playing catch up...

wheeling...

... and relaxing

The past few weeks have been amazing, and full of volleyball. California was great and then our time back at Grandma and Grandpa B's was great and the World League weekend was great... and now we're back home in Gatineau, and I guess that's great too. Wait --- it will be great when Steve gets home on Friday. We were thinking that this week (and next) would include some solid together time - in between one set of games and the next - but it turns out that a little trip had to be slotted in. More on that in a minute...

vs Brazil

 
fifth set vs. Brazil - in case you missed it! 

with Dan-o after Friday's game

 
on-court after Friday's match; Hendrik somehow got past security... 

So yeah, World League was killer! The guys played so so so so well (so well that I couldn't (still) help but wonder why the weekend lineup wasn't the one we saw in the finals at the Olympic qualifier) and BEAT BRAZIL! And Finland! And challenged Poland! That's the first time I've seen such energy in a gym at a vball match in North America, and the first time in 13 years that the team has knocked off Brazil. It was amazing! We left the gym on Saturday night buzzing; the game was sold out, and the five-set show was as good as it gets. Hendrik was not so into sitting in the stands and watching nicely, so Marg and I took turns hanging out with him in the hallway - thankfully there were screens and we could still catch all of the action while he played with his ball and ran around like a little goat. We got to catch up with some good friends (albeit briefly) and see Steve a bit too (even more briefly), and even more importantly decided last minute to stay in the city on Sunday night so we could get some family time in before Steve left for China.

And yes, that is his little trip - he went to China. After three days of crazy volleyball, Monday rolled around and he got on a plane bound for Beijing... ouf. Isn't thirteen hours in economy just what an athlete needs after a weekend of work? That much time in economy isn't good for anyone, but he did say that it flew (haha) by and that it wasn't too too bad. So this is the deal: he went there with Freddie (Winters) because there's a team (Beijing) that is interested in signing both of them for next season, and (possibly) because it's the first time the squad will be hosting foreign players, they wanted to check them out, do the meet and greet thing etc etc. That's what the guys figure anyways, but it is better for us too; Steve can look into our potential accommodation situation, see what life might be like, see what the volleyball might be like, yadda yadda yadda. So far it's mostly so good; they're staying at a hotel just steps away from the gym, and yesterday's light training session went well. The coach seems decent and everyone is friendly - the only not so fabulous thing so far is the food. They went to a Carrefour and he said it was stinky - meat out in big bins and stinkiness... eeugh. I can't wait to hear more when he gets home Friday night! And then we'll see. By no means is this a done deal, so we'll just have to wait and see and get things figured out and then - and then... yeah... we'll see.

Sooooo Hendrik and I are here for a few days before dadd-dyyyy gets home and I'm going to try to get things organized - our front hall is jammed with stuff (ugh). We're going to miss Gamma and Buppa after two-plus weeks with them BUT have some visitors and visits to look forward to too; my parents arrive on the 1st and then we head to Vancouver on the 6th. Between the three of us we're really going to be all over the place - all over Canada for momsy and bean, and all over the world for Dad. Makes for some good blogs... I hope!

!!!!!!!

out for dinner post-game

pretending to help in the garden

in Dad's shoes