There was no middle-of-the-night tweeird to report, though I
did have two trips into the house with Ehlana, Naomi, and Nicole; and shared a
bonus goodnight kiss with Michael after the first trip.
I had another early morning swim; Tai Chi was fun; and then
it was time to get to work again. For
the next three hours, we cooked, cleaned, packed for the kids’ canoe trip, and
cleaned up the campground before being ready to head out on the river by a
little after ten o’clock.
Rowen, Dawn, Emma, and I had a total of nine younger kids to
take care of, and that didn’t meet parental safety requirements; so Violet,
Chrissy, and Alicia semi-volunteered to come along. We also added Patrick and Scott, though other
than their contributions on the paddles; they mostly helped with devouring
lunch and getting Eddie wound up and having a bit too much fun.
We needed six canoes; with the three teens, Rowen, Dawn, and
I each taking one older kid and one toddler with us. I made sure to thank Violet, Chrissy, Alicia,
and Kara for taking all of the boys with them while I got to have Kaitlyn and
Ehlana; Rowen and Jaimie had Naomi; and Dawn and Emma had Nicole. While taking my younger cousins canoeing was
the main reason for our little adventure this morning; we knew that most of
them really didn’t want to paddle around all that much. After going upriver for about twenty minutes
we stopped for a swim; back-tracked past out house to the park for some
playground fun, another swim, and our picnic; and then paddled home again.
After a couple of camping nights, we had some toddlers ready
for afternoon naps by then, and Rowen, Dawn, Emma, and I only had Jaimie,
Kaitlyn, and Kara with us when we went for a bike ride – and to meet up with
Michael once he was finished helping with the lunch rush at the Inn. He and Rebecca had the rest of the day off,
so he was able to hang out with us – with me – for the rest of the day.
They both wanted to cool off first, so we went for a swim at
their house. Biking the trails was next
on our to-do list, though Rebecca didn’t want to come along for that; and went
to hang out with some of her friends instead.
Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Kara couldn’t ride some of the trails, but Dawn and
Emma didn’t want to go on those trails either; so the four of them did their
own thing whenever Michael, Rowen, and I wanted to take turns doing the jumps
and tricks that were possible on the more difficult trails.
It was another really hot afternoon, and there weren’t a lot
of teens or kids biking in the woods by then.
That was good for having no line-ups on the best trails, but we were
also ready for another swim in less than an hour; so we biked home again and
went for another swim before having a snack break with most of the kids and
teens that were hanging around the house then.
The last part of our afternoon was spent playing in the back yard, doing
a little more swimming, and taking it easy until dinnertime.
We were having a dinner and co-ed baseball game night, and
grandparents, aunts, uncles, and Leah were all here to have dinner with us. Naomi and Aiden stayed too, I invited Michael
and Rebecca, Chrissy had Josiah come over, and Martin invited Vanessa; but we
didn’t have the rest of the teen and tween gang around again until after the
ball game – with that little party at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house. Mom had decided that we were past-due for a
‘real’ meal; and while she still had Dad and Grandpa working grills; they were
cooking steaks and chicken instead of burgers and dogs. Michael and I helped with the work both
before and after dinner; including setting the dining room table; making up the
half-dozen side dishes; and a fairly major clean-up that Grandma and Grandpa
supervised while the parents were either getting ready for baseball; taking
care of babies; or using pregnancy exemptions.
I’d like to take a moment to thank Martin; though he’ll
never read this. Why? Because a funny thing seems to have happened
with Vanessa’s latest plan for Michael – she was actually so interested in hanging
out with Martin and having fun that she forgot to play any of the games that
have been directed at Michael and me regularly since the Fourth of July. I don’t know if anything happened last night
or today to change things, but Michael and I are both glad that there wasn’t
even a trace of tweeirdness during dinner – or for the rest of the evening
either.
Having a formal, sit down meal felt strange after so many
days of camping and picnics; and Mom was definitely right about most of us
being overdue for some real food – though Chris and Martin joked about the
missing chips and cold salads; what the ‘new-fangled utensil thingies’ were
for; and pondered how to consume liquids that didn’t come in cans or have
straws. Since they were mostly playing
that game for the under-five-year old crowd; their banter was a hit with the
target audience.
There isn’t anything newsworthy to report from the kitchen
and dining room clean-up; but then there isn’t any good news to write about
from the baseball game either – at least not for our team. Even with lots of extra cheer support
tonight, the Fix-it Uppers lost to the Gas Guzzlers thirteen-to-nine; and that
scoring ratio pretty much carried through from the first to last innings. We all mostly still had fun, but only having
one win and two losses at the half-way point of the season is disappointing.
We weren’t doing another campfire tonight, and though the
parents were given the option to go to Sheldon’s after the game; Mom and Dad
didn’t want to do that – mostly because Dad needed to work when he could to get
ready for his week in the city. Emma
went home with her parents after the game, but we kept Naomi and Aiden for one
more night. Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne
had all of his cousins back again for the night; and, as I already mentioned,
they also were video game central for the teens and tweens.
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden were all pretty much ready
to go to bed after the game, so we did the bedtime snack and story with them;
they were tucked in for the night; and Mom and Dad went to work in the office
while Michael, Rowen, Dawn, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and I wrapped up our night with a
short swim before going to watch a movie in the lounge. Michael and I were teased a fair bit, but he
didn’t really mind being the only guy in the room; and we are definitely going
to find time for more movie nights – possibly without company now and then too!
Dawn, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn all went to bed after the movie;
Rowen went home; and Michael and I went to sit out by the river and have a
little chat before doing the goodnight hugs and kisses when he needed to get
home. Mom and Dad were still working
then, but about to call it a night; so I had a little visit with them too
before we all went up to bed. Dawn was
sleeping by then, so I got changed, grabbed my computer, and have been sitting
in the lounge window alcove and mostly doing family business work for the past
couple of hours.
We’re doing a family day at Quarry Lake
tomorrow; and another campfire and camping night too – though the camping is
just for the seven younger kids plus their tween support this time. That is going to be a long, busy day for me;
and I should wrap this up and get some sleep.
It’s hard to believe we’re there already, but tomorrow is the last full
day that we’ll have Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Kara, Eddie, and Nicole here before they
head home after church on Sunday. I want
to be ready to help them make that one of those best-ever kind of days, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
