It's fine, I'm fine, OK, Alright

 September 2021 - the easier parts

September still had some bright spots and some good memories. One of the highlights was that our baby-sitting trading friends watched our kids on a saturday morning so that Andrew and I could go on a hike. It was supposed to be around 5 miles, but ended up being 7.5. We hiked down to the beach and then (accidentally) found ourselves attempting to scale the side of a cliff covered in thorny bushes to get back to the top. Eventually we found our way back to the trail (and across a nude beach) and made it back to the car. Even more shocking is that we remembered to take some pictures along the way. 

September also marked the first of my attempts to run a 5K faster than my high school cross country times. I don't remember exactly what my fastest time was (I honestly wasn't that good). I think my best was 25 minutes and some chain, but I'm positive I never ran faster than 24 minutes, so I picked that as the time to beat. I signed up for the Bad Bass 5K around Lake Chabot, and this was the first actual race event I got to do since pre-covid so it was very exciting! The course was about a quarter mile longer than a 5K and ended up being pretty hilly, so my time came in much higher than I expected at 29:27. My number one goal was to get negative splits. I didn't quite achieve that, but I got pretty close! I also got second in my age group, though I admit it was a fairly small turn-out.

Andrew snapped this picture later in the day after my race-I guess it took it out of me.

Michael is doing great with his homeschool. He says he's getting tired of it and I think he will absolutely love (for the most part) going to Kindergarten next year. Alex loves to tag along and join in with whatever we're doing, so I'm pretty sure he's ready for kindergarten too. This was writing letters in shaving cream which quickly turned into just playing with the foam.

I have no idea how this was a comfortable way to sleep.

Well, not the best camera work, but we regularly find wild turkeys in our yard these days and it's pretty fun to see. 

After getting back from Pampa after the funeral, I had a day to spend with my sister and her family before my flight the next morning. It was nice to mosey around the Dallas arboretum, play with L, and play games with Anna and Dave.

And here's a picture of Spiderman climbing my walls and yelling "thwip" while he shoots me with his webs. Typical day.