Sport Utility Bike in action

This afternoon had another great opportunity to try out April's new sport utility bike (the Ute). We needed some misc things for the house so we headed to Fred Meyers. Fred Meyers is sort of like a Super Wal-mart, in that they have a little bit of everything, and it's only about 2 miles or so from our house.

In addition to groceries, a few small plumbing items, and misc household items, we bought a bicycle seat for use on the Ute so Hailey can ride on it. We looked at various small chairs and other items we thought we might be able to use, but decided the bike seat was probably the best option, even though we only need the seat part and even that will need some modifications. The seat came in a big box, so we were about to put the Ute to the test.

Upon arrival at the store we had dropped the kids off at the in-store playland. They have an employee there that watches kids from ages 2-5 for up to one hour, and they have a pretty intricate identification system. When we were done the lady wouldn't let me pick them up, even though she recognized me and the kids were talking to me, because I wasn't wearing the special paper identification bracelet that she'd given the kids and April. We'd taken about 59 minutes, and the lady commented that Travis was pretty funny; she said he stated "I don't know what's taking them so long, we're on bikes so they can't be buying that much stuff". Travis obviously doesn't understand the carrying capacity of the Ute.

We were running a little later then expected so we loaded up the bags, strapped the box to the rack, and then went across the street to Burgerville for dinner. Burgerville's like Mcdonalds except they try to use local stuff and be environmentally friendly. Their motto is "fresh, local, sustainable". The kids and dad really like Burgerville.

And to make the trip home a little more challenging, April bought a Blackberry Smoothie to drink on the way home. Fortunately she was up to the challenge because we made it home without difficulty.