Ride, Kari, Ride!

At the end of last summer, after many, many attempts at teaching Kari to ride a bike, I was pretty convinced that she would be riding with training wheels until she was 12. However, on Saturday afternoon Kari surprised us by asking Greg to take her training wheels off. She was ready. Here's the exciting progression:
Greg awkwardly trying to run alongside, holding on to help balance
freely running alongside, no contact
Kari feeling confident enough to go it alone, and Greg happy to be done running up and down our street.












proud, training-wheel-free Kari
















While not completely in control, she's got it down. We went over to the local middle school track this afternoon, and she rode fast and furious, hair streaming behind her in the wind. Only had one major wipe-out. She ran into Joel on his bike and took a tumble with legs flying over her head. Joel somehow escaped unharmed. After a band-aid application, Kari got right back on and rode some more. She loves that she can go "so, so fast!"