School of Mines

Campus tours continue.  This one was quick and easy.  We simply drove down to Golden to check out the Colorado School of Mines.  We liked the campus, it is just so small!  It is also primarily an engineering school, which doesn't quite fit Cambrie's astrophysics quest, but it was still a great day and the school is still a top contender.  These application deadlines are starting to loom!

 

Mustang Mile

Mustang Mile here we come!  This is the last year I have two kiddos to track around the peanut and it makes me a little sad.  As a fifth grader, Kelton got to line up in front as they sprinted around the course.  He always has so much fun at this event and that makes me happy.  

Looking good speedy!

Daxton and Lucy ran together again this year.  (Can I just stop and say how much I adore Lucy?  She is the most amazing friend to Daxton.)  

Everyone was still smiling as they crossed that finish line.  I love the energy here.

Kelton also got to participate in the student-teacher kickball game this year.  He had an amazing at-bat and made it around all of the bases.  Unfortunately the teachers still won....sigh....sorry kids!

Without all the carnival games it means we just get to enjoy hanging out.  The boys walked around finding their friends, playing games, digging in the sand, and watching the kickball game.  It was a really nice evening.

Student Council

Daxton surprised us all by telling us he wanted to run for student council.  He had to make campaign posters and give a speech to his class.  He was running against four other boys and I was so proud of him for ever wanting to try!  His classmates must have thought he would make an amazing representative for their class because he was elected!  He now has to attend monthly meetings, be a liaison between the teachers, helps with the school food drives, and attend various after school spirit activities like Skate City night.  

I can't believe that he put all of his worries aside to try something new and scary.  Great job Dax!  

Where I have been for the last two months?  Struggling.  I feel like I'm on the precipice of having depression take over my life.  Happiness is hard to find.  Joy seems too hard and heavy.  So the thought of catching up on the blog just seems fake.  Time to fake it.

Go Stangs

McKenzie has been really excited about doing high school gymnastics this year.  When she broke her neck we immediately reached out to the high school coach to let her know what happened.  Her coach was incredibly understanding and invited McKenzie to join up for all of the team activities while she was recovering.  The team building camp down in Golden was such a blast.  She came home so in love with the girls already.

McKenzie went to tryouts and did what skills she was cleared to do, which wasn't very many, but she made such a good impression that she earned a spot on the team even with her limitations.  We didn't know if she would even be able to compete this season but so far she has made it onto both of the JV lineups on bars.  (This is really funny because bars is actually her self proclaimed worst and least favorite event).  Her routine is heavily modified right now since she can't do anything inverted, but she doesn't seem to care.  She is having the time of her life on this Mustang High School team.  It's a little tricky because she actually attends school at Legacy and the gymnastics team is a district team sponsored by Mountain Range.  So for the next four years she is going to have dual allegiances.  But watching her cheer for her teammates, feel like she belongs, laughing with her new friends has been such a great experience so far.  I can't wait to see what the rest of this chapter brings.

Survival of the Shawangunks

I was hunting for point-heavy races that I could use towards my pro card.  I found this random race in New York, Survival of the Shawangunks, and decided to give it a try.  It was completely different than any race I've done before.  It started with a 30 mile bike ride, followed by a 4.3 mile run, 1 mile swim, 5.6 mile run, 1/2 mile swim, 8 mile run, 1/3 mile swim, 1/2 mile run.  It was wild, and not just because of the race format but because of how everything played out the night before the race.  I was reassembling my bike and accidentally pinched and cut a critical wire for my bike shifting.  I and other athletes tried splicing it together but that didn't work.  So I randomly reached out to a pro who lives in the area, Bec Wassner, asking if she knew anyone with an extra bike I could borrow.  She invited me up to her home and let me borrow her husband's bike.  It wasn't set up for racing, but it would get me from point A to point B.  I was so grateful!  

Race morning I was up way too early and just kept hoping I was ready for this adventure.  

The bike was uneventful, and the borrowed bike did it's job.  

The first run was a trail run and I was having so much fun in the dirt.  When it came time to get in the first lake for the swim I just hoped I knew what I was doing.  I stashed my shoes down my tri kit and hoped for the best.  My swim felt slow, but I thought it was just my imagination.  The next run was absolutely gorgeous!  They talk about stopping to have a Shawangunk moment, but I was going for a podium finish and it's not like I had my camera with me anyway.  But the views of the mountains were incredible.  

