We woke up to some snow blanketing the ground and a chill in the air.

We attempted to cover our garden but the wind storm foiled our attempts, goodbye tomatoes.

Even with the cold and snow we decided that the kids needed some time to get out and see their friends.

It took me a long time to locate all of our snow gear that had been stowed in the spring.

We met some friends at the park and played until the kids were soaked and freezing.

After playing we came home to warm up and have some lunch. Emmy went down for her nap and it was my chance to get my run in for the day. I was feeling very tired and cold but I knew if I got my run done I would feel better.

Cannon joined me again in the play area while I ran on the treadmill. He was a great cheerleader giving me words of encouragement while he played on his tablet.

After Emmy woke up we all loaded into the car to pick up some frames that I have been meaning to get for about two years now. Curb side pick up when you have two little kids to get in and out of the car is a great option!

I am excited to finally get the art for Emmy’s room up on her wall.

For dinner we made clam chowder, it was so nice to have soup on a cold day! Looking forward to more soup this fall.

What is your favorite cold weather food?

I really wanted to run outside not in the dark today because I really love running in the rain/snow so I put off my run until lunch time.

It started snowing last night but nothing was sticking because it has been in the 90s.

The kids were pretty exited to go outside and see the snow. I had to look hard to find their snow boots and break out some of their new fall clothes.

I have to admit that I didn’t hate to cool weather after a long summer, it was nice to pull on sweaters and turn the fire on.

We spent most of the morning playing in our basement.

We had had plans to go nowhere. We played and Emerald even gave me some nice cuddles.

She is looking SO grown up.

At lunch time Cory took over and made the kids lunch so I could go out and run outside.

A bonus to all this Covid craziness is Cory working from home. It makes it possible for me to sometimes run outside or take Cannon out with me during nap time. I will sure miss it when Cory goes back to the office.

Even though it had snowed all night and day there wasn’t snow on the ground yet at lunch time, just a little muddy.

The falling snow was cold but it was so worth it for the beautiful views and clear air.

I got home in time to put Emerald down for her nap and set Cannon up for a Zoom meeting with his teacher.

He is getting so much better with virtual meetings.

It was really cute to see him interact with his teacher.

After Emmy woke up it was time for more playing, there was lots of wrestling.

Emmy tried to look innocent.

With watching Le Tour de France the kids of decided they are bike racers.

We had a quick dinner of fried rice and spring rolls because it was a teaching night. I started a new statistics class, it’s my favorite class to teach.

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Do you enjoy a change of weather?

Do you like running in the rain?

This morning I snuck out of bed early to get on the treadmill so I could get seven miles in before the day got going. The air was terrible so I didn’t even consider running outdoors.

We are hopeful with the storm blowing in this evening that the smoke will clear and the rain/snow will help with all the wildfires.

We spent most of our day getting the house ready for the winter weather that is coming.

As Labor day marks the unofficial end of summer I went to look back at the sweet but strange summer it was. 2020 hasn’t been the best year and was nothing like we would have hoped. Looking back though I can’t help but appreciate the simplicity and closeness we enjoyed.

We spent so much time together instead of running off to camps and activities we went on many neighborhood walks

and played in the backyard a lot!

We were so grateful that the pool opened up even if we could only go once a week. It was so quiet that we felt very safe.

We also enjoyed the one splash pad that opened near us.

There were many miles ran outside (a great help to my sanity)

Some miles ran as a family

Then a knee injury and many miles on the treadmill while healing (I would say I am 85% healed now)

Cannon started his first season of soccer.

We went hiking a lot.

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And camping more than we have in years! I hope we keep this up post Covid as well!

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We hope to do many more road trips and destination races in the coming years so we upgraded to a travel trailer. I can NOT wait to take this thing to many races when we are back on.

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What are your best memories from this strange summer?

I can’t believe three weeks of training have already gone by, time seems to be flying faster than I can follow. It was a rough week with Humphry’s trauma and almost losing him but here we are marching towards that December marathon. Three weeks down of my eighteen week plan.

This is how the week went down:

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Monday:  Rest Day

Tuesday: 3.2 mile progression run on the treadmill

Wednesday: 2.5 easy miles before strength training.

Thursday: 2 miles pushing the double

Friday:  three miles on the treadmill then some additional miles pushing the double.

Saturday: Four miles out in the sunshine (it was glorious)

Sunday: Seven miles on the treadmill with a slight progression so I didn’t get too bored.

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Totals: 24 miles for the week, I have noticed I struggle earlier in the week to get my miles in and then back load them later. Time to get better about consistency throughout the week! The goal is 30 miles for next week, here we go!!!

Today was a disconcerting day, we are still trying to sort out Humphry and make sure he is healing well. He hasn’t wanted to eat much which if you know Humphry or any bulldog you know that isn’t a good sign. We spent hours on the phone with the vet trying to sort out the issues and get him more meds to keep him comfortable and hopefully getting better.

My “long run” was completed on the treadmill and while not my favorite hasn’t been bothering me at all. By the time we got Humphry somewhat sorted it was late, hot and the air was full of smoke and ash.

