This was a big week for me, I started my second job, had a great rugby game and had lots of time with my friends.

He said

This past week and a bit we had a lot of extra running around as after Easter weekend Mom ended up over in hospital because she was having trouble with her breathing again. She was in Emerg at University Hospital and because of the amount of patients it took a bit of time getting her a room and admitted. The good news is that once she got a room the breathing issue got resolved and they made adjustments to her diuretics and by Friday she was well enough to back to the residence. It meant a lot of running back and forth for Danielle & I and Matthew & Shawn, but it helped that she was at University right by us.

Before I knew it I was right up at the first gravel bike race of my season in the Paris To Ancaster Brevé today. It kinda of snuck up on me, for some reason I was thinking it was another week away. I am guessing it is because of all the other stuff going on in life lately making us busy. At any rate the race went today and leading up to the race I was really hopeful that the weather forecast would hold true as the last two years were rainy, cold, muddy and miserable. The good news is that the forecast did hold up and we had the same weather I was spoiled with four years ago when I did this race for the first time.

Now for the race… the best time I ever did in the Brevé was in the first year. The following two years, the weather was absolutely miserable and the mud slowed me to almost stop several time on the 45km course. But, this year the weather was on my side and we got sun, blue skies and light gusty winds that for about the half the course was at my back. I ended up wheeling in to the finish line under two hours and a full five minutes faster than that best ever finish. I am really happy with that result as it is a great way to kick off my race season. Next weekend is my second of the season in the Scrappy Badger.

Lastly this week is super exciting because on Thursday, the camping season opens at Auburn Riverside Retreat. Danielle and I have booked some time off work so we can go up there Thursday and Friday to get it ready for the season. We’re really looking forward to this season. With the trailer being left up on-site over the winter, it means it will be a lot easier as there’s no getting the trailer out from storage and then landed on the site – we just have to open up and clean up after the winter. Once we have that done, we have the place that we love to escape the city for, ready escapes whenever we can!

She said

This was quite a week, Emelia has been having a great few weeks, she went from Nationals coming home National champs, she then right into rugby season and right now her team is undefeated and Emelia is having the best season she has ever had, she is a starter and on the field the entire game. So far she has 2 trys this season and is really loving it. She is really making the most of her last year in high school.

We have commented a few times how happy we are with Emelia’s friend group, they are such a great group of kids, they fiercely have each others backs and love spending time together. The big talk this week was the plans around prom. The girls are working out all the details and the excitement is rising. The latest fun for the seniors is a game called senior assassin. Essentially you have targets you are supposed to take out with water guns. There are a ton of rules around it and this entire week Emelia and Carter were trying to plan together how to take out there two targets. The 4 kids spend most of the last week working together and have been having the best time. In fact tonight Emelia and Carter are still on the mission for Emelia to get her target before the free for all purge day tomorrow. It is hard to believe we are about to go into May and Emelia has only two more months of high school, gone is our shy, introverted girl and out has come a confident woman ready to take on the world.

Outside of school Emelia is still busy all the time, she is about to go into cheer assessments and tryouts for next season, this has meant a lot of time at the gym so between cheer, her two jobs, her social life, school and sleep she is go go go. We would not have our lives any other way. 2025 has been amazing for Emelia so far and we cannot wait to see where the next few months take her.