Chasing My Joy – My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Time 2021-01-04 15:06:00

Web Name: Chasing My Joy – My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

WebSite: http://chasingmyjoy.com

ID:156444

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journey,to,Joy,

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I ended up with a fastest mile record which isn t that exciting since I got a new watch for Christmas and it reset all of my records. I upgraded my Fenix 3 to a Fenix 5S and I am IN LOVE! It is so much more comfortable and has so many features. I stayed in the Fenix family because I loved my 3 so much, but it was big and heavy and I wore it everyday for four and a half years, time for a new one! Thanks mom and dad!!!Cannon has taken all the changes and uncertainty with a smile on his face. I sometimes worry about how this all might impact the kids development but underneath it all I know he is happy and thriving. And hung out with his sister a lot. He wore his mask in public without complaint and was just a joy to be with. In August Cannon got to go back to school part-time for his second year of pre-school. He loved returning to his same classroom and seeing his friends twice a week. Cannon also started to do really well with his on-line learning. He didn t like participating in Zoom calls with his class in the spring when we first started our quarantine, but now he is a pro. Our dining room has become his home classroom. Cannon loves to be outside, experiencing new places and having family adventures. Cannon also got to play his first season of soccer, he loved the practice portion but didn t love when they played games against other teams. He did not like other kids taking the ball from him. I think he will get the concept more as he gets older. We bought a camper and Cannon fell in love, it was like a playhouse to him and Emerald. We took the camper to the Grand Tetons and enjoyed family time in late September. Cannon loved seeing the sights, running on the trails and living in the camper. We then moved on to Yellowstone and Cannon had a blast seeing all the wildlife but his favorite was the boiling mud pots. Cannon s favorite holiday is Halloween, he loves it so much and I was a little worried he would be sad about missing out on some traditions. But he rolled with the changes and had a great time with a socially distant Halloween. Cannon REALLY wanted to be a pumpkin this year and loved this costume. In November Cannon s school was shut down due to soaring Covid cases. Cannon did well with his online lessons but missed school in person. We did have a Covid scare when Cannon was exposed at school. He was pretty traumatized by the Covid test but we were relieved when the results came back negative. We had Thanksgiving at home just the four of us, Cannon enjoyed the traditional meal, especially the pie!We didn t want to skip seeing our family completely so we also did a socially distant hike. We are learning to adapt and enjoy what we can. One little silver lining to dealing with this pandemic is that our normal indoor play spaces are not available so we have been playing outside much more no matter what the weather. Cannon has been loving it, and has discovered a love for sledding and rock climbing. Cannon also enjoyed the begining of the Christmas season. He really got into our Elf on the Shelf this year, he loved the advent calendar, decorating the tree and watching all the Christmas movies. Looking back he has grown so much and I am so impressed with how he has weathered this storm. Let s just hope the next check in when Cannon turns five we are looking at the end of this weird time. Cannon sweet boy, I have never met anyone with a bigger heart, please never change. We have been here before but not since I was pregnant with Emmy, so we were long overdue for another visit. There are great hiking trails around the rock formations. We hiked about two miles through the middle section but there are many more trails if you wanted a longer adventure. It was a little icy and Emmy fell a couple times because she has only two speeds, carry me or run as fast as she can. We made it home in time for a movie night. We are loving our new couch that basically turns into a bed. We made some yummy food, popped some champagne and got ready to ring in the new year. Thank goodness for Netflix and their kids countdowns. We celebrated the new year at 7PM and then put the kiddos to bed, they didn t think they were missing out on anything.We had a hot party with just the four of us, complete with midnight countdown at 7pm.I love the ambitious part of the title. I am the firm believer that goals should stretch you and that you might not always meet all of them if you are dreaming big enough. I have been thinking a lot about my own 2021 goals and will put more effort into nailing them down in the next couple days. The year seemed to start out normal, we hosted a Noon Years Eve party for all of our friends who don t stay up until midnight. It was amazing. I can t imagine having thirty people in my house now.We enjoyed the normal things like playing in the snow, going to birthday parties and going to gymnastics class. While we had not yet been impacted by Covid-19 in mid January we got very sick and could not get well for many weeks. It is unlikely that what we had was Covid-19 in January because there wasn t many cases here then but it is possible, and I do wonder given how badly our lungs were impacted and how long we were sick. We celebrated Valentines day and now it seems odd to be in someone else s house. We traveled to Dillion to see the ice castles, they were magical. It was very fun to share this trip with parents. We decided to remodel our kitchen and spent time picking counters, back splash and cabinet color. We signed Cannon up for his first season of soccer in the spring, we were very excited until quickly the world pandemic hit America. I mid March we were told that Cannon would have an extended spring break for two weeks. Those two weeks turned into the rest of the school year spent at home. Cory also started working from home in March, he could do everything virtually so the only thing that changed was him now working from our home office. We really enjoyed having him home for lunches and seeing him more. My job was already online so noting changed other than having to share my office. We spent a lot of time walking outside since there was literally nowhere to go and the playgrounds were closed. It was not an easy time. With two little kids who didn t understand why they couldn t see their friends or stop and play at the playgrounds like they were used to. We had fun most days but also missed our normal life. Emmy turned two and we celebrated her the best we could. She didn t get a party but she did get to see her grandparents over the fence. When May came so did the sunny weather. We spent most of our time in the backyard. We missed our people but things were looking up.Then we struggled when our precious little Humphry got very sick and we