This was our car after sitting outside less than two hours. I am so sad for our state that is dealing with so much forest fire. Feeling extra grateful for that treadmill in our basement right now.

We should be able to see the mountains but we are surrounded by a thick brown cloud of smoke.

I ran while Emmy napped then we completed some chores including giving Cory a haircut. Even though he doesn’t care much what it looks like I feel a lot of pressure to not make it look awful (it turned out okay).

We then went to my parents house for dinner and to meet my brothers new puppy. My brother got a bernedoodle puppy name Bosch and he is adorable!

My parents and brother both having new puppies is giving me a bit of puppy fever.

We are excited to get to go on our trip all together so the kids can really bond with the puppies.

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How is your training going?

This morning I actually ran outside, it feels like a small miracle.

It was so nice to be out on my favorite local trail.

I left around 7am and it was very warm already.

I tried to enjoy the views and flowers because on Tuesday we are expecting six inches of snow {head explodes} so all the flowers will likely die =(

In the afternoon we went to Costco to stock up for the week.

While we were there we found these books about planets, how cute are they?!?

We are starting out Christmas list now!

The rest of the day we mostly did chores and ran more errands, we aren’t making any plans other than keeping Humphry calm and hoping that he recovers quickly.

I did grab this mini waffle maker and I am so excited about it! I can’t wait to make pumpkin waffles for the kids, it’s the little things.

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What is something that made you happy today?

He’s home! After three days at the hospital, his heart stopping and having to be resuscitated, Humphry got to come home and we couldn’t be happier to have our little guy home. He still doesn’t have his full vision and is far from 100% so we have a ways to go.

The morning started a bit early for me but not early enough to get my full run in. I wanted to get seven miles in for the day but didn’t have time to run all seven before needing to help get the kiddos ready for school. I got up an hour later than normal because I was up late for work last night.

These two are besties.

Cannon’s school drop off is just about two miles round trip so I included that as part of my run to add in a couple extra miles. I would have liked to run to pick him up as well but I wimped out when I saw that it was already 82* (I do NOT enjoy running in the heat). And for now running is more about enjoyment than adaptation.

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As I was getting Cannon ready for school Emmy really wanted a “lunch box” too. So I packed hers as well even though we weren’t planning on going anywhere.

Emmy is doing a great job practicing keeping her mask on. I really don’t mind Cannon only going to school two days a week instead of four, I am loving the additional time with him. But now we have homework!

I am getting a small glimpse into what it will be like to have school age kids with homework to do. How do all you mamas keep it all straight?

We spent most of the day just waiting for the call from the vet that we could come pick up Humphry, we couldn’t wait to get him back.

We have had Humphry’s leash sitting on our entry table just waiting for the moment we can go and get him.

The moment we got Humphry back was very sweet.

After picking Humphry up from the veterinary hospital we grabbed some dinner and had a quiet night at home. We saw that Trolls: World Tour came out on Hulu so we watched that as a family while taking turns cuddling Humphry. The kids liked all the music but I think the original Trolls movie was better.

We had planned on going camping this weekend for a couple nights but we don’t think that Humphry will be up for it after almost losing his life. The plan now is to hang out close to home try to keep Humphry calm and resting. Now we just hope that Humphry will be well enough for our trip to California in a couple weeks.

Humphry Update: You can read about Humphry’s condition HERE. While Humphry is still in intensive care we did get a good update on him this morning. I was very glad to not have my phone ring last night as no news was good news. I did wake up at least once an hour to be sure I didn’t miss a call. The vet called us this morning to give us the update that Humphry had a mainly uneventful night. He was responding to his name and even stumbled around outside to go potty. The vet was pleased with this progress and is hopeful that we may be able to bing him home in a few days. She did tell us that Humphry is now blind, his vision could return as he heals but there is no way to know if and when that could happen. I just hope he isn’t in pain or too scared. I can’t wait to hold him again.

Even though we are all feeling sad and anxious we still found ways to distract ourselves and have fun.

It was actually sweatshirt weather (LOVE) so we got out the matching Mickey Mouse shirts. How long will they let me dress them in matching outfits?

We had a playdate at a playground with some friends in the morning, it was so nice to see them! We aren’t seeing our friends as much now that most are distance learning at home.

Cannon got to spend solo time with my parents which he loved!

For the evening we went to our neighboorhood pool for the last time. The pool will close on Monday (Labor Day) and we are only allowed to go once a week to keep the pools from being crowded. I will miss going to the pool, it was a nice distraction from missing Humphry. We grabbed a pizza for dinner because no one felt like making dinner and cuddled the kids most of the night.

This morning we asked Cannon if he wanted to go to school and he did so Cannon, Emmy and I got a nice walk down to the school.

My mom bought Emmy some cute new clothes so I asked Emmy to pose so I could send a picture of her in her new sweater for Grandma.

This was the pose she gave me.

We are loving this cooler weather but we are about to go on the Colorado weather roller coaster.

Notice that we are going to have a high of 90 on Monday and an inch of snow, how is that even possible!?! Also it will be below freezing so we are going to have to do something to protect our garden. The weather here is just wild.

