Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Cassie's Journal - July 10, 2013



We had some early morning rain, but Mother Nature was nice enough to move that out of town before we went outside for Tai Chi by the river – though the lawn was still wet and we needed to be careful with our footwork.

Though teaching Tai Chi isn’t as relaxing as it is to just work through the forms with Mom and Dad, it is comparatively quiet and fun – and our lesson this morning was the only quiet Michael and I had until things started winding down at the campfire tonight.  Michael needed to go to the Inn to help out with the breakfast rush so that he could go on the canoe trip with us; and then work the dinner shift too.  While he was at the Inn, I was busy helping with breakfast; cleaning up; getting ready for the day; and packing for the day trip to the whirlpool.  That took a couple of hours; and then we needed another half hour to get everyone organized and the canoes loaded and ready to go.

Not all of my cousins were happy campers when we left – Jaimie was the youngest allowed to go with us; and Kaitlyn and Kara in particular weren’t happy to be excluded.  Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie were back at work today, though, and they eventually found out that Violet and Chrissy had some fun plans for them too.  All of the younger kids are camping tonight; so they’re all very happy now.

We have quite a few canoes, but needed extras today; and Chris, Martin, and Jonathan were in charge of getting some of Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s canoes; while Violet and Rebecca brought two up from the Stone’s house.  Chris and a couple of his friends were the oldest teens going along; and I’ve already mentioned that Jaimie is the youngest.  We’d invited Emma Norton for the trip and camping; so she was dropped off when her Mom went in to the office.  Rebecca had signed up for today and at least one night of camping; though the camping was only because Jenny talked her into it so that she could invite Joel to hang out with us too.  If that wasn’t enough tweeird, we had Nora and Vanessa coming along with Tim and Martin.

Michael and I had Jaimie with us in our canoe, and we paddled most of the way there and back paired up with Rowen, Dawn, and Emma.  There was a fair bit of horsing around going on all day, but we were part of the group that mostly stayed out of the way of the ongoing goofiness.  I wasn’t surprised to have Rebecca hanging out with us instead of with Jenny while she and Joel were right in the middle of the tweeird zone; but I did find it interesting that Chris and his friends ended up spending more time with us than with the rest of the teens.  It really did feel like we were two separate groups – especially while we were at the whirlpool and having our picnic; but that probably just ended up making the day more fun as we all pretty much got to do what we wanted without too much drama or tween and teen games.

I’m going to skip the personal tweeird news from today, since it really was just a few blips in an otherwise great day.  While I’m thinking about that, though, ‘Tommy’ needs to be mentioned again because he and his girlfriend were on the canoe trip, and are here for the camping too.  He spent even more time watching Rowen today than yesterday, though I guess we have spent a lot more time together than we did at Elliott’s party.  A quick memory check tells me that the average per hour was nearly identical, but that still means that he feels the need to check Rowen out about every three minutes.  I can also add that he’s particularly interested when Rowen’s taking clothes off or putting them on before and after swims; any time there are other boys hanging out with her; and when she’s swimming or playing games.

Getting back to the action, we took our time paddling to the whirlpool, but still had a couple of hours available to play and have our picnic before needing to head home again.  We had a big enough group that it felt a bit crowded in the whirlpool, so our half of the group swam and played in the river to the south of the whirlpool.  We didn’t all have lunch at the same time either, so when Martin, Tim, and some of the other guys led the charge for the picnic baskets and coolers; we had a perfect chance to play in the whirlpool with Jaimie, Dawn, and Emma.

The picnic that we’d packed wasn’t for everyone, but waiting to eat still ended up leaving us with less food than I’d expected after Martin and Jonathan were done sharing with their friends.  Chris had to settle for one sandwich; we split up the remaining salads; and finished off what little was left of the snacks and desserts except for a few energy bars in case they were needed on the trip back to town.

By the time we started paddling downriver, the members of our group that didn’t enjoy certain aspects of being miles from modern conveniences were not nearly as enthusiastic about a full day in the great outdoors; and that created some motivation for speed that made the trip home more than a half-hour faster than the trip to the whirlpool.  The guest bathrooms at my house, Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s, and the Stone’s were very popular first destinations once we were out of the canoes.

There was also a lot of work to do next too; starting with getting the canoes unloaded, and some of them put away in the storage barn.  Then we needed to set up a bunch of tents; and Mom and Dad needed help with getting dinner ready too.  Michael and Rebecca had left for the Inn as soon as we got home so they could help with the dinner shift there, and some of the teens found a way to disappear while the work was going on; but we had nearly everyone who was camping – except Michael and Rebecca – here for dinner.

