I got to see the camp I will spending the week at the last week of July! I’m excited and nervous.

He said

First order of duty this week was taking Emelia Tuesday morning to get the second half of her braces in. A month ago they put the braces on her upper jaw, this week called for the second half of the install job – putting the bottom braces on. The appointment was a lot faster than we expected, and that even included her coming out with the wire off the top jaw while they prepared the new wire. We snapped a quick pic to send Danielle as she told me how already it funny with the wire not there.

She was a trooper through it all. She was out and and we were back to the house in plenty of time for her to get back with friends for her – as she calls it – favourite subject at school: lunchtime recess! By the time she was home from school later that day, she was really feeling uncomfortable and she self-prescribed an ice cream remedy. She was uncomfortable for the next 24 hours, but by the time the weekend rolled around she was fine.

Friday evening after work, we stopped over to Mom & Dad’s to see how they were doing and if they needed help with anything. Dad has been having some problems with infection in the lower portion of his vein bypass in his leg which has resulted in a couple of prolonged visits to the hospital over the last couple of months. To add to that fun he’s also being dealing with other age-related folly and had an endoscopy on Friday to validate everything from a previous procedure was okay (and, it was!). As soon as I was done work we went over to check on them and Emelia caught them with all her goings-on in a photo slideshow. It was a really good visit and then we rushed home to watch the Raptors game in the NBA Final.

Saturday was a big day for Danielle and Emelia as I had to work, so I will let her tell that story. Today, we had originally planned to potentially be down in Alliston Ontario for the Provincial Finals in Gymnastics. When we found out Emelia just didn’t make the cutoff, we decided to find something else to do together, as a family and fun for her. That ended up being a trip over to the US so we could do some shopping, spending the day together.

We still got up early enough to watch the Live Stream of her teammates (and besties) who had qualified. I was so proud of her being such a good teammate all this week offering encouragement and support and that continued this week when she said she didn’t want to leave for our day, until her teammates competed. They did reasonably well against the tough competition and then we were off for our shopping day.

It was a great day together. When we realized the mall that we used to frequent in Port Huron was a ghost town with a lot of stores gone, we decided to head over to The Mall at Partridge Creek – a beautiful, newer mall about 35 minutes from Port Huron. It did not disappoint and we got to shopping proper. The other point of the trip was to pick a couple of things we had ordered on Amazon for the trailer that had we shipped to Canada would have tripled in cost. We happily picked those home and brought them up. And we were delighted when we told all border agent all of our purchases today down the dollar and cent, and we waved us through and said had a safe trip home.

She said

This week was somewhat lighter in our schedule as we adjust to our world post dance and school sports in our schedules but it still turned out to keep us quiet busy. As John said Emelia had to get her lower braces on but as well this week we had to go see another specialist for Emelia. This time to assess what is the root cause of pain in her feet, ankles, knees, hips and lower back. Being a gymnast is very hard on your body but add in a person who’s feet do not like align properly it makes things that much worse.

For the last few months we have been chasing this pain, Emelia has seen a massage therapist, chiropractor and even a trip to the hospital to assess the pain. The latest check was her feet. Emelia has always pronated her feet so we figured at some time this could cause problems and it seems it has caught up with her. On Tuesday evening after work Emelia and I rushed off to an appointment with an orthotics specialist who happens to be one of my former clients. And no shock Emelia needs orthotics and Christy feels this could be the root to a lot of her pain and once we can get her properly aligned the other problems along with some physio therapy as well as supports for sports should give Emelia a lot of relief and hopefully start improving things for her.

With that appointment out of the way we could focus on the rest of the week. On Thursday Emelia was back at practice for gymnastics and supporting her friends as two of her teammates were off to Provincial finals. She has been amazing supporting and cheering them on even through a bit of disappointment that she missed the cut in spite of stronger scores. We shifted our focus on other amazing things we had on tap for the weekend and Emelia was very excited.

The weekend started with a lazy start as John didn’t have to work until the afternoon and Emelia and my plans didn’t involve us leaving before the early afternoon. The big excitement for Emelia (and me) was going to the open house for her summer camp that she and her best friends will attend at the end of July. Since this is all three girls first time away from home for more than a night away from home this visit was great for them to see the camp, the events and where they will be sleeping.

The camp certainly impresses. It is set up very well, lots of amazing activities for the kids to keep them busy and engaged all day. All the staff we met this weekend were incredible, super supportive, great with the kids and really engaged. I know the girls are a mix of nervous and excited about the week but I bet this will be a week that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Once we wrapped up at camp Emelia and I drove the twins back to their family cottage which happens to be close to where the girls we be spending a week at camp. We spent the next few hours visiting with them on the beach and getting in the water, having a fire and generally a great night. It finally felt like summer had arrived and the incredible memories that surround this time of year.

Today was a great day as a family. We had decided with Emelia not qualifying for provincials we would focus on some family fun and make today a positive day for Emelia. We opted for a quick trip to Michigan. John and I had ordered a couple things from Amazon that was significantly cheaper on the US site so we figured have it shipped to a shipping depot there, and then we could spend a few hours doing some shopping. The exchange rate right now is horrible so we were careful about anything we looked at, nothing honestly jumped out at us but it didn’t stop us from exploring around and making today a relaxing family day.

Next week should be a pretty low key week in our world, something I am sure we could all use.