We finally got our routine for cheer this weekend. It is so fast and creative. We cannot wait to train and show this routine at our first competition in November.
He said
As I sit typing this, it is a Monday and we are on the deck at the trailer enjoying a morning coffee as we kick off (or continue) a week’s vacation at the trailer. We couldn’t get all the wifi sorted out on the laptop to do the post last night, so instead we were forced to have a quiet evening at the fire pit. But first I need to talk about the snafu that I bookended this week at the trailer with. First was this, past weekend which ended up being the MS Bike ride that I do every year. And, then next weekend without really looking at the calendar dates, I managed to shoehorn myself into two bike events—Grand River Gravel Ride on Saturday and then, on Sunday I am in the Bluewater International Granfondo (BIG). So it meant that our week at the trailer got trimmed… well sort of.
The MS Bike weekend has become the weekend that Danielle gets in her girls weekend at the trailer with her friend Lauren which makes perfect sense since I was tied up anyway. So, she and Lauren got up to the trailer Friday night for their weekend while I was slugging out a total of 171 kilometres riding from Grand Bend to London on Saturday and then from London back to Grand Bend yesterday. The plan then was for us to reconvene in London, get packed and sorted and head back up to the trailer, which we did yesterday. By 5:45pm last night we were loaded and headed back up here and by 8:30pm the fire was going and Danielle and I were having dinner and unwinding from a great weekend for the both of us.
Emelia this weekend had her World’s Choreo weekend which had her at the gym Friday, Saturday and Sunday honing their routine for the season. Emelia has been coming home from practices this year very happy with how things are progressing. While a large portion of the core of the team carried over from last year it seems that there has been a lot of changing it up to make them even more competitive this year. She really likes the groups she’s been arranged with and really enjoying how she is being used in it this year. Every practice she comes home telling us all about it with excitement and that is great to see.
Now, for my MS Bike weekend… I managed to make it to Club 1000 (having raised $1,000… actually $1,500 when you add my company match finds) which is my fourth year doing so. I rode with Team Cowbell again and it was great to see and ride with all my bike friends from this event, again. I see a good chunk of them at the BIG events (Bluewater International Granfondo and BIG Gravel Grind). Saturday morning I was up at 4:30am in the morning to get ready to head down the road to Grand Bend where the event starts to ride the 79km back to London on the bike (and then 5km to the house from Fanshawe). And then Sunday we did the same but in reverse riding back to Grand Bend. The event is always a blast as much as it is work on the bike. The weather could not have been better and the only patch of light right held off until long after I was back home in London.
And with that done, we are now focused on relaxing and having at least five straight days without an alarm clock and no schedule or plans for the day other than to enjoy our time at our other happy place, the trailer up on the hill. We’ll get in plenty of biking on the G2G Trail, time at the fire pit and making sure we sit and slow down.
She said
As John mentioned already we are on a blissful week off at the trailer. When we ended last season at the trailer we were determined that this season we would do everything we could to get up here a lot more often. After a few years of constant crisis management we are in the position that we can finally take time to breath and relax. This week off was a bit of a mix, John was in the MS ride this weekend, Emelia was in training all weekend and I was at the trailer for my annual summer visit with one of my best friends, Lauren. Lauren and I met when we both worked at Western. Since we met 4 years ago she has moved to Toronto and now works at University of Toronto, I have left Western to move to King’s. But our friendship has remained. We have to be a lot more intentional about our visits. We make sure every summer that Lauren comes to the trailer for the weekend and I head to Toronto for a weekend to visit her. This weekend was another amazing one, we were able to catch up, talk and have drinks around the fire until the wee hours.
With Lauren off to Toronto yesterday and John done his MS ride, John and I could focus on packing and heading to Auburn for our week up here. Unfortunately Emelia has training and work this week so won’t be able to come up for the entire week but hope that maybe she can pop up for even an overnight. But let’s be honest she is a 19 year with a very active social life. Back to us, John and I arrived up here last night later and spent the night around the fire just relaxing and ready to start our week off.
Before I wrap this up for the week I wanted to give a bit of a recap of Emelia’s training camp weekend. Every night when Emelia would get home from training she would give me a call with a recap. She is so happy this season. After a bit of a rougher go last year being under-utilized in the routine she went in as the vet of the team and the coaches are using her skills to their fullest. Emelia is matched in 2 stunt groups throughout the routine and for all of those stunts she is with the flyer that is doing all the elite stunts. She is with her cheer bestie Avery for one of the stunt groups and the other stunt groups is a really sweet and talented flyer named Jordyn. Both stunt groups are really solid and things are clicking already even hitting elite stunts. So as she said to me in one text this weekend. I am a very happy cheerleader. And that is all we can wish for.
That’s it for me for the week, this week we plan on doing little to nothing. We plan on going out on our bikes, hanging out at the trailer and just enjoying spending time together and relaxing!