I had two play dates this weekend with old friends I was happy to see. And Friday at Gymnastics I started to learn how to do Back Handsprings!

He said

One of the biggest signs of summer happened this weekend in the return of Wolfie from her winter hibernation location to her summer home—our driveway. And as exciting as that was, it came with a couple of hitches (pun, absolutely intended). This was the first time we were going to be towing her behind the Pilot which meant we needed to get the winter tires off and the summer ones in their place, as well as get the wiring shored up for the tow package that came with the model we chose.

Both of those tasks involved appointments with heavily-booked services centres in a high demand time of year for those type of requests but thankfully Danielle – among the million other things she was sorting out this week – was able to get both booked in times where I was off work (or had a later start) and able to take the Pilot in.

Aside from a slight hiccup with the wiring in which we need to revisit the hitch place next week for the proper harness for our trailer, we had a temporary setup in place by Friday and had everything we needed done in order to pickup the trailer on Saturday.

The big curveball in all of this, this week was that come midway through my closing shift Thursday it was increasingly obvious that I had not escaped the viruses that felled coworkers previously, or run the gamut of the daycare kids at home—up to and including Danielle. I did my best to finish out my shift and made arrangements for coverage the next day because I was pretty certain the next 12-24 hours would be rough.

I came home from work and immediately took as hot of a shower as I could stand and then curled up with some NyQuil for the night. Two pairs of completely sweat-through pyjamas and a Kleenex box later it was mid afternoon the next day and I was still feeling pretty rough, but at least rested. By five, I summoned up what strength I had, and took the truck to the Hitch Place and the hour that trip there pretty much resigned me to an evening of more lying horizontal.

By Saturday morning I was at least back to 60% which was a good thing considering it was my day off and we had lined up a lot of important jobs we needed to get done—the most crucial of course was picking up the sod for the side yard and laying it. Early in the morning we were in line with all the other yard work hopefuls chomping at the bit to get some semblance of greenery returned to our lawns.

We managed to power through my cold and get the new sod back to the house and then while Danielle took Emelia off to her swim class, I got the majority of the sod down. By the time that Danielle and Emelia returned I was able to enlist Danielle’s help to finish off the project.

After a rest and some much-needed hydration on the front porch it was off to the most promising task of the day: picking up Wolfie to bring her back to the driveway. Once she was back in our driveway it finally dawned on me that in less than two weeks we’re scheduled for our first outing in her for the May long weekend. That immediately improved my cold-fighting spirits.

The rest of the day yesterday was about watering our new sod and resting after a good day of work. We had a BBQ steak dinner which we were able to enjoy from the front porch in shorts and sandals. And then we spent the rest of the evening really relaxing off the day. We even managed to fit in a movie and watch all of it without either of us falling asleep.

With Saturday the victory it was, Sunday was back at work for me and a day filled with activities for Danielle and Emelia. The cold made a bit of a last ditch comeback effort through the day but by the time the work-day ended and I got back out into the fresh air I was feeling at least like I was closer to better than worse. After a couple hours of being home, back into shorts and most importantly with my two ladies at my side the cold became a distant thought and all that was right in the world became the focus.

In two weeks we take Wolfie out for her maiden voyage of the 2015 camping season and our second full summer with her. A week tomorrow is the anniversary of my third year at Apple—an amazing life-changing journey that is second to the one I took with Danielle that brought me to Emelia. And in a year’s time we will be re-taking that Disney Cruise but this time with Poppa and Grandma so that they can live through the moments they missed two years ago, in their granddaughter’s eyes.

It is the sum of all of these things that as the birds sing through the open windows at dusk on this Sunday evening, has me in the most joyous of space, with everything in it’s right place.

She said

To say this week was busy might be an understatement. The week started out normal, work week kind of stuff, keeping up with Emelia and her school work. I managed to get to the gym for a couple great and strong workouts, but the middle of the week things got busy.

The first was John took a turn for the worse with what seemed like a minor cold. This was not a simple cold, he was knocked out out from it, he was the worse for wear compared to the minor vision I battled the week before. So he really was out for the count when he wasn’t at work.

In the middle of normal life we were trying to nail down the details for the cruise. The people coming were growing by the minute, but it also meant that as the group increased, we needed to lock down our rooms soon to cover off all of our needs—like wanting Bill and his daughters  who were linked to Aunt Bonnie, adjoining our room. As well as getting Poppa and Grandma the room they needed, as close to us as possible. Thankfully we are all planners because it meant that we were getting booking done just over a year in advance, and it looks like with all our wishes in place!

With the amazing help of Aunt Babs’ travel agent we were able to book rooms close to Helen and Doug (only 4 doors down) and three rooms in a row for the rest of the family who was booking at this time. We are also so excited to say that as of today Aunt Babs and Uncle Don are also booking and it looks like they’ll get the room beside Helen and Doug. We are really hoping that even more of the family will be able to come but so far we are beyond excited to have so many members of the family together.

Today after a few emails and phone calls back and forth assuring we had the rooms as we needed we finalized the booking and put our 20% deposit down. To say we are excited would be the understatement of the year!

Once the cruise was finalized and the rooms were decided I could shift focus to the other things we needed to get done around the house. It seems never-ending for sure. This weekend the biggest project was six months in the making, three weeks of waiting but we are finally back to grass in the side yard. The yard was getting to the point of embarrassment with how horrible the mulch was looking but when John and I decided last fall that we were going to make the switch it was a matter of waiting for the right time.

The timing was not at all ideal, John felt like a bag of crap but honestly we didn’t have a choice. John works all next weekend and we are gone the weekend after. We were also fighting against mother nature, you really need to lay sod before it gets too hot for best results. The weather as always in this area in the spring is a clusterfuss of weather changes—two weeks ago we had a freak snow and today we hit 28º. No wonder everyone is fighting viruses. Saturday was a combo of exhaustion and feeling like we managed to get a ton accomplished.

Today John was back at work and that meant Emelia and I were filling our day. And we had a full day for sure. With Emelia’s gymnastics classes now being Friday evenings I can get my errands done the days I can get the Pilot, so that leaves our weekends open to not dealing with the crowds at all.

Once dropping John off at work Emelia and I did one quick errand and then we were off to visit with Komal, Dhiya and Sima. Komal and I had texted back and forth and decided on a play date at Springbank Park. Sima had an art class near the park and that would allow us to let the bigger girls play and still lots of time to have the three girls play together. We had a picnic lunch and the girls played and played and played. It was a glorious day. The sun was shining and the temperatures today were heavenly. It was that perfect spring day, the heat without the humidity. We had a couple great hours today. Trying to convince the girls we had to say good-bye wasn’t easy but Emelia and I had plans later in the afternoon.

About a week ago I had been texting one of Emelia’s former classmate’s mom, trying to plan a playdate with the girls. Emelia and Carissa had stayed in contact by virtue of the fact that they go to the same gymnastics school. The girls get along amazing and I get along great with Lisa (Carissa’s mom). Added to the play date was one of my mommy group friends who happens to be neighbours with Lisa so I got to finally catch up with Karen and Emelia got to play not only with Carissa and her younger sisters Rebekah and Ava but we also got to play with Ben and Kate. The kids had an absolute blast. There were plans already for a future play date so needless to say today was a complete success.

By the time we picked up John at work at 6 Emelia was spent, she was ready to tell her daddy all about her day. We got a tired and happy girl to bed and we are setting in to catch up on some of our shows.

Needless to say we are pretty happy these days, life is pretty good. Great friends, great family and each other. What else could we ask for?