Sometimes, life is strange; and some middle-of-the-night
action qualified for that.
If there was a plan behind the scenes, it wasn’t very well
thought out. To make a short story
shorter, Vanessa found herself without a tent to sleep in while Nora and Tim
were in the one she was supposed to share with Nora, and if she’d expected to
be in Michael’s tent with him; she obviously had forgotten that he had two
little boys camping with him. She was
sitting outside of their tent talking with Michael when Ehlana gave me the
wake-up call to take her inside for a bathroom break; so instead of waking
Rowen, she helped me with taking Ehlana and Nicole to the bathroom while
Michael took Ethan. (Eddie didn’t wake up then.)
By then, Vanessa was just tired and ready to sleep, so there
weren’t any games going on. I offered
her a guest bedroom or a sleeping bag and a spot in our tent, and though I
think she would have preferred the comfortable bed; she decided that it would
be better to stay with us – and the rest of the campers. We tried not to wake Rowen while moving a few
things around – and out of the tent – to make room for Vanessa, but she woke up
anyway; and was very surprised to see our new tent-mate!
It didn’t really take long to settle down again and get back
to sleep, and I was out for the count for the few hours we had until dawn. I left the other girls sleeping and went for
a quiet swim before throwing shorts and a tee on over my swimsuit and going
inside to put a pot of coffee on for Mom and Dad. Ethan, Ehlana, Michael, and Vanessa all came
inside for bathroom breaks while I was doing that; and I found out that Vanessa
had woken up with a cuddle buddy because Ehlana had rolled and snuggled with
her after I left the tent.
I don’t know if that’ll mean anything for her, but after
seeing those smiles and hugs she shared with Ehlana this morning; I’m probably
not going to be able to be annoyed with Vanessa about anything anymore.
Ehlana invited her to join us for our Tai Chi lesson; and she
sat on one of the benches to watch us; but wasn’t interested in giving it a
try. She was all for having a nap in our
tent for the forty-five minutes or so she’d have until breakfast was ready; so
we let her do that and went inside to get the cooking started. The next couple of hours were just a mad rush
of action. We needed to get everyone
fed; clean up; and Rowen, Dawn, Emma, and I had to get ready for our riding
lesson.
I’d known that Emma had signed up for lessons too, and it
hadn’t been a problem to get Dawn added for two weeks; but there was a surprise
waiting for us when we got out to the ranch – Michael and Tim were taking
lessons this summer too! Michael was
very happy to have pulled that surprise off; and I was very happy to share an
enthusiastic hug and kiss with him to say ‘thank-you’. Tim wouldn’t admit anything one way or the
other, but I got the distinct impression that he was doing Michael a
best-friend favor by doing the lessons with us too. He’s very athletic, and rides fairly well,
but even though he won’t be driving cars for another couple of years; I know he
prefers his horsepower to be under the hood of cool sports cars.
Now that Michael has already started doing two things that I
really love to do; I’ll have to see what I can do about getting into some of
the things he loves too. That thought
evokes images of me getting flattened by Kyle Landry because I tried to play
pick-up football with the guys; but maybe we can try a few less-dangerous
activities – like learning to play the guitar or some of Michael’s favorite
video games.
Let’s get back to current events. The six of us didn’t need to do the riding
assessment, but about half of the kids and teens in our group did; so we spent
the first hour of our lesson doing that, and going on the usual tour of the
barns, stables, and corrals. Rowen and
Tim made sure that Michael and I were paired up for the trail ride, and while
they were doing that for us; they looked like they had fun too. I’m sure that cracking jokes about their best
friends was involved in their entertainment, and I’m glad that we could help
them to have as much fun as we did. I’m
glad that Dawn and Emma could hang out together too, and judging by some of the
laughs I’ve heard from them yesterday and today; they’re finding some
entertainment value in my recent change in social status – though not for the
same reasons Rowen and Tim do.
I was really glad to be out on the ranch trails again. A rainy spring, and too many other things
going on, kept us from being out there as much as I would have liked. Except for our lessons; that isn’t likely
going to change much this summer either.
