The Week Before School Starts & Jamie’s Back

We have had one busy summer:

1. Jamie from England (soccer coach) lived with us for 3 months (leading into summer).
2. We took off for 2 1/2 weeks to travel the U.S. in our Sprinter van.
3. We came home to 2 Brazilians living in our home. Soccer coaches.
4. Corom and I went on trek, my oldest had her 5th grade Shadow Mountain campout, Corom went on scout camp, he also went to Catalina, California for a spear fishing trip. I had cross country camp with the high school kids.
5. I found out I pulled a muscle behind my knee with arthritis forming in my legs. 😦
6. We had 4 boys from China here for almost 2 weeks.
7. 4 boys from the Country of Georgia stayed with us for 8 days.
8. We went to Leo carillo, Malibu California for 5 days for our annual beach camping trip.
9. Jamie from England came back to our house for the next 3 months!
10. Oh and our basement flooded 3 times total in a 5 month period.

​Our week back from beach camping and our England son has returned (Jamie has missed us so much):

Salem Days 5k: I have not ran since June and I actually stopped biking, etc. just to let my knee heal. I can’t say I have not ran because I have probably gone out about 3 times in the past 2 1/2 months for various reasons. Anyway… I decided to run the Salem Days 5k with my kids. Once we started, I only lasted about .6 miles before I told the girls I was going to run ahead and come back and get them when I finished. I absolutely miss racing and quickly realized how out of shape I am and how much my knee is driving me crazy!! I just want to heal up and race again. I can run through the arthritis pain but can’t start the training with how tight my knee is. Anyway… I pulled off a time of 20 minutes something (a 6:50 pace) but as I said before… so out of shape! My girls ran excellent. My oldest took 1st in her age group, 2nd took 2nd in hers, 3rd took 1st and 4th took 2nd. It was fun to see them come in. The rest of Salem days was a blast. Breakfast, kid’s parade (the night before), the community parade, BBQ, fairgrounds and activities… bike riding, the pageant (a little play), then the firework show. I so love this community. This picture I took from someone else in our community… it shows the beauty of our pond and the firework show.

Over the weekend I helped Sundance resort (Woody) put on a 7 mile trail race. It was absolutely beautiful and the course was awesome! I ran the course the night before with Corom and Jamie to make sure all the signs were in place. I took a pretty good fall on the way down but didn’t get too scratched up. My knee was so tight for majority of the run, 😞 But it felt so good to get out and run. 

The next morning, we all got up early and headed up for the trail race. Corom and Mike were the sweepers (they were the last ones… making sure everyone was cleared off the mountain). I took the girls up to about mile 4 and waited for Corom and Mike to show up. We all ran the last 3 miles together.

Right after the trail race, we went to Park City to the Olympic Park for some fun. The guys (Corom, Jamie and Mike) are the ones that went down the slides while Amy, the girls and I watched. We were very entertained! We could not stop laughing with Corom’s and Jamie’s 1st jump!

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Sometime during the week we went to the Hot Springs with Jamie and Greg (both from England here as soccer coaches). I was able to soak in the hot springs for a good hour with my knee taking in all the minerals. I heard that would help so I wanted to give it a try. The boys had a brilliant idea to pull the van up as close as they could to the spring hole and jump in. I have to admit… it was entertaining. Corom jumped in right away…

…and it took Jamie a little while to do it. 😉 Sorry Jamie.

​We had a few extra neighbor kids come with us… my girls loved it. We had a good time.

We took Jamie and the girls to the High School’s 1st football game of the season… Jamie’s 1st time sitting down and watching American football.

I took the girls to the fairgrounds and my oldest got roped into helping with the face painting booth.

The day before school started, we were able to see the Eclipse. We went to my sister’s house and met up with my younger brother and his family and my oldest brother and some of his family. We spent the time on the lake and in the hot springs pool. My oldest brother (and family) are visiting from California. They are sending their daughter off to college (she got into a University up here). 🙂

 
Cross Country this summer has been great. We have had many activities other than running! Many mornings, we had breakfast ready for the kids as they came in. We played games, BBQ’d, etc. Good group of kids and so ready to race.

It’s been a busy week/summer and I am ready for school to start.
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