came very close to losing him. We were lucky that he was able to come home to us.We got to celebrate Cannon s last day of pre-school. It wasn t the way we wanted him to get to end his first year of school but we were safe and healthy. Things started to open up when June rolled around so we spent as much time as possible enjoying the mountains.Cannon turned four and we were very excited to have a little party for him. We had Cory s cousins over with their kids and I have never seen Cannon happier. He was in his element playing with his people. Things continued to improve for us when playgrounds opened back up. I will definitely miss these days of always looking for playgrounds when these kids grow out of them!As summer arrived things got even better for us, our neighborhood pool opened up with very small capacity. We had to make reservations and could only go once a week at the most, but we took what we could get!We also started to see my parents again, we all missed each other so much and got to celebrate Father s Day together. We played in the backyard almost everyday and really learned to be thankful for what we had. We also camped a lot! Cory and I have always loved camping and have been wanting to go more but Emmy didn t like sleeping in a tent when she was little. We invested in a pop-up camper and that really solved the sleeping problem for her. As August approached we found out that Cannon would be able to attend school half-time (two days a week). We sent him back to school very unsure about our decision to send him but he took it like a champ and didn t mind wearing a mask at all. Emmy didn t like at all that she didn t get to play with the other kids at drop-off and pick-up. Cannon also got to play his first season of soccer. We decided that an outdoor activity would be safe enough. We spent a day enjoying Vail in the early fall. This is one of my favorite places!We were meant to take a big camping trip to California but the west was dealing with devastating wild fires. Our reservations at Lake Tahoe were cancelled so we changed directions and went up to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.It was so incredibly beautiful in the Tetons, I really want to go back next year to camp and explore more! My parents and brother rented an RV and came with us. It was SO nice to just get out away from the house as well. Yellowstone was breathtaking, it was so incredible to see. The kids loved it and dealt with all the time in the car like champs. When we got home from Yellowstone we did all the fall things including a socially distant Halloween.In November Cannon s school was shut down due to rapidly increasing cases of Covid. We spent some of the month in quarantine because Cannon was exposed to someone that tested positive at school. It was stressful waiting for our Covid test results but they came back negative. We did school online, played, wore masks, cuddled and made the most of it. We also spent Thanksgiving just the four of us. We missed our family wanted to keep everyone safe. December was much quieter then we are used to, there weren t any Christmas parties or concerts to attend. We were lucky with the weather so we hiked and played a lot. We enjoyed a back yard Christmas celebration with my family. My running was nothing to talk about this year, sporadic at best. I was hopeful to at least do something self supported but a knee injury in July that is still bothering me ruined any chance of that. No races and no real virtual events. Just lots of time on the treadmill and sometime running on my own near my house. 2020 was nothing that we expected, lots to be disappointed about but also lots to be thankful for. If anything this year has brought us closer as a family, helped teach us to lean on just each-other and count our blessings often. We are lucky to still have our jobs and our health. We miss life the way it was but are looking forward to 2021 with anticipation and hope.Posted by bethcurtis Leave a Comment Filed Under: Uncategorized December 27, 2020Estes Park + What Day Is It? It s that part of the year where it s hard to tell what day it is and what we should all be doing. Cory s company shuts down this week so he isn t working and we have nowhere to go so it s a little stay-cation for us. We plan to try to get some projects done and sprinkle some adventures in as well.The kids enjoyed their skateboards from Santa. Please don t tell them they are actually scooters. We made our way up to Estes Park for some mountain time. It is good for our souls.On our way back down we saw a herd of Elk was hanging out in a golf course. Emmy had already fallen asleep in the car but Cannon got to get out and take a closer (but still safe) look.It reminded me of all the amazing animals we got to see in Yellowstone this fall. Even without all of our traditional activities the kids kept us smiling and seeing the magic of the season. They really seemed to get Santa this year and loved following our two elf on the shelfs around the house. We wrapped way too many presents. We have been trying to buy the kids less at Christmas time because they can get overwhelmed but with Covid it was easy to just keep buying them things, online shopping in sweatpants instead of going to Christmas parties. We went on our traditional Christmas Eve hike. Cannon has been asking a lot to go into the mountains so we made sure to find a place that felt like the mountains, without being too far from home.Eldorado Canyon did not disappoint! We spent the rest of the day eating yummy foods and the kids got to open one gift. We woke up to excited little kids on Christmas morning. They were ready to see if Santa had come. Cannon and Emmy were excited to see that the cookies and milk they left out were gone and presents were left. We start by allowing them to open the gifts in their stockings then we eat breakfast.Then it was time to open gifts. At ages two and four the kids are more into playing with the toys as they open them rather than opening all the gifts so after a couple of hours we only had half the gifts open. For lunch we went to my parents house. We were so lucky to have a nice warm sunny day. We had Christmas on their deck with more delicious food. In my immediate family we have four dogs so they were loving seeing each other and playing outside. My parents made it special by decorating and even made a cardboard sleigh for the kids to play in.We really wanted to see my parents and my brother and felt that an outdoor gathering was the safest decision. Cory s immediate family lives in the Northwest so we don t normally see them anyway. We are long overdue for a visit but our summer plans to travel were cancelled this year (fingers crossed for summer 2021). The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys and watching Soul on Disney+ (highly recommend). While it was not the Christmas I thought we would have, it was still good. Full of joy and love. Easy InstagramInstagram SliderNo images found! Try some other hashtag or username

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