So, back to July/August 2019, when life was simple and I didn't own a single face mask! First, Cora's soccer team did a couple of soccer tournaments during the summer. Cora plays forward, which is her favorite position, because she can just hang out by the goal and not help on defense :). Her team was in the championship game in one tournament, and they had two overtimes and then went to a shootout. I think there were three rounds of shootout before the game was finally over, and unfortunately Cora's team lost, but it was a super exciting game, and the girls were happy to get their medals even if it was for second place:
Cora's coach Emalee was so awesome, and sent us a email every week with how the team was doing. They improved a lot and the girls were all so fun. It was a fun team!
One day we went to the pool with some friends, which is always fun. Cora was so cute while eating a popsicle with her goggles on her head I had to take a snap.
The kids swam around a lot, but a lot of the time they were huddled together in the water playing "Mafia," a game where you have to play a role, and if you are the "Mafia" you have to lie and pretend you are not. I am very bad at this game, but the kids love it.
Cora and Dax were whining one day that we hadn't been camping all summer. Preston was busy with something and Arden wasn't feeling like going, so I got brave and took the two littlest up to Bountiful Peak all by myself!
We set up the tent and got a fire going and everything! We had a great time, but I did hear something walking around outside the tent in the middle of the night (it was probably a mouse or a raccoon), but it sounded like a huge bear and it took me forever to calm down and go back to sleep. Next time (if there ever is a next time of solo camping) I will bring a weapon of some kind to defend my tent.
We invited the Wongs up the cabin for our annual summertime hang out! The kids are growing up! We went to the beach of course, and had fun waverunning and burying Nash in the sand and making sandcastles and all that good stuff.
We went to the poll and splashed around and sat in the hot tub and played Marco Polo and all that good stuff.
We went to Ice Caves in Paris Canyon. It is always fun to see the the ice in the summertime and crawl around in the dark. This year, the kids really wanted to climb all over the rocks, which was really scary for me, but no one got hurt so we called it a victory.
We went for a hike along a beautiful river in Paris Canyon! Arden and Zane kind of hung out together a lot on this trip. So, here is a picture of Arden and Zane, sitting in a tree!
Whenever we weren't doing an activity, the kids all gathered together and played "Werewolves," which is a game where you play a role, and if you are the "Werewolf," you have to lie and pretend that you aren't. I am not good at this game, but the kids love it. They also love marshmallow roasting! It was a fun trip as always.
This picture was on my phone, and I just thought it was a cute picture of my silly girlies, so here it is.
At the end of July, I was excited to run the Timp half marathon. It was a "Race for Cancer" and they gave us a bib so we could run in memory of someone, so of course I decided I would run for Brynn! I was going to try to beat my PR of 1:37.
The morning of the race was a little rainy, but the rain stopped before the starting gun went off. I was doing pretty good for the first few miles, but then right at mile 4, I was running as fast as I could down a hill, and stepped right on a rock about the size of a deck of cards, skidded, and took a bad spill. My ankle hurt right away, and I skinned all the skin off of my opposite knee. I quickly scooted to the side of the road to try and figure out what was going on. I stood up and tried to walk a little, and it hurt significantly, but I thought it was probably just a strain and maybe it would start feeling better if I tried to "walk it off," or well..."run." Lots of people I had worked hard to pass were passing me, so I jumped back out there and tried to go.
I ran for a mile until the mile 5 aid station. It wasn't my fastest mile. My ankle was not feeling any better yet, and probably a little worse, but I was still hoping it would get better, so I got a water and kept on truckin'. There were two miles until the next aid station, but I was fully intending to make it to 13.1, and finish this thing for Brynn. So, I kept going.
The next two miles were not my favorite. I was steadily slowing down, and around mile 6, I decided that at the next aid station I would see if they had any tape or anything I could wrap my ankle up with. By the time I got to the mile 7 aid station, I was hobbling pretty severely. I asked the guy in charge if he had a medical kit or anything, but he looked around for me and all they had was band-aids. I took a couple and stuck them on my bloody knee, felt sad there was nothing I could do about my ankle, and headed out again.
I had only stood still for a couple of minutes while they looked around, but my ankle had stiffened up and felt horrible as I headed away from the aid station. I only walked for a couple of minutes before I finally gave in the fact that I wasn't going to make it 6 more miles to the finish. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to, no matter how hard you want to fight. I turned around and headed back to the aid station. They called a ride for me to the finish, and it turned out to be a full-on ambulance.
I told them I had a sprained ankle and was fine, but I needed a ride to the finish. I felt dumb riding in an ambulance for a sprained ankle, but that was the only ride available. They dropped me at the finish, I hobbled back to my car, and drove home. I went to Cora's soccer game that afternoon with ice on my ankle, and it was really not feeling the best. By the evening, it had swollen, juuust a little:
Preston went out and got me some crutches since he was tired of watching me hop around, and he knew that it must really hurt because I was icing it constantly and I generally hate it when ice is touching me in any way. By that the next day (Sunday) my whole foot was swollen and red, despite anti-inflammatories and constant icing:
Preston convinced me to go to the doctor the next day, and...my ankle was broken in two places! Bummer! It wasn't displaced so no surgery needed, but they told me no running for at least 3-4 months, which put my plans for a fall marathon out the window. :( Plus I was supposed to go to girls camp the next week, and Disneyland the next weekend! I bailed out of girls camp, but there was no way to cancel Disney since we already had tickets and hotel rooms booked. But, more on that next!
On the way home, we stopped to visit Kohl, who was going up to school at Utah State. His phone was broken and Preston was helping to fix it. While Preston worked on it, he played on the swings and played hide and seek with the kids. What a good sport.
Fall soccer season was upon us! Arden usually would opt out of watching, but sometimes she came along. 
Dax would also come, especially if bribed with a drink from Fizz (which Preston was a VERY FREQUENT customer). Dax is not as good at pulling cute faces as Arden is.
So, this happened. We adopted a kitten! His name was Sherriff at the adoption center, but we decided we didn't like that. We named him Loki, after the character from the Marvel movies, you know, the God of Mischief. What could go wrong?
Arden and Ava decided they were in love with Steve from Stranger Things (in addition to Tom Holland from Spiderman for Arden and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) for Ava). They begged me to draw a picture of him for them. I thought it was hilarious so I obliged. I even put blood on him, cuz that was how the picture I was working from was. You know, Demogorgons and stuff. Arden hung it on her wall immediately and there it stayed for a few months. Silly girls.
So, while I was in my "no-running-broken-ankle" purgatory, I decided that in order to keep from losing all my fitness I better start biking. The only bike I had was a free one that was like 14 years old, so I got a new road bike! Not too fancy, but good enough for me. 
Olive got a haircut. Olive hates getting haircuts. Have you ever seen such a pretty but sad doggie?
Cora's soccer team went to a U of U soccer game and painted their faces and ate a bunch of junk. It was super fun!
