Ethan, Ehlana, and I let Mom and Dad sleep in this morning while we went outside to a beautiful garden patio with Rowen so I could work through the Yang long form. Dawn and Jillian had still been sleeping when we got back to our room, and Rowen and I both had time for showers before they were up and moving around. Mom, Miranda, and Patricia started rounding up everyone and getting us moving toward one of the hotel restaurants for breakfast.
Before I write about some of my morning observations, I’d like to point out that I’m not interested in any precedents that may have been set last night. Aunt Leanne may laugh when she reads this some day, and not believe me, but she – and you – should try to remember that Mom is like Santa Claus when it comes to her kids – she can see us when we’re sleeping, and all the rest. Okay, not exactly the same, but she would know if I was not where I was supposed to be.
Which brings me to my first observation – parents might not say anything, and you might think you got away with it, but I wouldn’t count on that. Miranda in particular seemed fairly amused while we were having breakfast; and I’m sure that had a lot to do with how Rebecca and Jenny were acting. Martin and Jonathan seemed to be shooting for invisible, but that was hard to achieve with all of the blushes and dopey grins. There were two other teen couples doing a lot of smiling too, but they weren’t even remotely trying to pretend that there hadn’t been a change in room pairings. While the Moms were amused, Dad and Jacob were more than a little conflicted about the situation. I’ll give them both bonus points for just going with the flow and moving on; though I won’t be surprised if there are some guy conversations coming up sometime in the not to distant future once we’re home again.
Let’s move on to the fun parts of the day!
The good news is that I wasn’t the only kid that loved the skycoaster enough to go on it again today. The bad news is that Aunt Leanne will probably be razzing me about two out of three of my rides on it being with Michael and Tim. There’s nothing to see or comment on here, and I bought the video just in case I needed to prove it.
Today wasn’t a complete repeat of our first day at the park, but it certainly rhymed. We went on as many rides as we could until lunchtime; spent the hottest part of the afternoon on the slides, rafts, rivers, and pools at the water park; and then did one last blast of thrills after dinner before it was time to head for home. I’ve blasted off, been dropped, spun, inverted, rolled, and twisted to the limit; and everyone else with the possible exception of Ethan and Ehlana, has reached or exceeded all normal fun limits. Rowen and I have both decided to put this ‘weekday weekend’ away on our best trips ever list, and I’ll guess that most of the kids and teens feel the same way.
We actually did that in two waves. Miranda and Jacob were working in the morning; so they left for home with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana shortly after dinner; leaving Jake and Stephanie to drive their van. The rest of us headed home shortly before the park was closing for the night after meeting up in the parking lot to make sure we didn’t lose anyone. There needed to be some travel changes for the trip back. Violet’s car is cool, but not great for three teen girls in the back seat for that long of a drive. She and Dillon got Dawn, Jillian, and Chrissy this time, while Dad had Chris, Alicia, Erin, Rowen, and me with him. I’m sure that made Chris very happy – especially after Dad advised us that having Rowen and me in the front seat with him would make the trip more comfortable for all of us. Rowen’s parents had the same four boys with them, so that just left Martin and Jonathan to make the big sacrifice and go home with Jake, Stephanie, Rebecca, and Jenny.
The drive home seemed a lot longer than the one to the amusement park on Monday, though that probably wasn’t the case for those of us that slept part or all of the way. I wasn’t sleeping, but Rowen got a few hours of rest, and Chris, Alicia, and Erin all got at least an hour or two of sleep too. It was sometime around three when we got home, and Dad made a side trip to drop off Alicia and Erin at Alicia’s house. Violet and Dillon had dropped Chrissy off while we were doing that, and got back to our house just ahead of us. Dad and Dillon needed to carry Dawn and Jillian up to their rooms, and Violet just tucked each of them in bed without bothering to get them changed. Rowen went home to help her parents with unloading their van, and I helped Dad, Violet, and Dillon do the same with the truck and car.
It was four o’clock by the time I crawled into bed with Mandy, but I still needed to do my email and work checks; and wanted to get this journal entry done too. We still have three or four full days left with the cousins here, and I’m sure we’ll have at least a little more fun, but this trip has definitely been the fun highlight of the summer; and I seriously doubt that anything will happen between now and Labor Day to top it.
For now, though, I just need to get some sleep, so...
...live and home again in Witch Falls; this is Cassie Proctor, signing off!
