our first picnic in the park

Jazz in the park on a stormy evening // Riding with a friend in Iowa

Enjoying a kid-free few days // Noticing a fountain for the first time // Making my first grocery run

Enjoying an evening ride // Getting my riding buddy back // Our first visit to the Little Free Library

Benny's birthday extravaganza // Running important errands

Looking at all these pictures is a reminder of how great summer has been! Here are the impressive two-month stats:

115 photos posted // 15 contributors // 35 posted by me // 198 miles (recorded - I think there were more)

And thanks so much to everyone who played along!

@simplybike // @jentown // @bemorelocal // @elissabrodt // @shaggybrownie

amaksymo // @murawski21 // @runbobbierun // @cathope // @ashleynicoleaddison

@thepiripilexicon // @bicyclesinnewcastle // @obc_benson // @timaides // katiesnider

Epic Summer Vacation, Part 1

Two weeks ago, the kids and I embarked on a mini-Midwest tour. We picked my mom up on the way. And then we all stayed with my sister and her family in eastern Nebraska. I left the kids and my mom in eastern Nebraska and drove Highway 20 straight into central Iowa for my annual girls' spring break weekend.

Before the festivities began, I got to catch up with S. from Simply Bike and Bobbie from Run Bobbie Run. While I met these ladies through their respective blogs, I am so glad I was able to spend time with them in person. Both ladies are active, healthy moms with lovely personalities. It was also a treat to visit with S. about academia and motherhood and what it all means. There aren't many women in my life who can relate to that. I even got to take a short bike ride with S.

dinner with S. and Bobbie // an #everydayonabike ride with S.
Katie and Jayne in downtown Des Moines // only missing one spring breaker this year

Then off to Des Moines for our wild girls' weekend. Every year, I meet up with three old, dear friends from Iowa State. We used to attach it to spring break vacation because for the longest time, at least one of us was still in school. Between the four of us, we have four bachelor's degrees, two PhDs, one JD, three husbands and five kids! Two of us own our small businesses. One lives in Minneapolis, one lives in San Francisco, one lives in SINGAPORE and I live in Denver (obviously). The fact that we still make it a priority to go on these girls' weekends is impressive and important. This year, we did miss one friend who had just had a baby the week before the trip. It wasn't the same without her there.

When we were younger - before kids and jobs and middle age - we used to party like we were on spring break. Dance and drink and dance. Stay up late, sleep in late. Over the years, our activities have changed a bit. This year, we got massages and pedicures, went out for a nice dinner and then had a drink or two back at the hotel. We still stayed up late, but we mostly just talked. And enjoyed each other and our vastly different lives. We spent Saturday doing just about the same thing, and also included a one-year-old birthday party in the festivities.

I woke up early on Sunday to head back to Nebraska to pick up the kids and my mom. The kids were happy and exhausted from a long weekend of playing with their cousins, swimming nearly everyday and generally enjoying not having a schedule. We made it back to Denver with a full 24 hours to spare before our next big road trip.

New Summer Challenges (to Biking and Other Things)

In just over a month, the weather in Denver turned from snow storms and 30 degrees to 100 degrees. That's weather whip lash and it's just wrong. I figured we'd have at least a month and a half of spring-time weather. I knew that June travel plans would make biking everyday a challenge, but I didn't think the weather would play into it. And kids. That never seems like a challenge - until it's too hot to ride with them.

As noted, we were in Calgary last weekend. It was a lovely trip. The kids are at a good age to travel - naps don't get in the way of plans as much any more and they can be plied with plenty of snacks if eating schedules are thrown off. We incorporated a bike ride into the trip because I'm finding it's one of the best ways to see a city. It was a relatively quick ride, but man I appreciate a good bike lane. And Calgary is filled with them.

So I can kind of deal with the challenges of biking and traveling. The heat, though, I'm still figuring that challenge out. If we want to ride, we need to leave the house before 9 a.m. There's not too much open at that time of the morning that's also within biking distance. As a result, we're going to have to get out of the house earlier and seek out some alternative activities. And, I'm just going to have to accept that some things won't be bike-able. Like the art museum and the botanic center and some other outings. Perhaps public transportation is a viable option that I haven't considered yet.

Other challenges? Well, I'm finding that "school's out for summer" attitude has hit me too. While I should be prepping for my online class and getting ahead in my other work so I can take a big vacation at the end of the month, my motivation hit a stonewall about the same time as Benny was finished with kindergarten. I'll figure it out, but boy, it's frustrating.

I am excited to report that Struckman Consulting was featured on the idealist.org blog late last month. It was a nice surprise.

Canadian Wedding Weekend

On Thursday, we packed up and headed to Calgary for my brother's wedding. My baby brother's wedding. It seems so strange that my youngest brother is now married (he's 30, so he's not a baby any more).

Calgary is lovely this time of year. We decided to spend a morning exploring the city by bike. It was the  perfect family activity. Benny had a great time on a tag-a-long. He'd never ridden on one before.

Calgary has an extensive network of bike trails and routes. We ended up riding along the Bow River from downtown to the west of town. Since Benny was using a tag-a-long, we could ride much farther than if he had been on a bike. I knew it was a success when Benny told Nate that "this was a really good idea, Dad." Nate agreed.

My brother met his wife, Reny, at my other brother's wedding (in Edmonton). It was great to meet Reny's family and friends and celebrate throughout the weekend. I got to spend some time with the ladies of my family for sushi on Thursday night. We spent a majority of Friday afternoon and evening at the rehearsal and dinner, but I did manage to squeeze in a henna tattoo, courtesy of Reny's family.

The wedding was a unique mix of Catholic and Indian traditions and was one of the most interesting and beautiful weddings I've ever been to. But, Benny and Lila were in the wedding, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to take pictures. Lila wasn't too interested in sitting down.

Lila coloring during the ceremony // Benny and Lila - no words // the beautiful bride // our family

The weekend kicked off our summer travels. Next up, a tour of Nebraska, Iowa and western Colorado.

We had a really great time, despite some lack of sleep due to schedules that conflicted with nap time and bed time. Lila was a trooper until about five minutes before the plane landed yesterday. She crashed. Hard.

Six Months of Biking

Today marks the first day of the sixth month of riding my bike (nearly) everyday. I've been slacking a bit on actually taking pictures of the exercise, but I am riding!

It's a big month for biking in Colorado. Denver has it's own Bike to Work Day (June 26) and the Denver Century Challenge is in two weeks. I was planning to ride, but it's not going to work with our schedule. Maybe we'll cheer some of the riders on.

June also marks the beginning of summer riding - when it's harder to blame the weather for not riding. Happy riding!