Holiday Highlights

1. Just spending quality time with Becki, Meg, and Luke has been great. One of the main reasons I wanted to be a teacher was to be off around the holidays and of course the summer with the family.
2. Spending Christmas day with the Wendler family at our home. I bought my house from my grandmother. She bought it new in the 1950's so it is a special place to everyone. My dad even lived here as a kid and I spent many a Christmas day in this house as a child. I feel like it makes everyone happy to be in the house were they grew up and spent so many previous holidays.
3. Going out with some old friends and one new one to the Ye Old. The Dogg and I have been going out on a regular basis to get "beefs" and hang out. This time my brother and neighbor went with us. The beef, beer, and the company were super. It was nice to go out with my brother Andy. We always have a good time and don't get together enough. Dave is a great guy who it was nice to get to know a bit more. Lets do it again soon.
4. Eating! Becki made a great dinner for Xmas day. We are still eating the left overs! It is great to have a wife that is a great cook and likes to entertain the family. I must also mention Mary Kay's (mom) cookies. Her butter cookies are a Xmas tradition for me that I love!
5. Riding! Training! It is nice to have a goal in the near future of racing. I look forward to testing myself in 08!

Last Day

Today is a great day to be a teacher! We have a week and a half off to recharge, spend time with family, and ride the bike. One thing I need to do during the break is spend time with Becki, Luke, and Meghan to make the holiday as fun as possible. I am also going to use this break as the start of my training for the 2008 mountain bike racing and riding season. Getting back to some racing this season will do the body and mind good. I will say it now, "I am going to dedicate my racing season to Dave C". Go out for a ride and realize how lucky you are to be able to get on your bike and enjoy the outdoors. Dave thanks for the inspiration! Becki thanks for being great mother, wife, and support person for your mountain biking husband!
D.O.N.E

Meg

My daughter Meghan got up early the past two days. When I say early it was about 5:30 a.m., not that bad. As much as I would have liked to continue to sleep I got up with her. When I realize that she is not going to go back to sleep I take her down stairs so we don't wake up Becki and Luke. It has been really nice to spend the time in the morning with just her. We get to play and read without the Luke factor. Meg being the second child has had to share the spot light with Luke. Since Meg has been the "easier" child to deal with all of her life daddy usually gets Luke duty. Although I love Luke duty I never realized how little time I get to spend with just Meg. Thanks for the morning time Meg.

Pictures

I do not have the best computer skills so putting pictures on a blog was challenging. Becki was the one who ended up doing it. Thank you for the help! All the blogs that I read have pictures so I felt I really needed to get with the program. I hope all that check out the blog will enjoy. The bike is my son Luke's. The picture was taken at the end of the summer at Valley Green after a 5 mile ride and some wonderful rock throwing. Yes, he rode 5 miles of gravel road at 3 1/2 years old with no training wheels! Amazing! The other picture is of some super singletrack at White Clay. I love that picture because of the way the light is coming through the trees.

single track

Big Day

12/3/07 will be a day that goes down in history in the Wendler household. Luke is a Binky kid. From the time he was born he had to have the Binky. When he took a nap or went to sleep at night it was like a magic, give him the binky he was out. He would of had the binky 24/7 if we let him. We started to just give it to him to go to bed at night a few months ago trying to get him ready for the day he would be done with it. Becki came up with a way to get him to get rid of the binky quickly. He could use them to buy something. He would tell us when he was ready to use them and then be done with it. He did it. What did he get you ask? A hockey helmet, hockey stick, and two toy motorcycles. He had three binky's! Last night when it was time for bed we were a little nervous, but he did pretty good. Our only mistake was letting him sleep with his new motorcycles, he was up most of the night playing with them! D.O.N.E

Weekend Report

Friday the Dog and I went to Ye Old for some drinks and the best roast beef sandwiches in the world. The conversation is always good with the Dog. A funny thing happened when we were their, a song came on the radio by Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs Fame)She was one of Rob's favorites. I will talk about Rob in detail soon just know that he was my best friend, and the Dog's brother who passed away from cancer a few years ago.
Sat. was clean up the yard day. The whole family was out in the cold raking leaves. Luke and Meghan were doing more jumping in leaves then raking. It is fun to see them having so much fun. I am lucky to live in Plymouth all I have to do is get the leaves to the curb then the township guys come by with a big vacuum and suck them up. The kids love to watch the vacuum go by. Then I was able to get out for a mountain bike ride at Valley Green. The rig is a whole lot of fun, a single speed in those trails will never be easy.
Sunday we watched the Transformers movie with Luke. This was the first "big" person movie for Luke. He sat for the whole thing. It was fun to have a relaxing Sunday with the family.