Yes, you heard it here first, but today’s top news story around town was that Hannah and Nathan Draper were expecting their second child; due sometime in early April.
While that announcement didn’t have much impact on most of the kids in town, we – the eleven and under kids hanging out at our house – stopped in to the Olde Bakery so that some of us could offer congratulations and hugs; and pick up some camping treats while we were there.
I’m getting ahead of the events of the day.
Ethan and Ehlana were awake early; so they came outside with Mom, Dad, and I for our morning exercise. They toddled around the benches; goofed around a bit by acting like they were doing warm-ups with us; and then sat down on the grass and played while watching Dad lead Mom and I through the Wu long form. I was put in charge of wake-up calls after we went inside again, and took Ehlana with me for that while Mom and Dad started to work on breakfast with supervisory support from Ethan. Chris and Martin weren’t particularly excited about getting up before noon, but Violet, Dawn, and Jillian loved Ehlana’s wake-up cuddles and giggles.
Chris and Martin were the last to get downstairs for breakfast; but found enough energy to demolish about half of the food. The weather was looking good for the next couple of days, so Mom and Dad approved the camping request that Dawn, Jillian, and I made while talking about what we were going to do for our free play day.
They could be regretting that by now, but I’m sure there are a lot of happy parents around town too – the parents with kids at the mass campsite that is currently our back yard.
There’s a camp in the Stone’s back yard tonight too; but they got the older teens while our campers are in the eight to fourteen-year old range. I’m not exactly sure how we ended up with the biggest campout of the summer so far when we started out with just five girls, including Rowen and Emma Norton, but it certainly hasn’t been boring around here today. Since our camping adventure had been approved by the end of breakfast, Dawn, Jillian, and I wanted to set up our tents before it really started getting hot out, so when Rowen came over; that was the first thing we did. Dad had suggested the invitation for Emma, since she could stay overnight, and get a ride back home with Claire after baseball practice on Tuesday. She ended up getting a ride into town in time to have lunch with us when her father needed to pick up something at Landry’s; and multi-tasked that little job with dropping Emma off with us, and having lunch with Claire while he was in town anyway.
We had our tents set up long before Emma joined us, and we’d gone for a bike ride at the park; done a morning ice cream break at the Emporium; and done the congratulations and camping munchies run to the bakery before going home again in time to have a long swim before lunch. Emma caught the end of the swim with us; and it was at lunchtime that the camping plans started to get out of control. Mom and Alicia had been prepared for extra incoming teens for lunch, and we ended up with somewhere around thirty kids and teens. Violet, Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie all helped out with feeding the rest of us first before getting to have lunch with Mom and Alicia, and since we were finished eating by then, Ethan and Ehlana got to go play for a while at the park with five girls; all of us very happy to both give Mom and Alicia a little break while escaping from the weird and crazy that was currently surrounding Dawn’s brothers, Jonathan, and their friends.
By then, there were going to be a total of twelve more campers, and there were four more tents in various stages of being raised by the time we returned Ethan and Ehlana to Mom and Alicia; including a pair of two-room tents that were on loan from the Palmers and Bassetts. Seventeen campers seemed like a lot at the time, but then Stephanie and Violet suggested the teen camp at Jake’s house, and that led to more teens and kids getting in on both camping adventures; plus a mass barbeque dinner at our house for everyone and quite a few of the parents.
Our tents were already set up, so Rowen, Dawn, Jillian, Emma, and I mostly stayed out of the way as the campground spread out along the river and eventually ran the width of our yard and two rows of tents deep. While that was going on, we went for a canoe ride, played at the park again, and went for a long swim while we were at the park. When we got home, Rowen and I were drafted to help out with setting up for dinner, and Dawn, Jillian, and Emma entertained Ethan and Ehlana while we were busy.
Food donations were coming in fast by then, along with some adult and teen volunteers, so it really wasn’t that hard to get tables set up for the older guests, and the campers were all going be set free to take their food and sit around their tents and by the river to eat. Dad, Uncle Adam, Jacob, and some of the other guys were on the grills, while side dishes ranged from corn on the cob and salads to a variety of snacks like chips and pretzels. Rowen and I helped out for nearly an hour before being set free again, and then we sat down by the river with Dawn, Jillian, Emma, and the twins. We spent most of the time we had left until dinner was ready just sitting back and watching the tween action around us, and Dawn and Jillian did a great job entertaining the rest of us with their commentary; which regularly poked fun at Chris and Martin. I’ll guess that’s a defense mechanism they’ve needed to hone over the past few years to help cope with and survive the teasing, pranks, and practical jokes the Chris and Martin inflict on them on a regular basis. At least they had to play it cool, and were too busy to even pay us ‘kids’ any attention at all today.
