I ran my first cross country race this week. I didn’t finish as good as I wanted to, but I did finish even though I rolled my ankle.

He said

Even though we knew it was coming, the temperature drop this week was more than a bit jarring. We went from plus 30ºC temps to under 20ºC in the span of 12 hours. As we started to prepare for the camping trip this weekend, I was starting to wonder if we’d actually get to test out cool weather camping. Now, I am fully aware that the trip we have planned out at the end of the month at Pinery Provincial Park would certainly give us the opportunity to bring out the woollens. But, with the temps back into the usual range, this Thanksgiving camping trip looks like we’re gonna have the cool, crisp trip we never felt we could make in Wolfie not having a way to keep the insides of the trailer warm. Wolfie Too almost makes me think we could – though I am not sure I want to – even take a winter trip if were so inclined.

This week, the plans turned to getting organized and ready to strike out again for our second last trip. This trip will have five families total going – all with kids in or around Emelia’s age. It will even cross over friends from different areas of our lives. Our inspiration for choosing the Apex Nano trailer brand came from my friend Leanne whom I’ve known forever before we both grew into families. She, her husband Chris who has been an indispensable friend when it came especially to welding repairs, and their two kids Hannah and Cameron are family number two. Kelli, who Danielle became close friends through her network of daycare providers, her husband Bill and their two boys Ryan and Josh are family number three. Families number four and five are friends of Leanne and Chris. In total it will be a group of 19 people and this is our first time with such a big group. The best part is the age range of the kids is fairly close so there will be no excuse for any kid to utter the words, “I’m bored”.

We leave Friday during the day which means we need to pull Wolfie Too out of storage on Wednesday night because Thursday we have tickets to see Oh Susanna and our friend Jim Bryson play The Aeolian Hall. Emelia has another cross country meet on Tuesday afternoon as well as her regular gymnastics practice that evening. I have my regular hockey stint Friday morning as well. So, this weekend hasn’t even begun and it already feels overbooked. The very good news is, that as of noon on Friday when we pull out of the driveway with Wolfie Too behind us the rest of our plans after landing the trailer focus solely on food, friends and fun. We’ll have 3 nights and the better part of 4 days there. And when we come home Monday, it is straight over to Mom & Dad’s to celebrate Thanksgiving and each other.

This week, I was able to get to a couple of gymnastics practices which was a welcome change for me to be able to see how far Emelia has come. Being involved with cross country, back into the swing of school, and then the added hours this next level of gymnastics training has made it sometimes difficult to get Emelia to practice as some days she’s had enough of activities and you can tell just wants to veg. But without fail every time she gets there, within minutes she is happy and in the zone with her gymnastics friends. I can definitely see the muscle tone it has given her body, and the confidence it’s given her in all aspects of her life, but it was great to get a chance to see the change in her skill level, rather than hearing about it from Danielle and seeing pictures. As much as the cost and amount of time it takes for us (well Danielle) to ensure she gets to practices, it has been worth it in spades.

With this post officially landing us in October with fall temperatures and the number of camping trips ahead of us less than those behind us, it is time to starting acknowledging that we’re coming close to the end of the 2017 camping season. When I think back at the crazy year we had, I am amazed that we started the season with our beloved Wolfie and ended it with a completely new trailer that has quickly filled it’s place, in Wolfie Too. That wasn’t even on our radar… until it was… and it happened in what felt like a minute and a half. We also changed out tow vehicles trading in our Pilot to the Ram to give us more ability to tow and to stow. We’re truly delighted in the space we now have and how deep into the season on either side we now feel we can go and have gotten in the most camping out of any season since we became trailer trash. It certainly was our best one yet, I can only imagine what next year might bring.

She said

This week is all about planning. Along with the camping prep for our upcoming group camping trip we have a fair bit going on otherwise. As John manetioned with Emelia’s involved in so many sports it is a balancing act to assure she gets to everything while at the same time assuming she is taking care of herself and balancing school and a social life.

Our once shy little girl has matured into a social little bean with her group of close friends. She adores spending as much time as she can with her friends—both through school and gymnastics but she always wants to come back to time as a family. We do everything we can to assure she gets all that balance. It isn’t always easy but we do our best.

This week we did have a bit of a shift towards school again. As we have mentioned in past posts Emelia has some challenges when it comes to her learning so we have been able to get her a full assessment and therefore some extra support at school to assure she is getting the most of her learning at school. She is extremely intelligent but learns in a different way than the majority of children so we are getting some support to get her the right tools so she can express what she understands fully. The next shift this week came with a call from the schools support staff. We have an appointment with the board psycologist, teacher, support staff and principal in just over a week. This will give us a better picture of how the IEP will work for her and how tech will support her throughout her learning. We are already seeing amazing strides with her with some changes made this year and some programs the school has laid out. She is much less frustrated and is able to communicate a lot clearer what she already understands in her head.

So this week should prove to be a busy one, between sports, work and getting ready for a much needed long weekend I am more than excited to get by the campfire with friends and have a great long weekend together!