So much can change in a year, and it is so interesting how different years can be from each other. This year has been so much less racing and travel as we focused on adding a baby to our family and some unexpected difficulties over the summer. The focus of the year really seems to have been family, just as I feel it should be. There were incredible highs and a few lows but overall I will always look back on 2018 as an amazing year because we added our sweet Emerald to our family.
The begining of the year was full of hiking as a family, we really enjoyed getting outside even if it was cold as I closed out my second trimester.
Spring was fun celebrating Easter but mostly counting down the weeks until I got to meet my baby girl. Anyone who has had a baby knows how time slooooooows down in the third trimester.
Creating Easter baskets 
We got the nursery ready for baby girl and did our best to prepare to become a family of four.
In April, easily the highlight of the year happened with the arrival of Emerald Catherine. Emerald’s birth was so smooth we were able to go home to be with Cannon the very next day.
Emerald on the left, Cannon on the right 
The first month with Emmy was amazing, we loved getting to know our little girl. Cory took a month off of work (they don’t get any paternity leave so he worked really hard and saved up all his vacation time, come on aerospace company, you can do better). We played, rested and Cannon ran his first race!
But then things took a turn for the worse, Cory went back to work, which was an adjustment for us all but an expected one. What wasn’t expected was at a BBQ at the end of his first week back, when Emmy was not quite a month old, he would completely sever his Achilles tendon. My sleep deprived, postpartum hormone filled mind couldn’t comprehend what was actually happening. Cory came home from the BBQ and told me of his accident, he claimed it didn’t hurt too bad and he was certain it would be better in a couple days. I took one look at his swollen ankle and was certain he had badly injured his Achilles. The next morning I made an appointment with a doctor and begged him to go, I didn’t want it to get worse. He agreed to go just to make me happy, the doctor confirmed he had ruptured his Achilles and later an MRI confirmed a full rupture. Now we were looking at surgery and bedrest to recover. I will admit I wasn’t taking this all very well. We had a very active needy toddler and a one month old, Cory has always been a big help with the kids. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it all. In late May Cory had his surgery to repair the tendon and it was a great success.
On top of dealing with Cory’s injury and recovery, our pug was getting sicker and sicker. We took him to the vet multiple times and even up to the specialists at Colorado State University. After a few weeks of no answers I noticed that he had a bump that had grown quickly on his neck. With great fear I took him back into the vet, we hoped it was just an infection but I feared the worst since he had been acting so sick. A few days later I got the call I had been dreading, it was Lymphoma and it was spreading fast. We started steroids immediately and were contemplating chemo therapy. The cancer moved faster than we could and it was clear there wasn’t time for treatment. We were forced to say good-bye to our sweet boy in June.
Even with all of the difficulty and the sadness there was also so much joy! We celebrated Cannon’s second birthday with a Where the Wild Things Are themed party.
With Cory’s injury and recovery from surgery we didn’t have the adventure packed summer full of hikes and camping as we had planned but we did still enjoy the season and played outside a lot.
Summer also marked the return of running for me, I didn’t feel that I could leave Cory home with both kids by himself because of his injury so that made the return slower that I would have liked but it was amazing to get back out there.
At the end of summer we took a family trip to Oregon to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday. It was a great trip visiting some of my favorite places in Oregon including Portland, Cannon Beach and SunRiver (near Bend).
Emmy’s first time putting her toes in the sand. 
When we returned from Oregon it was time to head back to work after taking the summer as maternity leave. It was difficult to balance teaching and caring for babies but it was nice to be back in the class room.
Fall was also so fun to celebrate with Cannon, he is really starting to enjoy adventures and holidays. We went to vail for Oktoberfest and dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween. Cory also returned to running and we started family runs again, and everything was looking better.
Somehow this Emerald girl has sapphire eyes 
Oh Cannon….. 
The ruffles!!!! 
And then there was all things Christmas, we rode the Georgetown train, met Santa and spent a lot of time celebrating with family.
It feels a little sad to be saying goodbye to 2018, it is the year that Emmy was born and the last year that we had Winston with us. It is made a little easier by the very exciting plans we have for 2019.
I hope you all had a wonderful 2018, what was your favorite memory from this year?
