I can now do a roundoff double back handspring!

He said

As the title of the post suggests this week we finally pulled the trigger on moving gyms. During the month of February when I was in my Wellness Challenge at work, and using the gym daily, I became acutely aware that the despite paying premium prices for our family membership, we weren’t getting the value for what we were paying. The latest it’s open is 10pm and they’re often shoeing people out at 9pm. And going to the gym any time after 4pm is frustrating at best as it seems kids are dropped off by the herd without a parent in a 5 mile radius.

During the Wellness Challenge I became frustrated enough that we decided that with Emelia’s gymnastics and then dance classes five days a week, that we weren’t concerned with her level of physical activity which meant we didn’t necessarily need a family membership. At the recommendation of our friends Stephanie & Justin – parents of one of Emelia’s gymnastics besties we’ve become good friends with – we looked into Fit 4 Less. We found out that with one membership that we can share, we get all the machines we’re accustomed to using, in a facility that offers twenty-four hours of use for $100 less a month!!

Sold!

We cancelled our Y membership and that expired on Friday with the end of the month. So, we went and signed up today for Fit 4 Less. Tomorrow, I will give it my first workout and see how that goes and the same for Danielle in the evening when Emelia is at gymnastics. With our summers largely focused and filled up with camping, it’s ludicrous how much we paid for a YMCA membership that we hardly used, and when we did, didn’t feel like we were getting the value for what we paid. The added bonus to this membership is that it includes unlimited use of a hydro massage table!

Given that Spring officially arrived on the calendar in the last couple of weeks, and the weather is finally catching up, talk has moved onto planning out our camping season. All of our sites are of course booked up and ready to go, as the second they’re available six months in advance of the trip they have to be booked or you don’t get a site. But, this year we’re doing something new!

One of the big things we’ve found somewhat helpful when researching both our trailer and the camping locations we want to go to has been YouTube and a few key channels that have been informative and helpful. There’s been a few gaps in terms of the channels that we’ve found in terms of sharing the specific sort of information we’ve wanted, so we’ve decided we’re going to make our own! We’ll focus on showcasing the campgrounds we go to and what they have to offer to entertain our family and why we chose that campground. But, also we’ll show how our trailer suits our needs and what features we love about and what ones we have (or want) to change. And the least of which, this channel – like our blog – will serve as a place where we can document the amazing things we’ve done where we can come back and relive again—especially in those winter months while Wolfie Too is in her hibernation.

I’ve started to research the gear we’ll need in order to make the videos and the good news is I have an amazing camera in my iPhone X which I can use to get the lion’s share of the recording. And with adding a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 gimbal I will be able to get smooth, stable video. Pretty much those two pieces and my iPad Pro, will make the ‘studio’ along side some great apps that make editing and posting video ridiculously easy. I will need to get some sort of tripod setup but other than, we’re good to go. Down the road, I want to add in a drone of some sort to be able to get some aerial video, as well as potentially a GoPro Hero5 Session down the road depending on how serious we get about this.

What’s most exciting about this is it isn’t a ‘me’ thing. Sure getting the gadgets is steeped in me, but, as I’ve talked about it with Danielle & Emelia both are excited about for different reasons and that makes me happy because if it were just something I wanted to do, it will wear thin fast. And just like camping in a trailer, and camping in general, this documenting our camping via making a YouTube channel will be something we’ll learn how to do together. And with any luck something we learn to love to do together just like camping.

She said

As we are now officially in April the schedule for Emelia has started to be set in the calendar and man-oh-man its a full schedule. We have her schedule for the first competition later this month and add in training, as well as her school play, basketball, dance practices for their year end performance and it is busy, busy, busy. I have to sit down this week and put every single date in for practices, performances as well as make sure she has all her costumes set for the play as well as dance. It might be busy but she is so happy and we love how involved and active she is. The kid is a constant ball of energy for sure.

This long weekend was well timed, we all needed the time to reconnect and allow for a bit of downtime as well as lots of time with family and friends. This hasn’t stopped Emelia from constantly being on the go. As an amazing and generous gift Helen and Doug contacted me on Monday to see how important a new bike was for Emelia. Well for a child who is constantly on her bike all spring, summer and fall with her friends it was a pretty important item we needed to replace. They generously offered to replace her bike and we were off to get a new one. She got lots and lots of use of it already and loves it so much. This entire weekend she has been out and about enjoying the freedom of less activities and more time with friends. She and her best friends Anna, Grace and Marin have been out and about all weekend. In fact on Friday she was gone bouncing between houses and parks that she left at noon and other than a quick supper she was gone all day until 8:00. This is what we always wanted for her. A safe place to explore and time with friends.

It is not to say this weekend has been all friends and freedom, with her competition coming up fast and the holiday this weekend meant that she had to have a make up practice on Saturday afternoon. As soon as we left practice we quickly made our way across town to visit with the Teeter side of the family and have the big family Easter dinner. The kids as always had an amazing time, the grown ups had lots of time to catch up and share some laughs. It was just about perfect!

Sunday morning she was up bright and early to do her egg hunt and to get her Easter gift from John and I. For a girl who is all about her training we figured this year the perfect gift was to add to her growing mini-home gym. She loved her yoga mat, free weights and stretch bands. It was the perfect balance for a girl who loves to train but also loves chocolate. Once Emelia was done her egg hunt we got dressed and on our way to what is becoming our new and favourite Easter tradition. For the last two years Norma has invited us over to her place with the kids to have an Easter egg hunt for both kids and adults. The kids get candy and the adults get little grown up drinks on the hunt. It is a huge hit and the kids just have an absolute blast. This year Emelia was even more thrilled when she met a new friend. A member of Norma’s family has a daughter older than Emelia who is as obsessed with gymnastics as Emelia is. The girls spent the entire time outside doing flips and tricks. In fact Emelia even nailed for the first time off the training tack at the gym her round off to double back handspring, a trick she needs for level 4. The girls had so much fun and were instant friends.

The rest of the weekend was all about spending some much needed time together and giving all of us a bit of a break after a very long winter. I have closed my daycare for the last 7 years on Easter Monday for this exact reason. After a long winter I am burnt out and Emelia never really gets a break from the daycare kids in the house even on her school breaks. This weekend is my thank you for my family to give us a weekend when they can have their home, we can have quality time together and I can recharge.

This weekend we got all of this and more!