Every Day is Leg Day

 

On a run/hike in the woods near our house

For over a year I've been unable to run because of a hip injury (TFL syndrome).  I hurt myself running last March (2020), just as everything was shutting down for Covid.  Being unable run has adversely affected my mental health and I've been anxious to get back to running.  Since I only have pain after running, not walking, one of the sports medicine doctors I had seen during all this asked me if I would be ok if I just never ran again.  I said no.  So then I went on a long physical therapy journey.  After a lot of months of physical therapy (maybe 9 months total) I can now run forty five minutes-ish with little or no pain.  I had to strengthen a lot of muscles in my legs and hips that had become relatively weak and work on changing my running gait a little (shorter stride, quicker turnover puts less strain on joints).  Also my physical therapists worked to break down scar tissue in my hip using different massage and "scraping" techniques that really hurt but really helped reduce my pain.  So I'm happy that I can run again and now nearly every day I spend some time doing leg exercises - as I will continue to do going forward.

Taking a break from running hasn't been all bad.  I started doing yoga and hiking.  Before the injury, I loved running outside but wouldn't really think of just "walking" in the woods.  Why would I do that when I could run?  But now I enjoy going for a slower hike at all the beautiful trails around.  A lot of them have a lot of trip hazards that would make it a little dicey to run through anyway.  And there is often stopping to look at flowers or waterfalls or pick blackberries or smell things.  And now I spend more time doing strength exercises for my legs and hips.  The lack of which probably caused my injury.   My PT said I was ready to "graduate" from therapy back in August, so I am happy about that.

Scott and I used to run together every other Friday or so and prepare for races together and we haven't been able to do that in about a year and a half.  This past Friday we were finally able to go run together again.  We ran on a nice levee trail right by the Columbia River.  It was nice (and a bit windy) but I'm happy to be able to run again.  Hopefully I can keep my hips in a good place so I can keep running.

Here I am running and looking like death on the treadmill.

I did a lot of treadmill running during the summer so I could be in the house with the kids.

Happy Birthday John!

 

We celebrated John's birthday a last month.  It was lots of fun.  Here's John getting a special birthday dessert at Olive Garden.

We had a few Pokemon themed activities including pin the ears and tail on Pikachu.

John wanted a cake with strawberries

We did a Pokemon scavenger hunt - I printed out little pictures of different Pokemon (I think we ended up with over 40 different ones after the kids made all their requests for which should be included.  For a while I could name all 40+.  Now I am forgetting already.  I hid a couple in each room and we searched for them.

Poke-ball pinata

Cake time

A few presents

John had been wanting a big Squishmallow stuffed animal.

He was excited to get one. 

Happy Birthday John!

Happy Birthday Anna!

 

We celebrated Anna's birthday a few weeks ago.  So Anna is a teenager now.  On her birthday weekend she and Scott and the older kids did an escape room (along with one of Anna's friends).  Then we went out for Mexican food at a place in Vancouver right on the water.  It was nice.

Anna got to wear the birthday hat while the employees sang to her

Later we had a Clue themed birthday at home.

The kids dressed up as different characters

We went around to different rooms to get clues about whodunnit

A taco pinata was involved

Here is Anna reviewing all her clues to try and solve the murder mystery

Reviewing

She guessed right and the mystery was solved.

We moved on to cake

It was a fun day.  Happy Birthday Anna!

Oregon Coast

We went to the beach for a few days this summer.  We stayed in a beach house with my sister and her family.  Here is Emma walking around the neighborhood with me.

Hooray cousin time!  There was a fun game room in the house.  
Here are Emma and our nephew, Gideon, playing foosball.

Video games!

Pool

Lots of us had fun using the hot tub

The weather was not perfect beach weather, but we had a good time.  On the first evening there we went to check out the beach by the beach house and it was so cold and windy!!

I didn't last long on the beach that evening.

Neskowin Ghost Forest

Another day we had fun in Neskowin.  I wanted to see the ghost forest.  Here we are looking at an old tree trunk.  This forest had slid (or something) into the sea about 2000 years ago and was covered by sand.  It was only recently uncovered.  Here we are looking at some of the stumps.  You can see baby Enoch, my sister's new baby, in the baby carrier.

Another stump

You can see some of the stumps sticking out of the water - they are slowly getting weathered by the ocean.

Another stump - it was pretty cool to see.

You can see some of the stumps here - they look like little rocks peaking out

And here are lots more stumps!

Fun climbing on Proposal Rock (I think that was what it was called)

We had a fun time there - although it was a bit cold.

The Devil's Punchbowl

Another day we went to the Devil's Punchbowl area.  We had fun climbing on rocks and exploring tidepools.

Inside the punch bowl

This fills with water when the tide is high

Lots of tide pools to explore

We had fun playing and exploring there.

Seal Cove

Spying on some seals

So far away

Depoe Bay

We walked around downtown Depoe Bay a little bit and looked for whales.  We didn't see any whales but did see some boats heading out.  We also got to see salt water taffy being made, which was lots of fun.  And of course, we ate some salt water taffy.  We had a fun time!  My sister has a new baby so it probably wasn't as much fun for her - and for some reason I didn't get a lot of good grown ups pics but we were all there.

Scott had to work every night of our vacation.  At least he was free during the days.

Yes, here he is using two computers - regular job and AF reserve stuff.

Here are all the cousins on our last morning!

Axel, John, Enoch (the new baby), Magnus,  Anna, Matthew, Gideon, Emma and Grant.

Cousing hugs!!  We had a lot of fun!

On the way home we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Very crowded, but we did get cheese and ice cream.

Tillamook

This is the first time we've made it to the cheese factory since moving here.  So fun!