QuaranSummer 2020

We are in full on Fall mode, but I still want to document and remember things from this summer... so as I always say better late than never!

This was such a weird summer, but also one of my favorite summers of my adult life. Working from home full time has changed things so much for our family life. Work is no longer a huge stressor for me since I don't have to deal with commuting, meal prep, missing my kids, getting distracted by coworkers, or being inside all day long. 

We spent a lot of time outside playing soccer, running around, going on walks, and just soaking up the sun. My goal for the summer was to get Cora riding her bike. We ended up bike riding nearly every day and it quickly became Cora's favorite thing to do. Luckily, we are a couple doors down from our town's bike trail entrance so we spent a lot of time on that trail. where we enter, there is a flat section to the right and a large hill to the left. We spent the first couple weeks exclusively riding on the flat part of the trail until Cora worked up her skills and courage to try the large hill.  She did awesome on the hill and a couple days into riding down the hill she really started to love it.  One day we were riding and there was a young girl at the top of the hill working up the courage to ride down.  Cora gave her a little encouragement and we went on our way.  Later in the trail we ran into the girl and her family. Her dad said that Cora gave the little girl the courage to ride down the hill. Cora was so excited to inspire the little girl to ride down the hill and I could see Cora become that much more confident in riding her bike.

Towards the end of the summer, we got a pool pass and hit the pool every other day. The first day, Cora took her test to get the yellow band and passed. When she walked out the door with her new yellow band, she threw up both her hands and shouted "I DID IT!"  We found that we loved the earlier pool time which was mostly old people and us. Cora tested for her green band at the end of the summer and it was so sweet watching all our old people cheer her on and congratulate her. 

We got to spend lots of time as a family this summer. Over the last year, Ben started taking one day off a week and we had an intentional family day. We'd go swimming, hiking, play outside, cook big family meals, watch movies, etc. Overall, we really just enjoyed spending time together all summer long.