We Are Not Camping and Other News

We did not go backpacking this weekend after all. You may say it's because we're wimps, but we say it's because there was a good chance of snow - SNOW! - where we were planning on backpacking. Yeah. That's more weather than I really want to live out in for three days. Even if it doesn't snow, the highs for the weekend up on Mt Hood near Meadows ski resort (where we were supposed to go) were forecast to be in the low 40s. Thus, when Davan and I returned from camping on Friday, were working our tails off to unpack and get ready for the new trip and Anthony came home from work and announced the weather report, we stopped and relaxed instead.

Davan and I had a nice, very nice, camping trip. We spent tons of quality, good fun time together with just a couple of not so great spots. We played on the dunes, cooked over the fire, swam, rented a two person kayak for an hour, rented a sand board and slide which lead to even more dune playing and generally had a great time. Sadly, I forgot to take the camera every time we left the camp site, here are a few of setting up the tent, cooking dinner and reading in the sleeping bag.




Today I mentioned to Davan that she'd probably be doing a lot of conditioning at gymnastics after having had a week off. She said yeah, probably so. Then she said, "Is it too late to quit? I really liked having the week off." This touched off lots of thinking and frustration on my part. Hadn't we already gone through this?

Plus, it is a little late to quit. We've already paid for September. However, we have not yet signed our contract for the year, so it's sort of not too late. But, she'd already chosen to stick with it! But, if she really doesn't want to do it, why are we paying for it and making time for it and making it a priority in our lives?

We finally told her she could quit if she liked, but that would be that for team gymnastics and recreational gymnastics probably wouldn't cut it for her skill level and what she'd want to be doing. She is a little sad about it, but she's decided to quit.

Wow. What a change. We have to tell the gym on Tuesday. We have to go in in person because we've been doing a fund raiser and have money to turn in. Damn. I didn't have to be selling after all.

Then, no meets, no three hour practices three days a week. It'll be different. And gymnastics has been such a huge thing for Davan for more than a year now. Plus, swimming classes don't start up until October, so September is going to be pretty open.

We decided to take a Do Jump class together, which we'd talked about before, but weren't going to do because of cost in comparison to gymnastics and time. Davan is thinking about swim team and/or track, but we don't want her to jump into anything she's not sure about. Both are quite a bit less investment financially than gymnastics so I feel okay about her trying them out.

I do hope she picks a sport to pursue because she really likes being an athlete - strong and fit and very able physically. I think swimming or running make for better life long fitness than gymnastics and are easier on the body. It's a new chapter in her life at any rate and it'll be interesting to see how things develop.

I'm bummed about having paid for September and I'm bummed about buying the team leotard (although my mom really did that), but it's still getting out cheap compared to seeing the year out or quiting after signing the contract. Any-who, it's a done deal. All decided.

In lighter news, Davan and Anthony put a rope up in the tree in the front yard for swinging and climbing. Why hadn't we done this before? Got us. We had a rope in the tree at our last house, but not here. I guess because of the swing set in the back yard...