My cheer team is working so hard on our routine, I cannot believe we compete in less than a month!

He said

Well, this was the weekend that we dread every single camping season—the one where we button up the trailer and say goodbye to another season at the trailer. Where last weekend the plan was to spend one, if not two nights at the trailer, the weather had other plans and we decided after one night of rain and cold, that we had enough. This weekend, we knew all along, we would just be going up and back on Saturday and the only goal was to get the trailer ready to be winterized and then to come back to London thereafter to be put away in winter storage. While we had every intention of getting a sleep-in in Saturday morning, in true Danielle & I fashion, we were both pie-eyed awake by 7:30am, and slowly got or start at the day. By early afternoon, we were all done packing the trailer up and saying goodbye to site 218 for another memory-filled camping season and heading back home.

I am really starting to love Danielle’s eBike—this weekend is a great example of why. In trying to keep with my cycle consistency I am trying to keep riding late into the season. But what has made it a lot more better is way more of those rides continue to be not solo as Danielle has been able to come along and go farther. That was the case this weekend. When we got back from the trailer, the goal was to get out for a ride. And even though at was quite windy and I wanted to go further, Danielle was game to tag along. The one that blew me away though, was this morning as I had to go much earlier because I worked at 9:00am. That meant a 6:30am alarm to which Danielle said, nudge me when you get up and maybe I will go with you. To my surprise, since she like I was up before an alarm clock, she was game to go. It is the first time we’ve ridden together before the sun rose which meant head & tail lights!

The other big family news this week, is my brother Greg’s second surgery in almost a month was on Wednesday. It was to solve a nagging, substantial pain issue he was having in his neck that was related to problem in his spine. It would certainly help him a lot as much of his last six months has been dealing with this pain, but the surgery was a substantial one and would take the better part of the day, from start to finish. And being that it was on the spine, would come with some significant risk and worry. To help Testza out we took Zoe & Abi overnight on Tuesday through to Wednesday so she & Greg could just focus on the surgery. The girls seem to love the little adventure back to our house—especially Zoe who was here with Danielle for daycare. And they both adore Emelia so it was a chance to hangout with her to boot!

The surgery went well, and the doctors were very happy with the results. About ten minutes ahead of 7:00pm when they initially expected Greg’s surgery to be completed, we got a message from Testza that it was completed and Greg was doing fine. What a relief for an entire day that weighed heavy on the entire family. We had the girls that night so Testza could be with Greg in recovery. By Thursday they were really ready to go home and be with Testza and she was ready to see them too. Greg would be in the hospital for a few days recovering anyway and as of tonight will still be there for a few. We’ve been texting with him and he is great spirits so that has put us all at ease. We’re really hoping that this is it for surgeries and he can just focus on and feel better!

She said

This week is the one we dread every season. Winterizing day at the trailer. This season has been a tough one, with all that is going on in our family right now, conflicting schedules and Emelia’s busy life we have not been able to get up the trailer nearly as much this season. Emelia herself was only up for a couple weekends when we brought her and her friends, a few days in July on our week off and a few overnights this fall. Compared to a few years ago when we practically lived up there even post covid restrictions. Emelia has long gotten to the point that her incredibly busy life is not bringing her up to the trailer. John and I headed up first thing Saturday morning to finish wrapping up the winter prep, we only needed to be there a few hours and the trailer is all but ready to be packed up and brought home. We are really hoping that next season will be different next year and we can get up there a lot more and even get up more with Emelia’s friends. All her friends love coming up there so I am sure we will see lots of teenager weekends next summer.

Once we packed things up we headed home. Emelia while we were in Auburn was getting in another driving lesson to almost wrap up the in car lessons. With Emelia’s 8 months since she wrote her G1 test she is in a rush to wrap up the last of her in car lessons so she can register for her G2 driving test. She is an amazing driver, although is she is nervous to get this test done and finally be a full driver! By the time John and I got back from the trailer she was done her lesson and starting to get ready for her night out. John and I were able to squeeze in a 30 KM ride before bringing Emelia over to one of her best friends place for a party/sleepover with a huge group of her friends. Emelia had a blast and we continued the hang out for the rest of the day with a few of her friends.

Today was Cheer day. This season Emelia has loved her team and all the challenges but there have been frustrations as there always are with team sports. For Emelia’s team it is attendance. Cheer is a unique team sport of that if you do not have a full team you can not really train, if you are missing a member of your stunt group you cannot practice as a stunt group. Well 80% of the team never miss a practice but the last 20% have been a real source of frustration not only for the teammates who come every practice but the coaches and owners. This week it came to head and the owners sent out a long and very blunt email about the attendance issues. Basically telling the team to make a decision NOW if you are dedicated to your team, if you are not and cannot come to mandatory training then make that choice now so the team can pivot. Well the talk worked and what we loved more than anything is that not a single athlete quit, they all came today and ready to work. This team is a really hard working team, they all put it all out there, they all work through frustrations and never give up. With only 7 practices left to their first competition we are happy to see all the girls there ready to put the work in. Today was the best practice all season, they are making adjustments and know what they need to work on. They are behind because of the lack of attendance on a few kids but they have time to pull it all together. Hopefully they made this ultimatum early enough to ensure this team is ready for comp next month.