Happy 13th Birthday, Elliott!
I may decide that sharing good morning kisses and Tai Chi
with Michael is even better than moonlit swims and goodnight kisses. Our second lesson went just as well as the
first; and he – and Ethan and Ehlana – are learning fast. The twins are really going to need to be
careful with this. They’re not doing
anything that would be impossible for toddlers, but I’m sure that Mom and I
both noticed that the intentional little mistakes they’re making are being done
in perfect unison. They have things like
that happen fairly often, and are trying to learn to control it; but that’s
harder for them to do when they’re really concentrating on something.
Mom and Dad finished exercising before we were done again, and
went inside to get started on breakfast for twelve. Michael went home to have breakfast there
instead of staying with us, and though I needed to stay home; he advised me
that Miranda was expecting me to come over for some of their ‘day off’
breakfasts once my cousins went home again.
I do not have a problem with going there for any meals that
Michael’s father and brother are cooking!
After sending Michael off with another hug and kiss –
several hugs and an extra kiss, if you include the ones from my giggling
brother and sister – I traded places with Mom on the breakfast work crew so she
could take care of Ethan, Ehlana, and Nicole while Dad, Violet, and I finished
getting the food ready to feed the masses.
It wasn’t really an improvement on the morning tweeird of recent days,
but Chris needed to spend more time teasing Martin about Vanessa than razzing
me about Michael. At least it probably
did indicate that the novelty was wearing off already.
I was on the clean-up crew again, and then had some chores
to do too before being able to take the rest of the day off. Aunt Leanne needed to work in the office this
morning, so Chrissy, Jonathan, Kara, and Eddie all came over to our house when
she and Uncle Adam left for work. While
Chris, Martin, and Jonathan all took off on bikes shortly after that, Chrissy
stayed and helped Alicia and Dawn with the younger kids while I was busy doing
things like laundry; cleaning bathrooms; and helping Mom to put the picnic
together that we’d be taking with us to Quarry Lake. Grandma and Grandpa came over to help us with
that too – and they were going to help with driving and kid control for the
afternoon too.
Mom set me free at eleven o’clock, and Dawn and I split the
last hour we had left before leaving getting our own bags packed for the
afternoon and going over to Rowen’s house so we could help her pick out
appropriately hot swimsuits and clothes so that she’d be all set for another
party opportunity to wow ‘Tommy’.
She accomplished that mission for sure; but I’ll get to that
later.
We were back again in time to help load up the vans, truck,
and Violet’s car – and get the younger kids buckled in and ready to go
too. As usual around here, these little
trips get a lot of interest; and there were lots of kids and teens heading out
to Quarry Lake for a weekday afternoon
adventure. Since Jake, Stephanie, and
Rebecca were all going with us, Jacob and Miranda thought about going along;
but decided to stay home instead.
I don’t need to know what they decided to do instead while
kid-free for the rest of the day; but wouldn’t need a second guess either! :^)
Rowen, Michael, Dawn, and I were temporarily put in charge
of the younger kids when we got to the campground while the adults and teens
hauled most of our gear from the parking lot to the spot we picked for our day
camp. For a Tuesday, the campground was
very busy. It was becoming more popular
every year, but having so much construction going on in Witch Falls was making
a difference this year too; with Quarry Lake being one of the closest
campgrounds available where family and friends of the workers could stay while
visiting. That was keeping the rooms at
the Inn booked to capacity nearly every day
too; but there weren’t that many rooms there anyway; and camping was about the
only other option within twenty-five miles of town.
Getting back to the action, we went for a short swim; had
our picnic lunch; and had time to play and go for another little swim before
Rowen, Michael, and I needed to get to Elliott’s party. There are a couple of things that need
mentioning before getting to the main event of the day. First, Aunt Leanne is not all that
enthusiastic about how she looks in a swimsuit right now. She’s closing in on the end of her second
trimester, and she was over-compensating with too many ‘whale on the beach’
type jokes. Just because bikinis are out
this year doesn’t mean that you didn’t look beautiful – even if you don’t want
to believe anyone right now.