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Anyone else looking at crazy weather coming up?

Any fun plans for the holiday weekend? We were supposed to go camping in southern Colorado but with Humphry’s condition it us unlikely. We will just be happy if we get our boy home for the weekend.

Did you ever read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?

My mom would read it to us when we were kids and having a bad day.

Unfortunately today has been a very horrible no good day. It started out bad and just got worse as it went along.

I tend to keep this space fairly positive, a space to document my running and life so in ten or twenty years I can look back at this time and remember the day-to-day of very little kids. I don’t want to come off as ungrateful but today has been pretty terrible.

We spent the night up with Humphry who couldn’t keep anything down and was continuously throwing up. Very little sleep and worry is not a fun combination.

We recognized the symptoms as the same as May when he was treated for Pancreatitis. We called our vet and he suggested we take him straight to the hospital where they could do a ultrasound on him.

We took him in and dropped him off without much though about it because we had done this before without any issues. After looking him over the vet suggested a non-invasive procedure to treat a cyst on his pancreas. We were told he could come home and recover here with us as an outpatient.

In the afternoon we got a frantic call from the vet saying that Humphry’s heart had stopped and he wasn’t breathing. I am not sure exactly why she called me in the middle of the crisis, maybe to get my consent to do everything to save him, although I was never really asked. It’s not a question, of course we want them to do everything in their power to save him.

I feel very lucky that Emmy was napping and Cannon was at my parents house when that call came in because I was cursing and sobbing. This was a routing procedure, nothing like this was expected.

They were able to get Humphry’s heart started, and intubate him until he began breathing. The slowest hours ever are the ones you spend waiting to hear if your loved on is going to make it.

As of this evening Humphry is breathing on his own, but sedated and basically in a coma as his brain heals. We won’t know what his future looks like until he recovers more and we know the extent of the brain injuries.

Hunphry will be monitored constantly overnight as he could go into arrest again, or have a stroke or probably many other things I don’t know about. The night shift default is to not call unless something starts to go wrong, no news is good news until tomorrow morning. The vet said he will likely need to stay in the hospital for three to four days.

We love Humphry so much, he is a little cuddle buddy and the kids constantly want to play and hang out with him. I have hated coming home today and not have him waiting for us at the door. Sending Cannon to bed without Humphry in his bed was heartbreaking. We can’t go visit him and I hate that he is alone and possibly suffering.

I just hope that we get to bring him home and he is the same sweet dog that we sent in this morning.

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If you are the praying/good vibes/whatever type we could use them, we are hurting and scared and I am sure Humphy is too.

Normally Cannon and Emmy are really good sleepers. But once in a while they throw us a curve ball. Emmy decided she needed company all night last night. Maybe she getting her two year molars, who knows.

Given that Emmy needed attention my 4am alarm was ignored and my morning run didn’t happen. Lucky for me it was only 3 miles so I was able to shift my run to nap time.

Cannon joined me for my run, he hung out in the play area (which is a mess) with his tablet while I ran. I have been avoiding running with the stroller because it tends to hurt my knee more. The treadmill and I are becoming very close but I am going to have to make an effort to get outside more.

We built this play area for the kids for Christmas last year, enclosed it with baby gates filled it with toys. It’s been one of the best things we have done. The kids LOVE it and it’s another space we can use if it’s too hot or cold to be outside. We didn’t know there would be a quarantine with all of the playgrounds closed in December when we built this but I am sure glad we did.

Watching Keep Your Daydream in New Zealand, their RV was very similar to our RV in Germany and it makes me nostalgic.

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For dinner we had shrimp tacos, they were amazing, mango is key.

Did you guys see that the London Marathon will go for elites only?

I am excited that the pros get to races, this is their profession and their passion. I will be excited to watch on October 4th!

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Are you excited to watch any sports?

I am loving Le Tour de France and will be stoked to watch the return to racing. Also super hoping that the olympics actually get to run in 2021, silver lining is that we get the olympics two years in a row!

Happy September! I can’t believe it’s here already! The start of my favorite season and one month closer to all of this COVID life being over. September is one of my favorite months, I loved going back to school as a kid and I love the season changing, even if it means the sun is coming up later.

Our school district is supposed to announce what the rest of the semester will look like on September 11th. I don’t know what to hope for with school. I want all the kids to be able to go to school and learn as normal, but I also want everyone to be safe and I am loving the extra time with Cannon.

Today was a full rest day for me so the kids and I took an easy slow morning. It was nice that we didn’t have to rush out of the house early before it got too hot to be out at a playground.

These kids RUN everywhere they go!

After playing we did the normal boring life things like naps, laundry and attempts at homeschool {LOL}.

It was odd to have a full rest day, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. I thought a lot about trying to do a run streak now but while recovering as well as a 10 day trip at the end of the month I didn’t want the pressure. I have done a couple “streaks” and have loved them. I have never done very long streaks, a month here and there with the longest being 50 days. It is tempting to go for a 100 day streak to end the year.

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100 days to the end of the year starts on September 23rd…..anyone want to join me?