Bitter-sweet... but mostly just BITTER!

We decided to sell Marshall's motorcycle a few months ago. It was a super hard decision but it was time and we could no longer ignore it. Marshall LOVES his bike and riding it was one of the only hobbies he has managed to hang on to since we've been married and had Kate, but he hadn't been riding it much lately and like I said, it was just time. It was a pretty sad day when we finally cleaned it up and put it up for sale on the Internet. Here are a few pics for the archives.

Nate had it custom painted and a few other things done to it for a wedding gift to Marsh.

Marshall wanted the flaming sun because once upon a time he had named his bike "Apollo".

Here is the closest thing Marshall will get to taking Kate for a ride! These pictures were taken at the beginning of June when we first posted the ads. I can not believe how much she has changed in just a few short months!

Too bad they never got to take their father/daughter stunt team on the road! We could be rolling in it and probably would have never had to sell the bike!

After a couple months, several phone calls, and a few price adjustments, the day finally came.

:( Here Marshall is putting the back seat on so him and I could go for one last ride around the neighborhood before they came to pick it up. I think Marshall had secretly, (or maybe not so secretly), hoped it just wouldn't sell this summer and that it would turn out to be some test of faith like Abraham and Isaac... not so.

Some words of encouragement. However, there wasn't much I could do to cheer Marshall up... It was the end of an era.

A half-hearted smile after Marshall took it for one last "real" ride after he took me out for a "safe" ride. Then some nice people came and took Apollo to live on a farm where he would be ridden often and have lots of room to go fast!

In a small twist of irony, and on a brighter note... that night Isaac accidently found his first bike that Nate and Britt had been saving for a morning reveal. It was on the front porch and in all the excitement of saying goodbye to Marshall's motorcycle it was discovered.

But if he had not accidentally found it we would never have gotten this gem! Here Grandpa is showing Isaac how it is done and Isaac is giving him a boost. (not the best lighting but too good to pass up!)

Knowing that Marshall was planning to sell his bike Kate and I had a special gift in mind for Marshall's first official Father's Day...

I don't have actual pictures from when he opened his gift on Father's Day because Kate was not about to give up her hold on the camera even for the first Father's Day moment! So here are some I managed to get with her later.

We went down to the Color Me Mine in Provo and made Marshall a Motorcycle Bank! Uncle John met us there and helped me with Kate while I worked on getting it to look mostly like his bike and then Kate added her finishing touches! Just an FYI- painting ceramic with a 1 yr old is NOT an easy task!

Color Me Mine is an inside joke from when Marshall and I first met. He was trying to impress me and take me on a fun, unique date and kept suggesting that we go there to paint and play. It didn't take long for him to figure out that I was more of a dinner and a movie kind of girl. We never went there for a date and to this day we still jokingly suggest that as an option when we are having a hard time deciding where to go for a night out.

Marshall really liked it and even shed a little tear. (I think it was more for the thought of selling his bike at the time and not so much for the sentimentality of the Father's Day gift).

He is already saving for his next bike!