Our plans for tomorrow came up during dinner, so since I’m at that part of the recap, I’ll mention that our canoe trip to the whirlpool and picnic has turned into a major event too that most of the kids and teens from both camps are going on. Rowen and I talked about changing our plans, but Violet, Dillon, Stephanie, and Jake are going too; and I’m sure that Dawn really wants to spend the day with Violet even if we’ll have to put up with way too many boys.
Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner too, and they took custody of Ethan and Ehlana for a couple of hours while Mom and Dad were busy. Getting drafted for the pre-dinner crew worked out great for us when we were free to go play after dinner while quite a few of the teens, including Chris, Martin, and Jonathan, were ordered to help out with the cleanup. Rowen and I were sure that the park would be hang-out central until the campfire started once it was dark, so we biked to the school with Dawn, Jillian, and Emma to play there for a while; and then we went home again to go swimming while nearly all of the other kids were gone.
Dad had some help with getting everything ready for the campfire, but there weren’t going to be any adults actually staying for that. Rowen and I were going to have Ethan and Ehlana in the tent with us, so while Mom and Dad were going to have a yard full of kids and teens, they were also going to be kid-free for the night too. Maybe they won’t spend all of that time working in the office, but if they don’t; their kids are good with not knowing the details about anything else they might find to do instead.
When the campfire started, Jake was our primary guitarist, but there were lots of volunteers willing to try their best to tell scary stories with varying degrees of success. That was all fun for me, but tonight I spent some time just sitting back and observing everything around me – even the scarier than scary stories action going on with my cousins and the other tweens and teens. I’ll need to write that up sometime later this week, but I definitely have some observations to add to our Magi Project archive. Top of the list for that – a detectable variation in the aura strength for Magi and Latents; and some pretty wild clashes and synergies between different teens and kids.
I wonder why I haven’t really noticed this around Mom and Dad, or Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne – not! Uncle Adam can take this and run with it if he wants to study this among adult couples, but there are just some things that a kid doesn’t need to know about her parents, or any of the other adults in her life. The whole thing is seriously strange when you’re on the kid side of crossing over like I am. Let’s move along.
Couples time kicked in sometime around eleven o’clock, and Rowen and I were among the first of the younger kids that decided to find something else to do then. Ethan and Ehlana gave us that out; though they weren’t particularly sleepy yet. There was a slight change in plans when Ethan toddled over to Michael and Tim’s tent; got invited in; and all but told us that he wanted to stay there for the night. There were a few jokes about Ethan not wanting to be the only guy in a girls’ tent, but I’ll give Michael and Tim bonus points for taking on a junior camper – especially when changing diapers could become an issue sometime before morning.
We ended up going for a swim that Dawn, Jillian, and Emma joined us for, and then sitting outside of our tents and talking until after midnight. Ethan and Ehlana were asleep by the time we were all ready to climb into our sleeping bags, with Ethan in Michael and Tim’s tent, and Ehlana in Rowen’s and mine. I went into the boys’ tent to change Ethan’s diaper, and I hope he’s happy; because I had to put up with some teasing about whom I was spending the night with by Chris, Martin, and a few of the other younger teens when they caught me in there on their way to the river for a cool-off swim. Unfortunately for Michael and Tim, I think they got the worst of that thanks primarily to Rebecca and Carolyn; and the ‘way-to-go’ comments directed at them from the older guys did not help. I’ll admit that most of those jokes and the teasing was funny, but hopefully the comedians won’t try to stretch the entertainment from this out to the point where it’ll just be annoying. Dawn predicted that’s exactly what Chris and Martin will do, but I really hope she’s wrong about that.
Rowen and I were ready to hide in our tent after that, so we said goodnight to Dawn, Jillian, Emma, and the boys; and zipped ourselves safely into our tent for the night. I fired up my computer, and we did a little surfing while chatting and winding down. Rowen fell asleep about a half hour ago, so I’ve been taking care of a few things, including this journal entry, while also half-listening in to what’s going on around the tents; in the river; and at the campfire. There isn’t anything exciting to report on from the family business or much email traffic tonight, and since we’ve got a big day of paddling ahead of us, I should probably just call it a night now; shut down the computer; cuddle with Ehlana; and get some sleep.
Live from Camp Proctor, Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!
