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Last week was Lauren’s 6th birthday celebration.
She got lots of craft stuff, dolls, Super Barbi, and a Nerf gun.
On Saturday she had a party at Sweet & Sassy, which was a great success.
Lots of fun. We’re all tired and surrounded by plenty of stuff to play with.
– b
Done traveling until 2018.
January will be busy with trips just about everywhere.
Happy I made it this far.
– b
After Abigail spent a lot of time ripping around the perimeter of our yard on her new bike, I suggested we time her.
First go was 33 seconds.
A few times later it was 31.
Then 30.
How fast do you think I can go, I asked
She looked defeated and suggested something like 20 or 19 seconds.
Speeding at a ridiculous pace, I barely managed 27 seconds.
Her face lit up, and took off.
29 seconds.
She tried a number of times. 29 became her new average. Just two seconds off my time, which I’m not even sure I can safely repeat.
Way to go kid!
– b
About the time Abigail lost her last tooth Lauren noticed that she had a wiggly tooth.
Once one of her teachers at school heard about it, she offered to pull it a week later.
A week has passed and sure enough she pulled it for her. Ouch!
Lauren lost her first tooth.
– b
Over the Thanksgiving holiday my brother-in-law happened to stumble on an abandoned limestone mine.
We were looking for an open area where the girls could ride their dirt bikes and knew of an abandoned limestone quarry. While discovering that the query was completely shut down and closed off, we accidentally found an area of the quarry that was underground and rather accessible.
So what does any adventure minded parent do when presented with such an opportunity? Go get the kids!
The mine was huge. It was like an underground mall. You could literally drive cars and trucks through it in both directions.
We figure it’s been abandoned for around 40 years. It was surprisingly unmolested.
Over the course of an hour, we traversed from one side to the other (two different exits), and back to the beginning. See the map below.
The green arrow pointing up was what I’d call the main entrance. The blue area above it is roughly the area of the mine. The red arrow is one of the exits we came to, but it was 100′ up the cliff side in the quarry. See below.
The yellow arrow represents the second exit we walked to (first picture at the top). Though the yellow exit wasn’t up the side of a cliff, it wasn’t exactly clear how they got equipment in and out of the mind from the quarry. I’m assuming due to the course of time, there was probably a bridge or some other passage that’s now long gone.
The green arrow pointing down toward the second blue area was a second mine area under that mountain on the other side of the road.
Both sides were cut in a grid formation. The ceilings were roughly 20′ high and the “hallways” 40′ – 50′ wide. In one area of the second mine, there was access to what appeared to be a cave they cut through. We peeked in, but didn’t explore it further.
Though we never found a new spot to ride, we certainly found something cool to do.
– b
We picked up a new bike for Abigail. It’s a 2009 KTM 50SX Senior.
It’s a full-on dirt bike.
She had gotten too big (frame size) for her JR50. Standing while riding was ridiculous, because she’d tower over the bike. The KTM, though the same engine size, has a taller frame and more suspension.
But it’s not just frame size that’s different. It’s a meaner machine. It has all the characteristics of a bigger bike – liquid cooled, higher compression engine, tunable spring/oil suspension. It’s just a smaller CC engine. It makes the JR50 feel like a toy.
The previous owner was an 11 year old girl who’s had it for a few years. She’s now moved onto a KTM 65. Seeing how quickly Abigail has taken to the new characteristics of the KTM 50, I doubt we’ll make it to 11 before we’re looking at 65s.
Another pseudo cool aspect of the whole deal is that we checked out the bike in the dark. How do you test ride a bike in the dark? You use lights!
The night prior to looking at the KTM, we rigged up her gear with my mt bike night riding light and tested things out. She took off like it was day. No issues whatsoever. Lauren rode too – without a light – in the dark. Scared the hell out of me, but she loved it. Down the road at some point I can definitely see lights for each of them to extend their riding time.
– b
For whatever reason the girls have exhibited a fresh sense of vigor for riding their dirt bikes.
It was their idea to take them to Grandmas for Thanksgiving.
It was their idea to ride and ride and ride while there.
Back home, they decided to work on jumps, so we did.
We also worked on standing up a lot, though not seen in these pictures.
Makes me wish the weather holds out a little longer for more riding before it gets too cold.
– b
Got Abigail out to the local riding spot.
She enjoyed it until she crashed and hit her knee on a rock.
She’s been on a riding kick lately. It’s been fun. Too bad it’s getting cold.
– b
Didn’t get around to blowing out the pool lines until late this year.
Oops.
Oh well.
Done now.
– b