Let me know when you read this some day in the future, Aunt
Leanne, and I’ll show you the memories I have from today of the guys that were
at Quarry Lake who thought that you were hot enough to be worth watching.
We don’t necessarily need to tell Uncle Adam about that,
though! :^)
I’m sure that he and Dad both wished they could be out there
with us today, but they wouldn’t have been able to have any adult-rated fun
anyway with the gang of kids that Mom, Aunt Leanne, Grandma, and Grandpa had
with them. They at least had six teens,
and Dawn, to help them out after we went to the party; or I wouldn’t have
wanted to leave them – especially when Aunt Leanne can’t exactly run around
after kids right now.
Elliott’s parents had booked one of the small picnic
pavilions for his party. The one they
were assigned was about two hundred yards from the lake, but close to one of
the playgrounds; and in a nicely shaded area.
Michael, Rowen, and I were among the first ‘friends’ guests there, so we
were able to sit and talk with Elliott and his girlfriend, Gretchen, while we
waited for the rest of our friends to arrive.
Since there hadn’t been Sunday school at church on Sunday, and Gretchen
is one of the ‘farm kids’, we hadn’t talked together since seeing each other
for a couple of minutes on the Fourth of July; and she wanted to hear all about
the latest with Michael and me. Rowen
was happy to help her out with that while Michael and I let her entertain
Elliott and Gretchen and enjoyed the show.
I also enjoyed seeing ‘Tommy’s’ first reaction to seeing
Rowen in the hot little sundress we’d picked for her to throw on over her
swimsuit. Yes, he has a girlfriend, and
spent most of the day in close proximity to her; but as I do a quick little
memory review of the scenes around me from this afternoon and evening; ‘Tommy’
spent a total of almost eighteen minutes watching Rowen. That may not sound like much over the course
of about eight hours, but think about what that means when most of that time
happened at an average of five-point-eight seconds per glance. He needed to look at Rowen one hundred and
eighty-three times; nearly twenty-three times an hour; or a bit less than once
every three minutes.
Just in case you’re wondering, Michael watched me for a lot
more that eighteen minutes; but let’s not do the math for that. What’s important for me is that he wasn’t
spending eighteen minutes or more doing that kind of girl-watching. Before you start wondering if I’m in denial
or something, I’m not suggesting that Michael’s stopped finding other girls
attractive in the last couple of weeks; but there’s a big difference between
appreciating beauty and the slightly obsessive girl-watching that ‘Tommy’ was
doing today.
Oh, and I still think that Jake Stone is hot even though I’m
dating his brother now; so that kind of thing hasn’t changed for me either.
I need to work on how easily I’m distracted into these
little mental side-trips lately! All of
our friends were at Quarry
Lake by one-thirty;
including the girls who needed to arrive fashionably late. They know who they are; so no names are
necessary. Every birthday party is at
least a bit different, and in this case, Elliott’s parents had set up some
group activities instead of just setting us all free to do our own thing for
the afternoon and evening. That started
out with a beach volleyball competition with games on the side like Frisbee and
lawn darts for the kids and teens when they weren’t playing volleyball. There were four teams, and four matches that
ended with the ‘championship’ game.
Elliott’s team made that final; but so did the team Michael,
Rowen, and I were on. It’s his birthday,
and we probably should have taken it easy, but I’m sure I mention regularly
that I like to win; and today we did – in straight sets. It wasn’t close. I wouldn’t dream of skipping over the fact
that having Tim, Nora, and Vanessa were on Elliott’s team too helped my
personal motivation; but Rowen didn’t mind helping me out with that – and
giving ‘Tommy’ another reason to be impressed with her was a nice bonus.
