Weekly Mileage #83 and the Return to Normalcy

beautiful fall colors

Wood Badge is done, I've ditched my fracture boot, and we're trying to get back on a regular schedule. It's nice to feel a little less crazy busy, though there's still never enough time to get everything done that needs to be taken care of.

With Wood Badge over, I decided to start getting used to regular shoes, though there wasn't much weaning off of the boot when it came down to it. More like I went cold turkey. I just couldn't bring myself to put the boot back on.

I wore stiff hiking shoes for 4 days, then eased into running shoes. My foot is feeling better than I thought it would, though it is sore from being used more than it has been for a month and a half. The joints between all the bones in the foot are having to adjust to bending and flexing and all the movement that hasn't been happening up until this week.

My hiking staff is handy when I need to pull Ocean along a bit. And of course River has to hop in as well.

I still want to hit my 52 hikes this year, but I'm way behind. I took the boys on several short hikes this week while Sunshine was at various activities or doing schoolwork. It was good for my foot and good for the boys to get outside again.

It's also good for Ocean to strengthen his legs. I've decided I'm not carrying him any more, and he doesn't always agree with that restriction. River would only occasionally ride in the stroller after he decided he wanted to start hiking, but Ocean really likes riding on my back and can be quite slow when he does walk. It's hard to hurry him.

It's very interesting to see both the different personalities and physical activity preferences. Not to say Ocean doesn't run around, but his stamina seems to be lower than River's. I'm hoping to change that a bit as he and I work on building our endurance together.

River wasn't sure about the slide part, but once he saw Ocean do it, he gave it a try, and loved it. River is still not a fan of heights, though apparently the slides were fun enough to overlook the height situation.

We went to two trunk or treat activities this week. One was at our church, though it was all inside since it was cold and rainy that night. The "trunks" ended up being people sitting on the chairs in the hall. Pretty low key, but it worked in a pinch.

Ocean had a harder time climbing this steeper one with his short legs, but he didn't let that slow him down. 

We also went to one at the church just down the road that always hosts a big shindig open to the community. Sunshine went a few years ago with some friends, but we haven't managed to make it since then. The boys had a blast playing on all the bouncy houses they had set up, despite the soggy ground. The trunks were all decorated, and the people handing out candy matched the themes of their trunks. They definitely put a lot of thought and preparation into it.

I had to take a picture of this one for Mr M, who loves the movie Elf

We have way more candy than we need, but there you go- it's that time of year.

We also had our Primary program yesterday. We had hoped to do it in September, but the timing didn't work out for it, so it's a bit later in the year than we'd planned, but we're glad to finally have it done. It's always a bit stressful preparing for it, though it went well, as they always do.

All the kiddos were intelligible (this is definitely not always the case), even the Sunbeams and 4 year olds. Even the nonverbal autistic kiddo was able to participate using his iPad (they had it say a phrase in the microphone). I missed the prep work on that one because I was at Wood Badge last weekend, so it was a surprise to me. I thought it was super cool that we were able to include him as well.

Weekly Mileage
Wednesday- 1.25 miles hiked
Thursday-1.75 miles hiked
Friday- 2.30 miles hiked
total- 5.30 miles

25 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

321.14 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
265.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
588.28 miles total