they keep me laughing: "Look, Mom! No training wheels!"

Chris's goal this summer was to get Cole riding his dirt bike without the training wheels. He tried it once this summer and didn't like it and because of our summer schedule, we couldn't find the time to get him back over to Grandpa's house to try it again. We were getting frustrated, to say the least. Here we spent all this money into getting Cole this dirt bike that he begged us for and all the gear, and now he didn't want to ride it! Well, I think Cole's little kick in the pants came last Sunday night. The potluck and sing for this month was at Linda and Terry's house. After the singing, the guys decided they were going to go over to Joe and Paulette's house to ride the quads and the go cart. So Chris, Joe, Dawson, the Lenza boys, and all the kids took off. They rode for hours over there! Well, I guess Cole kept saying he wished he had his stuff to ride his dirt bike so he could ride around with everyone. The next day we were over there for Labor Day and guess what he wanted to do....ride his dirt bike! He got on it, Chris held onto the back of it (very loosely), and he gassed it and went! Chris held on for about 5 seconds before he decided to just let go and he ran behind Cole. Cole made a huge loop around the entire yard before he stopped. We all started cheering and clapping and telling him he did it on his own. He didn't believe us. He thought Chris was holding him that entire time. I had to show him the pictures on my camera of Chris running behind him. :) The smile on his face was priceless! He was so proud of himself. And the proud smile on his dad's face was priceless too! Chris said he was the happiest and proudest dad ever that day! He was floating on cloud 9! :) Cole made a few more laps around the house, with Grandpa and Mason beside him, before Chris got his riding stuff on and joined in the fun.