I’ll skip the recap of the fairly scary tween and teen dining demonstration; though there were a few things that happened that are worth mentioning.  I had a chance to talk to Joel a bit; and it was interesting to see him around the younger kids – including Ethan and Ehlana.  I’m sure that Jenny’s initial attraction to him, beyond the fact that he’s not from Witch Falls, was the rebel teen persona.  He was in that mode all day, but since I spent most of my time during dinner and this evening with the younger kids; I saw the gentle and kind way that he handled every little kid encounter.  If Ehlana’s hug of approval for him was witnessed by too many of the guys; the reputation he’s shooting for may be busted already.

Next up was Martin and Vanessa.  They were both having fun while Michael was at the Inn and Vanessa wasn’t spending half of her time trying to get his attention or make him jealous.  Be careful, Vanessa, or you might actually find out that you like my cousin more than the boyfriend plans that you and Nora have been working on for so long now.  Lastly, Chrissy invited Josiah to have dinner with us, and it’s obvious that they’re a couple now.  They each have that ‘how did this happen?’ look on their faces, and I don’t know if they’ve even admitted to each other how they feel; but I’m sure that they will officially be a couple before Chrissy heads home in a week and a half.

Rowen, Dawn, Emma, and I had some teen support for a visit to the park playground after we’d finished the dinner clean-up; and we had time to play there for an hour or so and go for a swim back at home before getting all of the younger kids cleaned up, changed, and out to the campfire.  Michael and Rebecca made it back from the Inn in time for the swim; and Michael helped with Ethan and Eddie while I was busy with Ehlana and Nicole.

There had been parental support to get the work done for the campfire, but it was kids and teens only for the campfire.  Michael was one of the guys drafted to play guitar; and he played the first set until Jake, Stephanie, and Dillon came over after closing the Inn for the night.  That made him popular with the younger kids, though they were all on our side of the fire anyway because we were more fun than the tweens and teens who didn’t want to do any fun stuff with them.

With Michael playing guitar, and Ethan and Ehlana in our laps a lot of the time too, our campfire experience tonight didn’t have room for much romance; though there was more than enough of that going on with other couples – too much, according to some of the younger kids.  That made for some more tweeird moments that I won’t mention because Michael and I had fun despite the tweeird; and we both like helping my brother, sister, and younger cousins to have fun too.

Rowen and I have Ehlana and Nicole in our tent, and when Nicole nodded off to sleep while cuddling with Chrissy and Josiah; we decided that it was time to take both girls with us and tuck them in for the night.  We didn’t go to bed then too, but we did stay near the tent in case Ehlana or Nicole needed us.  Eddie and Ethan lasted a little longer, but Michael brought them over to their tent at a bit after eleven.  Jonathan had helped him take both boys inside for bathroom breaks; and he carried Eddie out to the tent; but then he went back to the campfire again while Michael sat and talked with Rowen and me.

It’s been another hot night, so nearly everyone went swimming to cool off at least once; and Michael, Rowen, and I went in for a little while with Dawn, Emma, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn when they wanted to do that before getting into their sleeping bags for the night at a little after midnight.  Rowen was not very convincing when she decided to go to bed too, but Michael and I still sat outside of our tents and talked for another ten minutes before sharing a couple of soft goodnight kisses and going into our own tents for the night.

Rowen teased me about wasting the opportunity, though I don’t know what she expected us to be doing when there was still a bunch of teens wandering around, swimming, or at the campfire.  We’ve had other things to talk about since I climbed into my sleeping bag and started doing my usual nightly computing.  There’s been a lot to discuss, and while Rowen is happy that ‘Tommy’ is showing so much interest in her; that plus was at least evenly off-set by how much time he spent making out with his girlfriend at the campfire tonight.  Rowen’s picked them to be the couple most likely to swap tent mates.  That isn’t a happy thought for her, and I’d like to help her out; but she probably isn’t wrong – and I won’t be surprised if there are other co-ed tents.

I’ve got an early Tai Chi lesson, a big gang to help feed, and our first riding lesson of the summer at the Ridge River Ranch in the morning; so I should probably finish this up and get some sleep.  There isn’t anything to write about from the nightly computing; and I only had a couple of quick things to deal with for the family business.  I’m going to need to find some time to deal with a few other work projects over the next couple of days; though I’m not sure when I’ll get that done when we’re planning on one more night of camping and a canoe trip on Friday morning especially for the younger kids.

Using a little Magi power to help with that isn’t an option with so many guests, and it just occurred to me that I haven’t done anything like that in a week – and may not again until after we’re done with the cousins’ vacation visits a week from Sunday.  I don’t actually miss it much when we’re having so much fun, but it does feel a little strange.

I do need to get some sleep, and shouldn’t keep letting my mind wander off, so...

...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging out!