We got to go bowling on my birthday! I love bowling. I don’t like losing though.
He said
While we chose last weekend to have the pomp and circumstance of Emelia’s birthday, the big day actually fell on Tuesday. And keeping with the tradition we started a few years ago, we have a quiet night – just the three of us – at a restaurant of Emelia’s choosing. True to her creature-of-habit form, she picked the same place we went last year: Palasad North. She loves the food, the games room, and of course the bowling lanes! But, then again, Danielle and I don’t mind it either!
The rest of the week was really about coming down off the high of all the birthday bonanzas, overcoming all the cold bugs that have been flying through our family, and a trip to Toronto for work.
Wednesday night it was becoming clear that Emelia was potentially the next victim of the colds that had made their way through the daycare kids and by Thursday morning, as I headed to Toronto for work via train, I got a text message from Danielle that Emelia was staying home from school for the day. She was battling a cough, sore throat and just wasn’t feeling well. So she spent the better part of the day in our bed resting and of course curing herself with Netflix kid show marathons. By the time I got home that evening, she was doing better—not 100%—but certainly better than the morning which was great news.
The trip down and back to Toronto for me was a great one. I was able to take the train down which eliminated the potential stress that driving in the winter weather can introduce at a moment’s notice. And that left me time on the way down to just enjoy the ride, stress free without the traffic and swear words that follow. The meeting I was part of was provided me tons of great insight and ideas to bring back to our store, plus it further deepened my connection with my counterparts at all the stores in our market and in the GTA. And I couldn’t wait to share those ideas with my team the next day when I was back at work.
With Emelia’s birthday all over, our focus immediately switched to planning, readying and (gulp) paying for the Disney cruise. And, the other thing we have started to map out is our trips out in Wolfie! Both of these things definitely help us ignore the cold weather, snow and bundling up that is our reality the next couple of months. While it wasn’t fun kissing the money by that confirms our spots on the cruise, we did just confirm our spots on the cruise.
The second dose of positive perspective came in the form of the confirmed vacation weeks for us and Wolfie for this summer from work. We’ll spend a week in July in Presqu’ile Provincial Park with the Jornitz family and we’ll of course spend our weekend on Wolfe Island for the Wolfe Island Music Festival and then the rest of the week at Bon Echo Provincial Park again . The rest of our excursions will be weekends here and there when we fit them in as well as I am still working on convincing Danielle we can go back to Sandbanks Music Fest and spend the weekend at Sandbanks Provincial Park in September.
With all that planning for much sunnier and warmer times, it was easy to forget that we are only in January. This weekend to add to that we saw much warmer temperatures melting snow and giving us a break from winter coats. Having Saturday off to spend the time with Danielle and Emelia in our usual Saturday way was like the cherry on top of the sundae. But the best part was also being able to also sneak in a rare night out to see Uncle Matthew’s new band The Dirty Sharps play at the St. Regis Tavern last night.
This week—well tomorrow more precisely–I begin the Fitness Challenge through work like I participated in last year. It couldn’t come at a better time and will be the certain kick in the can that I need to drop some of the extra cargo I put on during the holiday season, and should get me back into a much more concentrated workout regime so that I can be certain to fit into my bikini in time for the cruise.
With all this talk of birthdays, trips on a cruise ship, camping in Wolfie, and getting healthier you will have to excuse us if Danielle seem to be smiling a lot more than we should at this time of year!
She said
It certainly was a roller coaster ride of a week and a painfully expensive one as well. This week we were able to celebrate officially Emelia turning 9 years old. She was thrilled to have a quiet night with just her mommy and daddy and no sharing us with anyone – she could be the total centre of attention. For dinner at the Palasad we opted for some shared nibblers and an adult drink for John and I. While we were eating we got in a couple games of bowling. Emelia had a ball and we did too. The night flew by and before we knew it it was time to get our girl home and to bed.
This whole week, well more the last week and a half the daycare kids have all been coming in with terrible coughs that just do not want to leave their bodies, it has made for some intersting days and some tired and sometimes cranky kids. It was a matter of time with all the germs coming into the house that Emelia was going to catch it. By Wednesday night after gymnastics it was becoming clearer that there was a good chance Emelia was going to need a sick day the next day.
By the time we got home and we got her bath the cough was really kicking in and she was looking a lot like the daycare kids were the last week. I was able to give her some medication for some relief and got her to bed, by morning with the cough still presisting I chose to keep her home so she could rest. She rested for the day and by the end of the day she got what she needed some downtime to kick this cough and the cold. With a day and night rest under her belt she woke the next day much better and barely a notice of any illness. Rest was exactly what she needed. I was happy that she was out of the house for Friday since the rest of the kids were still battling the virus to end the week.
A good distraction from all the illness battling around here was vacation planning. I had been in contact with the travel agent who organized the booking of the cruise itself and we have made arrangements for the last payment for the cruise. I contacted the bank to make the necessary transfers around of the money we had set aside for the trip and it hit me how much we were spending. This will absolutely be the trip of a lifetime because there is no way I could afford to do this again. The cruise will be so worth it as John and I have said time and time again our window of us being the centre of Emelia’s world is shrinking and we want to get this one more big trip in while she is still truly a little girl. She is growing up far too fast and I cannot wait to share this trip with her and her cousins.
The other big booking that was almost forgotten was the first week of camping. With the popularity of certain provincial park campgrounds you need to book sites the day that the sites are open to book (which is 5 months out). So what this meant was Crista and I needed to really co-ordinate what weeks we all could get off together and also which campgrounds were our top choices. Originally they were going to camp with us in August but with changes that needed to be made we have moved our camping trip with them to July.
After looking at various campgrounds that worked for both our family’s travel (they are coming from the Ottawa area) we decided on Presqu’ile Provincial Park as a good middle ground, it is closer for us than say Bon Echo and Sandbanks so it does help with the travel time. John and I camped there our very first week we had Wolfie a few years ago but it was only an very brief trip on route to Wolfe Island that we never really explored the campground properly. We remember loving the beauty of the park and that they had great beaches but we are happy to have a week to really get to enjoy the area this time.
With camping decided and hopefully booked next week we are on our way to plan the vacation for this year. I would be lying to say taking this much time off is not making me nervous financially but we need this time as a family and we will make it work somehow.
Before we knew it the weekend was upon us and it was a full one once again. We had Emelia’s gymnastics of course but this week we had to shorten it for a very good reason. Emelia and her best friend’s little sisters share a birthday week with Emelia. So this means that there is a fair bit of co-ordinating between Susan and I to assure that we are not crossing over the girls birthdays. Lydia turned 5 this week and this was her first real friends birthday party. I had offered to give Susan a hand so Emelia went to be an extra set of helper hands as well. The Carter family has really become an extension of our family and I love that we are so much part of the celebrations in their lives. Lydia had a wonderful birthday party and the girls had a great time.
After the party we got a couple things done at home and then went over to Helen and Doug’s place for a visit. We had a great dinner and then back to their place for a visit before they watched Emelia for the night so that John and I could go out and see Matthew play with his new band. I have not seen Matthew perform in over 10 years and it was amazing to see him back in his element. The night was interesting to say the least with the people watching at the bar that night. All in all it was a great time but by the end of the night we were all exhausted and ready to be home.
That was basically the week that was, next week will hopefully prove to a quieter week as John and I start the fitness challenge and kick our goals in high gear. Just over 3 months and I have to brave the ship in a bathing suit so I had better get my ass in gear!