I continue to wonder how it’s possible that ‘Tommy’ – and
practically all of the guys around our age – have been so completely clueless
about just how amazing my best friend really is. For that matter, there are a lot of girls who
are just starting to figure out that Rowen is a lot more than one of the class
brainiacs. One of these days they may
even discover that she’s got a wicked sense of humor – though she rarely lets
that out to play in public.
We did get to have some free time after the little
volleyball competition, and pretty much everyone at the party went
swimming. That gave Michael, Rowen, and
I a little time to spend with my family; and we mostly played with Ethan,
Ehlana, and my younger cousins while the adults and teens packed up most of the
day camp gear and hauled it back to the vans and truck. All of the teens were staying at Quarry Lake,
but they came back and played with us until again helping Mom, Aunt Leanne,
Grandma, and Grandpa to round up my brother, sister, and younger cousins; get
them dried off; and into the two minivans and Dad’s truck for the trip back to
town.
Michael, Rowen, and I needed to get back to Elliott’s party
by then, and though Chris, Jonathan, and Rebecca stayed with the four older
teens; Vanessa had hooked up with Martin earlier; and he was hanging out with
her for the rest of the party. There
were more organized games for the hour or so until we had dinner, and though I
heard a few quiet, derisive comments about party games and prizes at our age; I
thought the games were fun, and so did nearly everyone else.
Dinner included standard barbeque picnic fare, and the only
comment I have about that blast of tweeird is to record for posterity that my
new boyfriend chose not to play any of the reindeer games at the expense of
getting severely razzed about it by the other guys. Hopefully the bonus hugs and kisses we shared
made up for that sacrifice. I am so glad
that I didn’t have to watch Michael trying to do things like stuff multiple
hotdogs into his mouth at one time.
‘Tommy’, on the other hand, had me wondering how sure Rowen is that he’s
her match. During dinner, the only way
that could possibly be true would be with the ‘opposites attract’ theory.
Moving along, getting through dinner, and doing the cake and
birthday gift thing with Elliott, took an hour and a half or so, and then there
was a scavenger hunt and time for one last swim before it was time to head back
to town when the day pass visitors needed to leave the campground. The last tweeird moment at the lake deserves
mentioning, if only because Violet thought that it was just as weird to drive
Martin and Vanessa home as I did. Michael,
Jonathan, Rowen, and I went home with Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca; while Chris
squeezed into the back seat of Violet's Car with Martin and Vanessa. That must’ve been cozy.
Jonathan had Chris, Martin, Vanessa, and some of their other
friends go to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house to wrap their day up with some
video gaming. Rowen decided to go home
instead of hanging out with Michael and me; but that was mostly because she
wanted to get a decent night of sleep before we started two major camping
adventure days with an all-day canoe ride to the whirlpool in the morning. When Michael and I got home, we were just in
time for the bedtime snack and story for Ethan and Ehlana. Dawn, Jaimie, and Kaitlyn wanted the party
report too; and then after we tucked the twins in for the night, we helped Mom
with putting together most of the picnic lunch we’d be taking with us on the
canoe trip.
Another swim was next on the fun list, but Dawn, Jaimie, and
Kaitlyn all came swimming with Michael and me this time. That made playing with the glow-in-the-dark
water toys more fun; but kept the goodnight hug and kiss time fireworks-free
when it was time for Michael to get home.
There isn’t much else to report for tonight. Dawn and I took turns having some Jacuzzi
time; I had a bedtime girl chat with Jaimie and Kaitlyn while Dawn was in the
tub; and both of my bed buddies were sleeping by the time I started working on
my computer after I finished in the bathroom.
There was more family business work to do, but the email
traffic is pretty low while most of my cousins are here. (Jayden almost never
sends me email.) It’s already going on
one o’clock, and even Chris and Martin have gotten home and gone to bed; so I
should call it a night so I’ll be ready for the canoe trip and camping. Hopefully, my first trip to the whirlpool
with my boyfriend will be as awesome as our first date and first birthday party
have been!
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
