We have been trying since winter ended to teach the boys how to ride bikes. They got their first bikes 2.5 years ago for Christmas, and they did pretty good with them (except on hills, where they'd accelerate until they went out of control and then just crash). Those bikes had training wheels. So when this summer rolled around, and we pulled the bikes out of the shed, and in addition to re-inflating the tires and greasing everything up real good, we took off the training wheels. And we invested in kneepads, elbow pads, and helmets.
We would take them to parks, out in the driveway, to running tracks, and would try to teach them how to ride without training wheels. They'd never go for more than 20-30 feet before giving up... they'd never even fall over! They'd just kind of slow down and then put their feet out and wait for mom or dad to catch up to help them get started again.
Recently the twin boys whose grandma lives next door demonstrated for Jack and Owen how to ride their bikes without training wheels. And just like that, our boys decided they could ride, and they did. This video is a clip taken up in Rigby yesterday (I think), where they've been with Grandma and Grandpa Ward the last couple of days, on their brand new bikes.
I am personally a little traumatized from bike-riding on my mission. The accidents, the soreness, being run off the road by cars, having beer bottles thrown at me, etc. I gave away my $400 bike at the end of my mission and couldn't have been happier to see it go. I probably haven't ridden 10 miles on a bike since coming home. But maybe that will change now.
They just aren't little boys anymore. Look at how they ride, as if they've been doing it forever.
