I finally got to see Taylor Swift!! It was magical—everything I dreamed it would be!

He said

This week Emelia had an event that was fifteen, long months in the waiting! And she couldn’t believe that all of a sudden we were here! Fifteen months ago she (and her friend Neeka) along with the rest of the entire rest of the world tried to get tickets for the Eras tour for Taylor Swift when she brought it to Canada for the first time. Danielle, Emelia & I – along with everything friend & family member we know tried to get her tickets without any luck. Emelia’s friend Neeka with the same spread of friends and family managed to snag tickets through her aunt. Emelia was over the moon—the only downside was there were only two tickets, mean she would be going on her own with Neeka. And, as much as we wanted to go to experience this with her, we at least had tickets for her. A lot of people we know were shut out and disappointed.

Well, this week, fifteen, long months of waiting had finally passed much to Emelia’s surprise and we were at the week she had been looking forward to. Danielle and Neeka’s Mom had planned to go down with them to help them navigate the big city for Emelia’s first big concert. Since, Danielle had the day with her I will let her share how it went, as she got to be there for it all, but suffice it to say that it lived up to every one of her expectations and even far surpassed them. And the day that got started at 7:00am in the morning and didn’t end until they got back home at 3:20am far into the wee hours of that night, was worth every bit the tired she felt! It was all we had hoped for, and I am so happy that Danielle got to live it through her eyes with her.

Aside from that, the week was really a return to our regularly scheduled programming which mostly meant school, cheer practices and work for Emelia. And work for Danielle & I. Well… that, and biking. But this week we’ve started to wrap our heads around the notion of getting the basement ready for the university years. Emelia is adamant that she wants to save money and live at home through her university years which we fully support. But, her one caveat to that is that she would like to move to the basement to have a little more private, and her own space. That will mean us relocating the workout area and reworking the storage room and pairing down a lot of the construction equipment I really don’t need. It won’t be an easy or quick process, but we really need to start sorting that out as we kinda committed to having this ready for her at the start of her last summer before university which is only seven and a half months away! (Gasp!)

Lastly this week, the indoor bike trainer became part of the cycling repertoire. I got in a test ride in Tuesday even during the Leafs hockey game (my second of the day) knowing that with the colder temperatures and the darker early days it would be a reality sooner than later. Well this morning, being that I needed to be at work for 8:00am and knowing that it would be pitch black when I would need to got for a ride, I did an indoor ride this morning thinking that when I came home tonight I could get in a quick outdoor ride albeit with the head & tail lamps. That said, when I left work not only was it dark and cooler but it was also raining to boot. Cold, dark and raining is not something I wanted to engage in so I accepted that the consecutive day streak of outdoor rides ended right there: at 219 days. And as much as that is mildly disappointing, the bigger goal of getting over 10,000kms this year I did hit, and that is still going!

She said

This has been quite a week for Emelia, within 7 days Emelia’s team wins their first competition of the season and she gets to see her musical hero in person. Would say this week and this concert will be in her core memory as one of the best days of her life. We were able to secure the tickets over a year ago, 15 months to be exact. With something that far out it seemed like it would never be here and then all of a sudden the day was here. And it honestly really did sneak up on us. Emelia’s so busy between school, sports, work and her very full social life that the day was here and we really had not planned too much. I had planned to drive down to my friend Lauren’s place and then take the subway down to the concert, turn around go back and hangout for a while and then head back to her place to pick up Emelia and head back home. But we were travelling with a different family, so when the said we were taking the Go Train down we shifted our plans and for logistics it worked out better. So bright and early we got moving and were heading down to the Go Train station. The girls were tired but excited.

Once we were in Toronto we could see in person how much Toronto had got all in for everything Taylor Swift. It took over all of downtown. Toronto was now ‘Tay-ronto‘. Everywhere we passed was Taylor Swift theme, they renamed a street after her right beside the Rogers Centre, everywhere we went they were playing her music, viewing parties everywhere. It was a Swiftie takeover. The girls were over the moon. Emelia grew up going to music festivals but this was her first stadium concert and we could not be happier that her first one was her music hero. Once we were settled we made our way down to get some lunch and went to Queens Street to do a bit of window shopping. Once we were done we headed back towards the venue to find a quiet place for the girls to get changed and their makeup on for the concert. We had been warned heavily that the lines for everything was long so be everywhere early. The doors didn’t open until 4:30 for the 7:00 concert start but both girls wanted their merch. So we knew that the gates prep opens at 3:30 so we arrived at 3:00 and thank god we did. We were shocked how long the lines were, we found our way over to the the girls gates, did some important photos along the way and then got in line. The girls were in the right place and right time and when the gates opened they were 10th inline to get into to buy their merch. After waiting in the weather for over an hour we got a message they were in and the beloved blue crewneck hoodie was in Emelia’s hands.

Now that the girls were in we could go off and find something to do to kill time until the concert was over. The updates we were getting was that Emelia’s night was magical, she sent pics and a video of how close her seats were to the front. I asked her how is it, she said magical exactly what she hoped for. As a parent you live for these moments, when you know your child is doing and in a place they dreamed of. You cannot as a parent always live this, life is hard and full of near misses. This time was a hit, Emelia won the lottery and she was able to see Taylor in person. She said she is as amazing in person as she dreamed and it lived up to all her hopes. I could not wait to see her and after a bit of a hiccup at the end we were able to meet up the girls and catch the last Go Train back to Neeka’s moms car and then we could start driving home. After being up for 20 hours we were all exhausted and happy to be home. It is a day that I know that Emelia will never forget and I honestly either will I even though I never stepped inside the Roger Centre this week. The whole day was perfection.