I had Cheer Choreography Camp all weekend long. I loved every minute of it!
He said
Last week I was happy that I reached my fundraising goal for The Great Cycle Challenge through the generous help of family and friends. And this week I am delighted to report that I rolled right past my distance goal of 400 km. On Thursday I added 3 km to my daily ride to make it 20 km total which brought me to my goal of 400 km 19 days into the month. As of today’s ride, I am sitting at 463 km with 9 days left in the month. It means I should significantly blast past that goal, 500 km and even get past 600 km on the month! It also means I will probably need to rethink my distance goal next year.
The other biking news this week is that I think I am going to try and make another attempt at the full G2G run, starting in Guelph but making it all the way to Goderich this time. The start of this month Stephanie, Justin & I made a go of it and had to pull the plug on it at Blyth—all of us in varying degrees of bonked. The reason I am making a second attempt at it so soon is that I was really hoping that I could call it complete before I turned 50. So with a couple weeks where can make it happen and Danielle onboard to drop me off in Guelph, I will be making that second attempt. Labour Day weekend looks like the most likely candidate. The only catch with this run is that I will likely be doing it solo.
After a bit of a challenging week last week for Emelia, it was so great to see some things turn around for her this week. On Monday, she had one of her most productive sessions ever with her therapist (his words, not ours) which allowed her to prioritize and lay the ground work for some of the challenges she’s been feeling. I was so proud of her, and told her multiple times on the way home. But, also this week, the one thing we knew would give her a sense of belonging and being part of something, her Cheer Choreography Camp was slotted for this weekend.
The main focus was on learning their routine for the competition season, but the underlying element was also on team-building and bringing the team together. The camp ran all weekend and every single night at pickup on the ride home, Emelia talked Danielle’s ear off about how much she was enjoying it. This was such a huge relief for us. It was pure joy for us to hear the smile brought back to her life. When you add that High School Here I Come starts this week, there is a lot of a sense of normalcy for Emelia returning for her, that we’re so happy for her to have. This least year and a half has definitely been tough on her, but these little things that bring joy back to her life make us hopeful beyond measure.
She said
I feel like every week I start with what a week, but again what a week! The last few weeks have been so busy and draining that I feel every week it has been a long week. The week started with a big appointment with Emelia. With summer holidays and busy schedules this was Emelia’s first appointment with Jared after some big events. We had updated him with what had happened over the last few weeks and he and Emelia had a very productive session and they made some major breakthroughs. We have some plans in place and we have some big appointments over the next few weeks that will hopefully have a firm support for Emelia in place. She has really opened up lately and that seems to have taken a big weight off her shoulders.
The big event for Emelia was this past weekend. This is Emelia’s second year in cheer but this is honestly her first real year. Last year with all the restrictions this special camp weekend wasn’t possible. Emelia’s coach told me last season this is the weekend the kids move from individual athletes to a team. For the last three days Emelia and her team have been in an intensive choreography camp. Every day Emelia when we pick her up she is beaming and talks our ear off about all that they have done. Over the weekend they placed the team stunting groups, map out placement for the tumbling and bring together the routine. Emelia told us the last thing to map out the dance component but that will be done in a few weeks with a choreographer.
The biggest change for Emelia and cheer this year is stunting, Emelia is absolutely loving stunting and is beyond thrilled with her stunting group of 4. Emelia’s position is called a 3rd, which is the back support that helps catch the flyer, one of her best friends Olivia is a base in her group and there is a girl named Emma and the flyer is Charlie. Emelia just loves this group and says they work so well together. We are beyond thrilled to see Emelia so happy.
The very last exciting part of this weekend was yesterday evening. Earlier in the week John got a message from his cousin Bill that his youngest daughter was going to be playing soccer in town for a few games. Emelia and I were able to catch the second game and then Bill and Ruby came over for dinner so we could all catch up. It has been years since we have seen each other. We had a great visit and cannot wait until we can get together again hopefully very soon.
This coming week is going to be another very busy one, Emelia has her High School Here I Come orientation on Monday and Tuesday. She is nervous and excited to finally see inside her school. Between that and nightly appointments it is going to be another crazy week!