Hikes :)

I've been so antsy lately!! Between stuff at home and at the gym I've been busy (which is a great thing!!) but inside!!  I haven't been out shooting much (which is obvious by my lack posts the last couple months) and I haven't been outside a whole heck of a lot either (my lack of any sort of tan is proof of that!!).  I've discovered that when I have a lot of different things to do and lots of places to go I'm way more motivated, productive, and my head is just in a better place!! I like going places, seeing something different.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day today and I was able to get out!!

I decided to go down to Gillette's Castle. I know I've been there before but both times I went last year I saw this nice stone bridge on the drive in and thought 'Oh that looks nice, I should check it out' and every time as I was leaving went 'Oh I wanted to go over there!'  So the plan was to check it out!!  I found a nice path around a pond, a bridge, a tunnel . . .

After my little hike around the pond I felt the need to go down to the river where I knew there was a little beach area.  I could have spent the whole day down there!! It was nice in the sun, there was a little breeze coming off the water, I could kick off my flips and put my feet in the sand . . . *sigh* it was so nice!!

I figured since I was in the area I would head over to the Devil's Hopyard falls just for fun for a few minutes. I went last year and had a great time jumping around the rocks.  Today was just as fun :)

So grateful for a wonderful day, hoping I'll have time for more little trips soon!!

Cheers :)

3-2013

So I've done a terrible job keeping up with my pic of the days this month, but then when I looked back almost all of the shots I had were gym related in some way shape or form . . .  and that is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of my month!!

I'm going to try and work on a little variety in April!!
Cheers :)

Opening The TVAG Archives . . .

In roughly a month my second home is moving to our forever home!!  These past few months have been very exciting, watching the new gym go up and the anticipation of moving again.  It got me thinking about when we made a big move 5 years ago to our current location.  So, my Thames Valley family, we're going to take a little trip down memory lane . . .  It brought back a lot of memories for me, almost a couple of tears thinking back

April 2008:
The old gym on the other side of Norwich was home for me.  I know Wally moved the gym there from Montville at some point but that was before my time.  I remember all those stairs to get up to the gym, how hot it was in the summer, that nasty old pit that got pit fuzzies everywhere!!  I learned to tumble there, started coaching there, blew out both knees there, got more rips on my hands then I will ever be able to count, and made a lot of friends!!  It may not have been perfect but it was home!!

Our current gym has changed a lot over the last 5 years too.  We had such a nice blank slate, the pit was just a hole in the ground, the pit blocks - all 6000 of them - neatly against the wall

Day 1 of the move!!
The old gym had to get torn apart, it seemed to be a little bit of a mess but everything had to go out a hole in the wall and down to the trucks . . .

 . . . all the while work was going on at the new gym. Re-bar had to get removed from the pit before the tramp bed could be installed

 Shari was the first to test it out before it got filled back in:

 A very little Roux helped get the bars set:

 It may not look like much on the back of a truck but that would be our floor arriving at the new gym :)

Day 2
Work continued on the pit, mats had to be moved, equipment set up

 A birds eye view of the gym:

 We could finally fill in the pit!!

 Tumble trak getting set up:

Day 3:
The old gym was looking a little different, it really was sort of hard to go up there that day and see it empty

 While the adults worked a couple of the kids tested out the equipment

All done!! Can you pick out things that have changed since the beginning?

It'll be exciting in a month or so to go through this process again to our permanent home and then watch things change over the years!!

Cheers :)