The second swim was in another lake and went off without a hitch.  I was most nervous about the third run since it was the longest at 8 miles.  Unlike most races I do, this race was very isolated in the mountains and I was alone almost the entire race.  I ran past families out for a morning stroll, rock climbers and hikers.  It was pretty and quiet out there.  The last swim was the shortest and I finally realized why my swims felt so slow, where I stuck my shoes was causing so much drag it was absolutely killing my time.  I couldn't fix it by then though and was a touch disappointed I didn't catch that earlier.  

The last run is a joke.  It is straight up a cliff to a lookout!  I kind of ran, kind of walked up the steep slope and was looking for that watchtower at the top.  I made it!  It was freezing up there and I was so cold from being constantly wet.  Even though I wanted to stay and enjoy the moment, I needed to get warm more.  

I walked down with Laurel Wassner and was able to hitch a ride with my bike angel back to my car.  Ultimately I did take third, only 30 seconds behind the iconic defending champion, Bec.  Laurel was fourteen minutes ahead of us.  If only I had my bike, if only I hadn't lost that time in the swim, I actually think I could have won.  It would have been a poor way to repay their generosity, but it would have been pretty sweet.  

I think I might have to go back and try again.  That was so much fun!

Fun pics from the next morning of recovery in New Paltz.

I found a hiking trail to move my legs and hoped I hadn't pushed them too hard the day before.

See that tower on top?  That was the finish!

Too hot for hot chocolate so I thought I'd try frozen hot chocolate.  Good...weird...my favorite part was the whipped cream.

Bonus time meant I went and checked out the Vanderbilt Mansion.

 

Appointments and Recovery

So this summer there was a lot of this:

Doctor appointments, follow-ups, imaging, and physical therapy.  I decided to count how many appointments I had to take not only McKenzie to, but the rest of the kids too.  These appointments were not the fun things of summer like sports, friends, or parties, but the boring stuff like doctors, dentists, physicals, and all of the things McKenzie needed.  I counted 59 appointments.  What a lousy way to spend a summer. 

However, here's the positive results from all of those appointments, McKenzie is doing really well.  Her brace came off after about five weeks.  She was so relieved to have that removed for the last time.  When she first took it off, she was really nervous to move her neck.  She was guarding it and it took a lot of convincing to simply have her turn her head to look around.  We were able to start PT and he was able to give her to confidence she needed to start strengthening her neck.  In some ways having the brace on was a good reminder to keep her neck safe as it healed, so once it was removed she still had to be careful about what kind of movements she did.  She still couldn't risk any whiplash type movements so life was still pretty still, but that didn't stop her from going back to gymnastics almost immediately.

She was back at the gym the first week after the surgery.  It was only one day of conditioning for one hour, and then she had to sleep for two days to recover.  But the next week she went twice for one hour each, and only had to sleep one day afterward.  People were shocked to learn that she was so excited to get back to gymnastics so soon after her injury, but McKenzie never even questioned it and kept asking the doctors what more she could do.  PT has been a huge blessing.  After a couple of weeks of neck strengthening exercises, she started focusing on strengthening her right arm.  When she originally fell and broke her neck, the right side of her body went numb and she couldn't feel it for a few minutes.  While in the hospital it became apparent that there was some nerve damage to her right side and that the strength in her right arm was drastically reduced.  So for the last six weeks or so so has been really focusing on her arm exercises.  Aaron is the best PT for the job, as he has been a spinal injury therapist, gymnast, and elite athlete therapist.  He has given her the tools she needs to get back to full participation as quickly as possible.  McKenzie has taken her therapy seriously and does it every day at the gym.  The dedication this girl has shown to bring herself back has been inspiring.  There have definitely been hard days.  Days where she feels she isn't making any progress.  Days where she feels like she will never be able to tumble again. Days where she feels like she is simply getting farther behind her teammates.  But then there are days where she gets approval to do back tucks, kips, front tucks, and fly aways again and she is over the moon.  She still isn't back at full strength, so can't do any explosive tumbling with that arm yet.  But she is getting so close to being cleared to do her routines again and it is exciting.