Mom and I had an extra member in our Tai Chi audience this
morning thanks to Ethan; though Michael would have been watching us from where
he’d been sitting on his dock anyway.
When Ethan had started running his way after seeing him there, Michael
had waved Rowen off from chasing him; and had intercepted Ethan half-way before
carrying him back to us and sitting on the bench with Rowen while Mom and I
finished our forms.
That earned Michael some good morning hugs, and Mom offered
to feed him and Tim too; so we had seven for breakfast at the patio table on
the back porch. We only changed our
breakfast plans a little by whipping up a batch of pancakes to go along with a
fruit salad instead of having cereal; and bagels and muffins were still an
option too. Rowen and Tim conspired to
keep Michael and me together after breakfast; though I’m sure that Tim really
did prefer to help Rowen with packing up both tents while Michael helped with
the kitchen clean-up – he does not stop in to hang out with Michael and help
out in the kitchen at the Inn on Michael’s work days. Ethan and Ehlana picked helping them too
instead of supervising the dishwashing; so it was just Mom, Michael, and me
getting that done. Michael went home
after that, and since Rowen and Tim had already put our tent away and had moved
on to take down the boys’ tent; I started putting the rest of our camping gear
away while Rowen, Ethan, and Ehlana were busy helping out at Michael’s house.
I had the sleeping bags, cooler, and nearly everything else
put away by the time they got back, and after Rowen grabbed her things and
headed for home and then her work shift at the store; Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I
all went into the office so that two of us could get to work while we waited for
Alicia to come over.
While I’m thinking about that, the archives for Ethan and
Ehlana have all of the details, but I should have mentioned before now that my
amazing little brother and sister have unofficially graduated from Grade Eleven;
and will be starting Grade Twelve in September.
They’re a bit ahead of where I was at their age, but their education
plan is more focused than mine; and they have their own special talents too
that will likely keep their development ahead of mine anyway.
Mom and I both got right to work while Ethan and Ehlana
played on their iPads until Alicia took over watching them for the rest of the
morning. Jake, Stephanie, and Dillon all
needed to be home in time to help with the lunch shift at the Inn, so they were
back in town by shortly before noon; but Violet had lunch with Aunt Leanne at
the office because she’d brought fast food home for her – even though we would
be in Crystal Springs on Friday anyway.
Since she likely also took care of the detailed birthday adventures report
too, though, I didn’t mind having to wait until dinnertime to hear the
kid-friendly version.
I did get to see her for a few minutes before Rowen and I
headed out on our afternoon canoeing adventure, and while we were gone; she was
planning on getting some work done and possibly having a nap when Ethan and
Ehlana did. While it was a quiet
afternoon at home, Rowen and I ended up doing a fast trip all the way to the
whirlpool and back; with just a short swim break there before getting started
on the downriver half of our little adventure.
Rowen had orders to go home for dinner tonight, so it was just the five
of us for dinner. Violet and I did the
clean-up while Mom got to have a little break, and then we all went over to the
park for the Fix-it Uppers’ practice.
Violet was drafted to stand in for Dad, and though she
doesn’t really play baseball very much; she did pretty well tonight. Being younger than most of the players
probably helped, but she has some sporting skills too – even though she prefers
sports like swimming. Her game wasn’t
better than Dad’s, and the overall practice wasn’t any more impressive than the
others had been so far this season; but they did all have as much fun as usual. Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and I had fun too. We watched some of the practice, and spent
the rest of the time at the playground.
Rowen didn’t come over to play, but she’d suspected that there were
chores in her post-dinner future tonight; so that wasn’t a surprise.
Having Michael come over after getting set free from the Inn early was nice, and he played with us for the last
twenty minutes or so before the practice was over and Mom and Violet were ready
to go home again. Getting caught
watching us from the back door of the Inn was the reason Miranda cut him loose
tonight, though he was advised that it wouldn’t work anymore if he tried doing
that every time he saw me at the park.
He came home with us after stopping at home to change into a
swimsuit; and then we took Ethan and Ehlana for another little swim before
doing the bedtime snack together with Mom, Violet, and Dillon. I didn’t want Miranda to be disappointed
after being so nice about giving us that extra time together; so Michael and I
did share a goodnight hug and kiss out on my back porch when he headed home
again. Wasn’t that thoughtful of us to
do that for her? ;^)
Violet and Dillon were going to watch a movie tonight, but
changed their plans when Mom reminded them that they knew about each other now;
Dillon was allowed to know about the Magi Masters in town; and they could sit
in on the lessons she was doing with Ethan, Ehlana, and me before tucking the
twins in for the night – and she didn’t have to wait until after Dillon went
home to do Violet’s lesson either anymore.
That was very cool for all of us, and Mom pretty much made
it one lesson with varying degrees of difficulty for all of us – including
Dillon. He was amazed a lot of the time,
but Mom and I were happy to see that his mother was already using some of the
new techniques and information that Mom has been giving to the Magi council
with Dillon’s training. His abilities
are about half-way between Violet’s and Dad’s on the Magi power scale; and his
strengths lean toward the creative – he’s particularly talented with
Transmutation.
We ended up playing a bit too long, so it was after eleven
before Ethan and Ehlana were in bed for the night and I came up to my room for
some Jacuzzi time. I want to get a
little extra rest, so my nightly computing and this archive update has been
going on while I’ve been soaking in the tub.
It’s going on midnight now, though, so it’s time to finish this; get
ready for bed; and go to sleep. Rowen
and I are working again tomorrow morning to make up for Friday; and then we’ll
probably just play with Ethan and Ehlana in the afternoon so that Mom and
Alicia can do some other work before we’ll all be going to Crystal Springs on
Friday.
That’s all I have, so, until next time, this is Magi Master
Cassie Proctor; logging out!
