Tag: Amy

Handling Sweater

Elliot is sure picking up on the skating with his hockey camp. This week they were working on puck handling, so they got to skate around with a puck quite a bit more than the other sessions.

One drill had them skate the length of the ice with the puck, then the next drill was to skate backwards the length of the ice with the puck.

Elliot sure has picked up the speed with his skating too. He can fly around the rink no problems.

I see some of his tumbles though and cringe. The landings look awkward and painful, but he always gets up and has never complained.

I think the kids’ favorite drill is the one where they skate from one end of the ice to the other as fast as they can, but do a superman slide at the far blue line. They always put the most effort into that one.

Elliot is the one on the far side of the ice in the red sweater.

Once the session is done and Elliot comes off the ice, he can’t wait to start stripping the gear off. He heats up so quickly, and he is only wearing shorts and a t-shirt under everything.

If you know Elliot, then you know how quickly he would have fixed his hair. 🙂

Amy very much enjoys coming to the rink to watch her brother play. I spend more of my time entertaining her, rather than watching him. Sometimes I enjoy that, other times I’d rather be watching them play.

Weekend Common

I knew going in that having kids would mean the end of the weekend sleepins for Sue and I. When Elliot was young, he was an early riser. 5am was the norm. Since sue got up in the middle of the night to feed him, it was I who got up with him in the morning.

When Amy came along, this tradition continued. Amy slept in a little more, but her usual time to get up was 6am.

As the years progressed and the kids got older, sue and I started taking weekend mornings to sleep in. Saturday mornings were mine to sleep in on, and I sometimes got up early to go riding. This was especially true when I trained for the Tour de Victoria. 

I noticed that once Elliot was in school he slept more. It was harder to wake him on school mornings and we usually let him sleep as long as we can. It’s now common for him to get up past 7. This is only doable because he can now get ready for school and eat breakfast quicker than he used to. When Elliot was young he would do untimely take 45 minutes to eat breakfast. Now he can rip through breakfast in 15 minutes or less.

Amy also sleeps in more now, and on daycare days she wakes around 7. In the mornings she is a much lighter sleeper that Elliot, and this is very much like me. On the weekends, when we remind her that it is a sleepin day, she can go back to sleep and 7:30 or even 8 are possible.

This brings me back to the beginning. Sue and I have our sleeping in, relaxing weekend mornings back. Amy got up at 7:30 this morning and came into our bed to snuggle. I got up at 8 and sue got to sleep some more. I drank my coffee, ate breakfast, read some news, got caught up on twitter all the while thoroughly enjoying it. Elliot got out of his bed around 8:30. The kids are now in bed with Sue and she is reading to them.

Ahead ago I couldn’t imagine a Saturday morning like this. Now it is becoming regular, and I must say that I think I appreciate it more. I used to take it for granted.

Time to get ready for a ride.

Woods Tent

A couple weekends ago Amy and I went camping. It was supposed to be an overnight trip since I didn’t know how she would fair out in the woods. It ended up being a two night even which was a lot of fun.

We arrived in Goldstream on Friday night (after stopping for a donut treat) and got our site. Through a long convoluted story we ended up in a double site with some people we didn’t know, and were going to have to move to a different site in the morning. Amy helped set up the tent and get the inside all situated. With the beds ready we made some dinner (bunny pasta), and ate at the picnic table.

We also went for a short bike ride through the campground. This was our first bike ride together with Amy not using training wheels. Very fun!

There were some rumblings of thunder, and I kept hoping that the rain would hold off. A movie was playing at the interpretive hut, so we took some snacks, a blanket, and a chair and went to watch the movie. Sure enough 15 minutes into the movie the rain started, but only lightly. The movie equipment was paused and put under cover. A camper brought out a huge umbrella, so after some rigging the movie was able to resume. By this point it was close to 8 and Amy was tired. There was still some thunder, and a little bit of rain now and then, but she wanted to go to bed. I read a book while she slept.

The next morning we made pancakes, took down the tent, stuffed everything into the truck, then checked in to our new site. In the new site we once again set up our tent, sleeping area, and camping area. Throughout the day we went for many bike rides, played some games, had a picnic in our tent, and visited some friends that were also staying at the campground. We also watched as some people in the next campsite used their car to tow each other around the campground on the skateboards.

That night we had hotdogs cooked over a fire. Yum. After dinner we had marshmallows, then Amy got ready for bed. I stayed up by the fire and enjoyed some relaxation time.

The next morning we had to pack up and head home. Amy had lots of fun camping with me, and I enjoyed the quality time with her. Next year I think I will try planning for a three night stay at a different campground a little further from home.

Elliot’s camping trip is going to happen later this summer.

Cabin Wound

Last weekend we were on Saltspring to close up the cabin for the winter. We went over on a stormy Saturday and withing 15 minutes of arriving at the cabin and starting to get it warmed up, the power went out. We had planned to go out for dinner that night anyway, so this wasn’t a big setback.

We ate dinner, got some groceries, and a few other supplies to get through the darkness (candles and a flashlight). When we got back to the cabin, I got the woodstove going, and we settled in for the night. We had promised the kids a movie night, and thankfully Sue’s laptop had enough power for that.

The next morning the power was back, so we had a nice breakfast, then took Heart for a walk at Duck Creek. While back at the cabin I started another fire, and we had some lunch.

Things were going well, but I felt like I was constantly reminding the kids to stay away from the stove. Sure enough, there was an accident. Amy and Elliot collided in the hallway, Amy bounced off Elliot, and her hand touched the stove. As soon as I learned what happened I grabbed her and got her hand under cold water. She pointed out exactly where it was hurting, so I kept it under water a long time. We were going to be late for the ferry, so Sue took over for me while I packed the car. As I was handing her over, Amy turned her arm in a way that showed she had another burn down her arm. Seeing this made me feel sick. I felt like I had been running water over the wrong part of her.

She was upset, but not screeching in pain. We bundled her up as best we could, then got in the car and headed for the ferry. Using my phone I found a clinic we had been to before that was open late. We made a beeline for it when we got off the ferry. They diagnosed her with a 2nd degree burn, patched her up, gave us instructions on how to care for her wound, then we were on our way. Again, we had planned to go out for dinner, so we went to Montana’s.

Here is our brave girl, looking none the worse for wear.