2022

After the 2020-2021 COVID restrictions and a full year of bedroom-based virtual school for the girls, the 2021-2022 school year saw the girls back for in-person French immersion. In 2021, Avery moved to intermediate school where she is now in grade 8 and Myra is now in her last year of elementary school. At the same time, in September 2021, Amy's sister Amata and her partner Dryden moved to Ottawa from Manitoba and having just graduated from university moved in with us for the year.

By Christmas of 2021 the pandemic restrictions eased for long enough to allow us to travel to New York to board a cruise, which was re-booked from our cancelled March 2020 departure. We brought along Amata and Dryden to celebrate their graduations as well as Amy and Dryden's holiday birthday.

The girls in the family are serious about their volleyball, playing indoor volleyball through the winter and beach volleyball in the summer. Amy is busy coaching both with the Fusion volleyball club and at Avery's school. Both Avery and Myra played on the thirteen and under girls team who came 18th out of 96 competitive teams in the Ontario Provincials. In the summer they played beach volleyball, and are now with Ottawa Fusion's fourteen and under team. Not to be outdone, we leave on 31 December for a week-long Better at Beach volleyball camp!

This past summer we travelled to Saskatchewan and Alberta to see Amy's family first at the Poirier family reunion in Redvers, Saskatchewan where we put on a skit for Grandma Poirier. We also caught up with Amy's dad in Lethbridge, Alberta where he again showed us the local scene and went swimming with us in their wonderful Henderson Park public pool.

In addition to playing volleyball, the girls have continued competitive gymnastics and are both in level 6 this year, meaning that all the routines are customized to the athelete versus being standardized for all competitors. In their first qualification competition of the 2022-23 season Avery placed 3rd all-around in her age category with a 2nd place on the balance beam. Not to be outdone, Myra placed 6th all-around with a silver on vault and bronze on floor apparatus. Amy too is training regularly at the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre where she is the president of the board of directors and plans to compete in the spring!

In addition to the sports and Amy going back to work full time, we managed to squeeze in a bit of relaxation, enjoying some of Toronto's sights this summer, some time at the cottage, and the Cirque du Soleil in Ottawa, where we had front row seats and I became part of the show!

We would like to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday and new year's break. To round out the newsletter, here are a few more Oke photos from the year :)