We were working on spelling and I asked him to write his word.

Can you guess?

Jack worked on his on the patio door. It’s not so bad to write each word 5 times when there is a huge blank glass to write on.

Lydia Larsen

Advanced composition Narrative essay

November 9, 2018

The Epic Bike Ride

Have you ever been on a family excursion were nothing seems to be going the way that is should? While camping at Itasca State Park, my family and I want on such an outing. It was early September, the time of year when most children are already in school. My parents had bravely decided that they would take the entirety of the Larsen clan on a unusually long bike ride. Never before had we gone on a bike ride that was as lengthy as this. Biking sixteen miles is an ambitious endeavor for any group with small children, and we went with eight children, the oldest of which was twelve. Unfortunately, the ride did not go as easily as my parents had hoped. Problems were abundant. Yet, thanks to the assistance of a caring stranger, we all lived to tell the tale of this crazy adventure, on which many things did not go the way that they should.

The sky was mostly cloudy. The breeze was mild. The temperature was cool. Mom and Dad, who must have been feeling extremely brave, told my seven siblings and I that we were going on a bike ride. Not just any bike ride, a sixteen mile bike ride, on Itasca’s wilderness trail. Briefly stoping at the local bike rental shop, we rented a pull behind seat for Dad’s bike, that was called a Wee-Hoo, were Max, who was four at the time, could sit comfortably. Ava, the youngest, who was two-yeas old at the time, was pulled behind mom’s bike. It was the afternoon when we finally embarked on our endeavor. When Grace, Adie, Silas, Titus, Jack, and myself were seated on are bikes, and Max and Ava were situated in their seats, Dad lead us single file along the side of the road. Over what seemed innumerable hills, we tracked onward, the grayish sky loomed

above us.

Before five minutes had passed, unwanted scenarios began occurring. Whining, crying, and

complaining, my eight year old sister, Adie wanted nothing more to do with this bike ride even though we had left the campsite a few minutes ago. Unrelentlessly wailing like a two year old, Adie had lost her mind and there was no hope in sight of her finding it. Struggling to keep her going, we pressed forward. Jack, who is my most adventurous brother, continued rapidly advancing along the trail until he spectacularly crashed into a unseen obstacle. Jack roughly tumbled off is bike. Promptly jumping to his feet, he bellowed, “That was awesome!” Relief flooded my parents. They had thought that he had probably broken several bones and was seriously injured. After stopping several more times to reattach the chain to Silas’ bike, we continued onward.

As I innocently rode along the trail, I heard a hiss coming from my front tire. My bike skidded to a stop. The large gash that ran across the front tire deemed my bike unable to proceed the remaining several miles of the trail. To make matters worse, while my family sat regrouping in a small parking lot adjacent to the bike trail, Moms bike, which lay sprawled on the ground, was ran over by a pick-up truck. All these events were far from what had been anticipated for this family bike ride.

My parents knew that somehow we had to make it back to the campsite. As we sat in the parking lot eating the pomegranates that Mom had packed us for a snack, a pick-up drove up to us. After conversing with Mom and Dad, the man inside kindly agreed to bring my nonoperational bike back to our campsite for us. Although Mom’s bike was slightly bent, fortunately it was still functional. With max squished in the pull behind trailer with Ava, and Jack riding on the Wee-Hoo, we swapped bikes amongst ourselves so that every one else had something to ride that sort of fit them. I rode on Adie’s bike, which was just little too small for me, Adie rode on Silas’ bike, Silas rode on Jack’s bike, and so on. It was laughably comical to watch Silas ride Jack’s bike because it was far too small for him and he had to petal vigorously to keep the bike going.

Thankfully, Adie had stoped her wailing ever since Mom, who was desperate to quiet her bellyaching, bribed her, stating, “Adie, if you stop complaining right now, I will consider getting you a bunny!” Adie managed to pull her self back together and whenever she wanted to complain she reminded herself, “I am not going to complain because I want a bunny.” While we again rested in a parking lot, the same man that had taken my bike returned. “ I just wanted to see if you guys were okay.” He explained. Dad and Grace went with the man back to our camp site to retrieve our van to rescue the remainder of us. Because everyone was tired, trying to continue the remaining five miles of the bike ride would have been a miserable ordeal. Thanks to the help of that kind man, who was a complete stranger, we all made it safely back to the campsite.

This bike ride was long and crazy, yet today, my family has fond memories of that day when nothing seemed to be going the way it should. On that cool fall day we encountered many problems that we had never anticipated, such as having to bribe Adie with a bunny to get her stop complaining. Fortunately none of the problems that we faced were life of death situations and we eventually made it back to the campsite. Much thanks is owed to the stranger who kindly assisted us in dropping off my broken bike and insuring that we survived the bike ride. Biking alone together with your family on a chaotic adventure, can seem miserable at the time, but remember that it will make a wonderful story for years to come. The tale of this family excursion has become a Larsen family legend and gone down in our history books as: The Epic Bike Ride.

It’s not too often that he falls asleep on me anymore. This might just be a last. That makes me a little sad and I don’t really want to get out of this chair. I want to hold onto this moment a little longer.

Lydia had Morgan and Audrey over for her birthday. They made lefse.

After a 8 day work adventure and then a quick to Dallas with me…daddy is home. He was able to get me in for free at the Delta World Club.

He is in charge of Oliver today. Instead of taking him outside every 30-45 min, he thinks cleaning up pee and poop is easier than going outside.

Oh sweet Jesus. I want to bang my head against the wall.

We had a half inch of snow and Jack showed up in my bedroom before 7 am dressed like this.

Most days homeschooling I feel like the schizophrenic teacher. They all ask questions over the top of one another. Many times I do have down time while helping one student that I’m able to answer a question or two. Lately they’ve been crazy. Crazy demanding, crazy impatient, crazy loud. I’m grateful that Carl will be home next week. Fathers help restore order and make sure that respect is happening.

She dressed like our favorite babysitter, Heather. The other big deal is that now all three girls are officially stealing my clothes.

He is trouble. and so is he.

We made it through another hard work out.

Ava at our Co-op on every other Monday.

I received the amazing end of the deal taking all girls home from co-op.

Jill took the boys and they had shop class in the house. They built a bench. Max and Jack we’re so proud when they came home. We ended the day playing laser shot at Grandpa and Grandma’s house while Grace and Lydia were at their small groups.

I love cartoons.

They gave me an extra hour of sleep this morning in the hotel room.

Sent off Titus and Jack this morning to hunt with Grandpa and Grandma. They were amazing little troopers for having to get up at 4 am.

These two are best buddies when we are together.

Max had to urgently go to the bathroom so we made a stop at the Brainerd rest area. Before I knew it, these two had climbed on Paul Bunyan. I tried to explain tall tales to my VERY literal child, Titus. I don’t think he understands the concept yet.

We came home and unpacked the van. The birthday girl took it upon herself to vacuum out the nasty van. She is a go getter. Lydia and I snuck out to go get some birthday gelato. There is masking tape with her name on top of the containers. Waiting for big Sis to get done with youth group.