It’s my last week of summer break. Tomorrow I am back to school. I am excited and nervous about it!
He said
With it being the last week of Emelia’s summer break, a month ago we decided to squeeze another weekend of camping in for this Labour Day weekend. We knew I likely was not going to be able to get the whole weekend off, but with Golden Pond RV Resort being so close to home, I could easily slip back to town for a shift while the girls camped away. And the best part was we would be camping again with the Sherwood’s and Vilaranda’s!
This week I was off on Wednesday which meant I was able to drop Emelia off at Gymnastics practice and pick her up. That also meant I had some time to see her practice. Both Danielle & I are blown away with her skill development this year. We were wondering how she would do this year moving on from her coach Jenna, who she had the last 2 seasons, but it has been great for her. She’s enjoying being pushed in a different way by her new coach Alex and it’s paying off. Plus, as Danielle & I noticed this weekend swimming, Emelia is developing some crazy-ass muscle tone too!
Friday, right after our work days and Danielle picking up Emelia from Gymnastics, we hitched the trailer to the truck and within an hour of starting that, we were unhitched and I was cracking open a beer and grilling dinner. That was the reason that we love this park – it may not be in our top five all-time but that we can get away this close, and with friends makes it the perfect spot for these type of getaways. And the weather we got all weekend was the added bonus.
Saturday after enjoying a bit of sleep-in with our fancy new memory foam mattress topper for our bed in the trailer, we got breakfast so that we could do a little exploring in Elgin County near the campground. The highlight of the day for sure was taking the kids to the beach at Port Bruce Provincial Park. They got to jump in the waves and of course do gymnastics moves on the sand while the water splashed around them. After making a stop to pick up some groceries we needed, by the middle of the afternoon, we were back at the campground and I was in the pool within seconds after that.
My favourite part of camping there is that the way the campground is situated on a sloping hillside, you get really great views of the sunset. So as the sun set Saturday night we set up the projector and movie screen I just got this week so the kids could watch a movie at our site and while the parents all sat around the fire pit at the Vilaranda’s while Fern tended to the fire in the amazing way he does. It was the perfect way to close out a pretty fantastic day, and the sky was filled with stars.
Sunday, I had to sneak back into town before anyone was up so that I could go to work for the day. While I was at work I got text messages and pics of the fun that they were having. With it being the weekend that university and college students return, the store was incredibly busy. Before I knew it, my shift was over and I was on my way back to the campsite! In no time flat, I was into another frosty cold, adult beverage and with people that mean a great deal to me. And again the evening ended at the fire pit for the grownups and the kids watching a movie on the projector. There was plenty of laughter from both groups.
Today sadly camping came to an end – but being so close to home we took a snail’s pace approach to loading up, because we knew it was only a 25 minute drive home. We bookmarked the packing up with swims before and after we were all hitched and ready to go. As much as each camping trip coming to an end is somewhat somber, in 2 short week’s time we’re back at it again – heading to Sandbanks Provincial Park for our annual trip to the Sandbanks Music Festival to celebrate our anniversary. So, while summer break may be coming to an end, there’s still some camping left for us to do in this season!
She said
I cannot believe our summer is over, I know the summers fly by but this summer has really flown by. It honestly feels like a few weeks ago we were in Arrowhead before school was even out. And now we are in September and Emelia is starting grade 6 tomorrow.
I adore working for home because it gives me the freedom to work and be home with Emelia in the summer. This isn’t always an easy balance, yes we butt heads, yes it is a challenge to assure I am here for my daycare kiddos and assuring the Emelia’s needs are being met. As Emelia gets older the gap in age of her to the daycare kids just grows. In the past it was a hard balance but as Emelia gets older and she is moving to the age that she is ready to babysit she has really taken to be an amazing helper. She is so good with the kids, she is great with coming up with fun new games to play with them and loves going to the park with them. This summer she has been such an amazing helper and I am just going to miss her a lot when she goes to school tomorrow.
I wanted to make sure we made the most of every weekend we could this summer, Emelia is growing up so fast and she still loves going everywhere with us and I just want to soak in every trip. When our friends approached us to add one more weekend to the end of the summer we jumped at the chance. We knew John was likely going to have to work for part of it but with the close location of this park made it the best possible balance.
By the time the stars were just peaking out on Friday we were around the fire, with a drink in our hand with our great friends. The girls were happily off playing and the parents were catching up. The entire weekend was like this, lots of time with friends and family, lots of sunshine, laughs and amazing summer memories.
As this weekend comes to an end and I prepare Emelia to go to school tomorrow I am sad that the summer has come to and end but love all the amazing memories that we made with friends and family.