And just like the real 2022, I'm starting to burn out on looking at all my pictures, especially once I reach the end of November!
And just like the last part, we start Part 3 with a trip to Canada. This would be trip #5! I get the details of this trip mixed up with the details from trip #4 because both were super stressful but in different ways. Trip #4 was with Lori as the coach instead of Julie and the big stress was the car breaking down. Trip #5 was also with Lori, only this time we almost didn't get into Canada. August 1, 2022 was British Colombia Day and is a national holiday for Canadians. We had no idea. And the ferries were ultra super duper strict about following covid rules. We had met all the requirements to legally enter Canada, but because scrutiny was so high that weekend, the ferry decided we didn't actually meet requirements to enter and prevented us from getting on the ferry. They said if I could get a badge number of a customs officer that would guarantee our entry, we could get on the ferry. But their offices were closed. Out of the kindness of their hearts and with a promise that we wouldn't get mad if we got stranded in customs on the other side with no ferry return back until the next day, we finally got on. They also flagged our profiles in the system for a mandatory quarantine for eight days with a daily check in. When we got to actual customs, the officer asked how long we would be in Canada and we said 48 hours. He sighed impatiently (with the system we are assuming) and let us in without question. We didn't get to our place of stay until 2:00 am. That same day at vaulting, unbeknownst to us at the time, Genna suffered an injury that would effect the rest of the year. But we were there to clinic with Mary McCormick, a hero of Genna's since she first started vaulting. We had a great time and had no problems.
The next major hiking adventure ended with Mark glissading down an ice field (controlled, on purpose) and not realizing his gators had slipped and exposed his bare skin. He burned the skin off the back of both legs, which required medical treatment and a few rounds of antibiotics. He still has some scarring from this trip. I am super thankful that our worst injuries have been sunburns and iceburns.
Before he even healed from that trip, Julie, Genna, and I headed down to California for some special training on really nice horses that she was going to borrow for West Coast Championships. We had an amazing time staying with this family that has been involved with vaulting for decades. Their daughter had just returned from Senoir World's Championships the day before.
We also did some sight seeing and went down to Santa Cruz and to Half Moon Bay. We were there for four days.
The family we stayed with was so generous and open and welcoming and shared everything with us.... including their germs. The first two days we were there we didn't know their daughter brought special European covid home from the vaulting competition.
We had headed over to Rancho Murietta for the championships when we found out that our lunger and horse combo had come down with covid and would not be able to attend. Lucky for Genna, she had her team horses. But unlucky for Genna, she started coughing at 2:00am and had to scratch the competition. We drove home and had to isolate in Lori's spare room until no one tested positive. These were tough days I tell you. I never tested positive the whole year, even with covid coming through four times and some of my kids getting it more than one time. By the time I got home, I had been away from my kids for ten or more days and I missed them so much I cried.
But September was quickly approaching and I had to get ready for school. I already had everything I needed (did I? I can't remember when I bought it all). And I was just getting everything organized and wrapping my mind around focusing less on Genna and vaulting and more on the younger five kids and homeschoolings when....
...we found out that injury from the beginning of August was a broken spine. This picture was taken after these two (Genna and her pairs partner) tried to do a few moves after Genna mounted funny and felt a snap in her back. Up until this point, she figured her pain that she had been feeling was muscular and was something she could work through. I had already put a call into a chiropractor because I figured with as many falls as she has, she could use a good straightening. But after this practice, which was a Sunday, followed by a trip to Target (see Part 1 where Fiona and Genna make me take them shopping), Genna said she didn't want to go to work feeling as bad as she did. And I drove straight to the ER for Xrays. Because that is what you do with a Downen that doesn't feel pain like a normal person. She had a broken spine; Lumbar Spondylolysis to be exact. No more working, no more vaulting, lots of physical therapy until it healed.
Around this time, my generous bosses that gave me beach access to Taylor Bay decided to sell their oil business and their house and move to Italy. Working for them pays my vaulting travel bills, so I was very sad. Luckily for me, the business buyer changed his mind and I still get to work for them.
We went back to school and I tried to get back into finishing craft ideas that I bought supplies for, but never did because toddlers.
We made mosaic stepping stones for the garden that we don't grow anything in. LingLing has inserted herself into our lives and has insisted she be inside with us now that Jack isn't fast enough to catch her. She is always in our business now.
When we went back to co-op, I got super busy again. Almost 2020 level, but not quite. Six kids that need rides is still less than eight kids, but in 2020 Jason and Heidi weren't doing anything but riding along. I'm teaching kindergarten science and kindergarten enrichments, which is just story and craft time. The kids in my class have zero skills, so all the lesson plans I made over the summer (while in Canada haha) got tossed. And then as soon as co-op is over, we do a quick Costco run and then go straight to orchestra for a few hours. It's a long day, but its only one long day. I'm not sure we will be going back next year.
