A Perfect Moment

Due to the ward campout last night (which we bailed on after dinner), we had no babysitter for our usual Saturday morning ride. Taking advantage of a good excuse, we slept in this morning, which was delicious. It left us in such a good mood that we decided to get up and be good parents and take the kids out for a family bike ride.

They had already fed themselves breakfast (awesome skill, by the way), so we packed up pretty quickly and left. Even though we were only going to do about 5 miles of the Jordan Parkway Trail, they put on their bike shorts and insisted that we do the same. My boys are hilarious in their spandex glory-- really, should lycra ever be baggy? The padded butt makes it even funnier, but they think they're cool.


After some issues loading the bikes, we got to the trail. It was about 72 degrees, the sun was shining and there was a tiny breeze blowing. A few of the leaves were starting to turn gold and red and if you watched carefully enough, you could see a fish come to the surface of the Jordan River every once in a while.

Layne had Doug on the tandem today. He was pedaling along, looking around, standing up every once in a while and yelling, "Pedal faster, Daddy!" Emalee was right behind Layne, showing off her skills and trying to pass him when he wasn't looking.

I kept Mike right in front of me, as he is pretty unsteady on his tiny Trek 1.2. It's way too much bike for a 6 year old, but he looks so flippin' cute on it, I couldn't resist. He did great, too, until he tried to catch Emalee and got going so fast that his feet flipped right off the pedals and he nearly went down.



As I'm bringing up the rear, I realized that this was a truly perfect moment in my life. I was with the perfect people, doing the perfect thing, on a perfect day. There is nothing in the world that would have made that hour any better for me-- not a single thing. Those moments are so rare in life, and it is even more rare to realize that you are in the middle of one. I knew it was short-lived-- an hour at most-- but I still thanked God for giving me that piece of heaven and I asked that it would be captured so well in my memory that I can draw on it during the "unperfect" moments sure to come.