Rowen and I found out that Mom had been in the know about Michael and
Tim taking the lessons too, because Violet was there to get all of us in the
minivan. Michael needed to get to work
at the Inn once we were back home again, but he hopped into the river with us
to cool off and get rid of most of the trail dust first before swimming down to
his house and getting cleaned up and changed on his way over to the Inn.
Lunch had almost been ready by then, so most of the other
kids and teens were already eating by the time we joined the gang hanging out
around the back porch. The first wave of
hot dogs and hamburgers had already been demolished by then; which is why we
hadn’t worried about going for a swim first.
Since I hadn’t helped with making lunch, I was on the clean-up crew; and
then Rowen, Dawn, Emma, and I took all of the younger kids to the park for some
playground play and woods exploring time.
The rest of the tweens and teens did other things for the afternoon
instead – biking, canoeing, swimming, or just laying around and sunbathing on
blankets by the river. We were able to
recruit the bikers to help us with an Emporium ice cream run; though that
assistance only lasted until we got back to the house. For some reason, none of the guys wanted to
help with cleaning up toddlers or getting them changed out of ice cream-caked
shirts and shorts.
Let me offer my condolences to the next generation of kids
who might be reading this if you’ve had to put up with fathers that are
completely incapable of changing diapers, clothes, or helping you with bathroom
breaks. The good news is that you
probably learned how to play video games before your first birthday!
Michael didn’t come over for his afternoon break, so I spent
the entire afternoon playing with Ethan, Ehlana, Rowen, Emma, and my younger
cousins. After the ice cream clean-up,
we went for another swim; and then we played games in the back yard until it
was time for me to start helping out with major camping dinner number two. This time, Mom was going with Olde Bakery sub
buns; lots of sliced meat options; cold salads and chips sides; and six bakery
dessert options. About half of the food
was donated this time; so it wasn’t really that much work to put everything
together and get a buffet table set up on the back porch.
Rowen and I had to eat early this time and then get to our
baseball practice – and so did Jenny and a few other teens that had Thursday
evening practices at the park or school.
Our next game is a week from Saturday, so we have one more practice
before we play the Tigers; but Carolyn was still pushing us hard today – even
if Coach Sarah wasn’t quite as fired up as her daughter after a long, hot, busy
day at work. I’ll admit that I wasn’t
nearly as motivated tonight, but we still had a fairly decent practice. Rowen, Jenny, Rebecca, and I were all ready
for a swim when we went home; and had quite a few kids and teens join us.
That group included Naomi and Aiden. They’d been dropped off in time for dinner
with everyone else; and they’re doing the second camping night with Ehlana and
Ethan – and going canoeing with us tomorrow too. By the time we’d cooled off, it was pretty
much time to start getting the younger kids ready for the campfire and camping;
so it was back to work for me while I helped out with that. Michael was back in time to help with Ethan,
Aiden, and Eddie; but that also meant that we didn’t spend much time together
until we sat down for the campfire.
Michael took a turn playing guitar again tonight, but there
were more scary stories tonight; so he only played for about a half hour of the
time we had before we needed to take all of our junior campers inside for
bathroom breaks on our way to tucking them into our tents for the night. We had extra help with that; and then
Michael, Rowen, and I had another chat and bedtime swim. The only difference from last night is that
we were in our sleeping bags quite a bit earlier; and Rowen and I are going to
be sleeping soon too.
We’ll probably get at least one bathroom break wake-up call;
but shouldn’t have any extra campers because Michael made Tim promise that he
and Nora wouldn’t leave Vanessa without somewhere to sleep again tonight – and
be there to help with the three younger boys if needed. Nora probably isn’t too happy about that, but
she and Vanessa aren’t really into camping any more than Rebecca and Jenny are
– and three out of four of them are only doing it because of the extra time
they get to spend with certain boys. By
the way, I should have mentioned yesterday that Joel’s staying in the same tent
with Chris; and seem to be getting along pretty well. Joel will probably be joining upcoming video
gaming action once the guys are back indoors again tomorrow night.
The party will be continuing for a while around the
campfire, but I’ve had enough fun for today, and don’t really have anything
else to write about, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