Before the first parent meeting of the year for orchestra, Mark said that I should invest some time in the activities that the larger number of kids are participating in instead of one activity that one older teen is participating in. I mean, he has a point. So I approached the director and asked if there was anything I could do this year to support orchestra. And the next thing I know, I'm in training to replace her as the Executive Director of Peninsula Youth Orchestra. It's a paid position. I'm not sure I have the energy and disposition at almost 46 year old. I might be better behind the scenes and let a younger, more enthusiastic parent take the lead.
Earlier in 2022, Jack came home munched up by a coyote. It's not the first time. He knows when he comes home injured and I pull out the flashlight to get a better look at his owies, the hydrogen peroxide is next and he does not like that. This time, I heard a racoon killing a chicken in the middle of the night. Normally I let the dogs bark at the door so the racoon can get a head start and get up a tree because I hate vet bills. But this time, the racoon decided to hide in the chicken yard under a blackberry bush because I had left the gate open. Jack went in the yard and cornered the racoon, who jumped on his face and started biting, scratching, and fighting like hell. I was in my nightgown and barefoot, but I got a kick of adrenaline and ran in to the fight, picking up the only weapon in the whole chicken yard: an empty plastic bucket. I hit that racoon as hard as I could, over and over, until it let go of Jack and ran away. I'm also screaming for Mark to get his gun. No neighbors called the cops over my screams for help, so I'm feeling pretty helpless out here now. Mark eventually heard me. We cleaned Jack up and took him to the vet the next day for antibiotics and a rabies shot. He was going to be due soon anyway; the racoon just moved him up in line. I pulled blackberry thorns out of my feet for days.
The next exciting addition to our family is Rigel, the bearded dragon. Someone was giving him away for free because they were tired of him. He is at least five years old. He is a fun pet.
October arrived and so did all the pumpkins...
...and harvest festivals....
...and Halloween traditions...
We attended the Candy Carnival for the first time in years. I can't remember when all the masking ended. It just seemed to disappear in my memory. Most of 2020-2022 I avoided anything that had to be masked, unless it was something amazing that my kids couldn't miss. And we live in such a beautiful place with such open spaces, we were able to live closer to normal than most people. I don't know. It looks like it all is starting up again.
Sometime in this month, Genna finally got her driver's license. She could drive herself to her physical therapy appointments and her chemistry class. She was allowed to slowly add vaulting moves on the barrel or at walk. And then one day in November, she was cleared to vault again. And we went to Canada (trip #6!) for another clinic with the French vaulter/coach. He really is amazing. And when you've studied his methods and movements, you can see his influence in other vaulters. Sometimes they have the exact same moves that he put into other people's freestyles!
We took her car so she could do most of the driving. I did the driving on the ferry part and crossing through customs part. This was the first normal trip across the border with no covid regulations. Just show your enhanced driver's license and you are in! No more proofs of anything!
My lemon had to be towed back to the place that keeps "fixing" it. It is "fixed" again under warranty for now, but I'm not holding my breath. Sadly, I do love driving this car and since Shane has been car shopping, I can see that replacing this car for myself with another small around town type car will cost way more than fixing it again!
The end of November approached and we had our annual birthdays and Thanksgiving marathon.
Heidi turned 9 the day after Thanksgiving this year, but our plans for actually celebrating Thanksgiving got all messed up due to various viruses. We decided we had RSV since I am so over having covid here. The cold acted like RSV more than covid, so that is what we went with. Ami didn't want to get our lingering cough, so she came down and handed pies off to Genevieve at the same parking spot that people deal drugs at at the gas station in Home. We were sad we didn't get to see her, but we understand.
We had Ian come out even though we knew he had had a fever. He said his fever broke, but he still had those glassy eyes that hang around with fever. And sure enough, we were all down with influenza a few days later. Mark was the last to get the RSV cold and one of the first to get the flu, so he was sick for weeks and barely lived to see Christmas.
This ice cream sandwich cake was the best we could do for Genevieve's birthday this year with all the sickness and stuff. But that brings us to December, which was just a normal, relaxed, typical December where we had to cancel our plans due to fevers.
Jason lost his two front teeth, just in time for Christmas.
And I think I'm done writing for the year. I may or may not come back and add Christmas details. I might write a post after the new year detailing my curriculum choices. We will see. But for now, I want to go enjoy my favorite winter view:
Because I love being home by a cozy fire with my knitting and my cat and my dogs and my kids, and yes, even Mark on a chilly winter evening in the doldrums between Christmas and New Years.
