First up, I’d like to have a little talk
with weather forecasters everywhere.
I’m not mad or anything, and the rain didn’t
seriously mess up our camping adventure last night, but people do make these
decisions with the information at hand; and when you forecast a low chance of
rain – particularly when we’re only talking about hours into the future – we don’t
expect to get rained on. There were no
tent floods, we didn’t need to carrying everything indoors in the middle of a
deluge, and the river didn’t overflow its banks and sweep us downriver and over
the falls in our sleep; but some of us didn’t get much sleep after staying up
late and then getting to listen to the pitter-patter of rain on the tents and
the occasional rumble of thunder here and there.
That little commentary is mostly because I
really hope you do better with your forecast again because some of us are
giving you another chance tonight; so don’t mess it up – we need to get some
sleep!
Before I get to the news from today; let’s
back up and do a better job with the action from Thursday. The day started out great with Tai Chi;
Michael stayed for breakfast; and then pretty much everyone else except me was
off and running for the morning. Dad
went to the office; Mom and Violet went to the lab and took Ethan and Ehlana
with them; and Michael, Rowen, and Tim were all busy for all or most of the
morning. Alicia started out her day with
the usual twin-related chores while they were with Mom anyway, so I did some
work around the house too while she was there; but then I worked in the office
after she went over to the lab too; doing some family business jobs while
waiting for Rowen to be set free.
Mom brought a small gang home from the lab
for lunch; Rowen and I joined her for that; and then we spent the afternoon
playing with Michael and Tim – or at least with both of them when Michael was
on his afternoon break. We didn’t have
the twins with us for that; and enjoyed the teen time and more extreme biking
on the trails in the woods at the park.
We haven’t gotten to do that nearly as much this summer as last year so
far; but then we’re also not doing a repeat of our trick riding act in the
parade this year either so we don’t have as much motivation to do that.
Tim, Rowen, and I took care of most of the
camp set-up after Michael went back to the Inn, but he headed home for dinner
while Rowen stayed to have dinner with me before we went to baseball
practice. The only thing I want to
mention from that action at the park is that Jenny seemed to be feeling a bit
left out tonight with yet another camping adventure that she didn’t want to
join us for while she’s single and the rest of the teens were paired up. Maybe it’s time for a girls’ night camping or
sleepover adventure. I’ll talk to Rowen
and Rebecca about that after the holiday weekend. Maybe we’ll do that one night while Dawn’s
here for her holiday with us.
Moving along, the baseball practice went
good, and though we aren’t going to have a practice next Thursday because the
Fourth of July is on Friday and we’re all too busy with other obligations; I
think we’re ready for our holiday weekend game.
I don’t know if Lucas’ father is that thrilled with these camping nights
when it means that Lucas gets a late start on his morning chores; but Claire is
definitely for them; so we aren’t going to have any problems getting Lucas and
Emma approved for these Thursday night camping adventures. I’m thinking about making them a weekly event
this summer – next week excluded due to the holiday.
So the camping adventure began after
baseball practice ended. Michael and I
collected Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia on our way home; Patrick, Scott, and
Lindsay were already there by then and had another tent set up; and Mom and Dad
happily handed over custody of Ethan, Ehlana. Naomi, and Aiden to us for the
rest of the night.
We went for a swim; played in the back
yard; and had a little campfire before putting the younger kids to bed in the
tents. The teen time after that was
mostly fun with some interruptions from Patrick and Scott now and then – though
their goofiness was mostly geared toward impressing the older guys or annoying Emma,
Jessica, and Lindsay. The midnight swim
we hopped into the river for after I wrote my micro-update last night was a
blast of quiet fun; and then I wrapped up my night with some river-side cuddle
time with Michael before we eventually split up and went to bed in our
respective tents.
The rain started not all that long after
that, and lasted for a couple of hours off and on; so I only had a little nap
before that and then maybe an hour and a half after before it was time to get
up for Tai Chi. That was a fun start to
the morning; and then it was all crazy-busy for a while as we fed a gang of
kids and teens; Violet and Dillon helped out with some transportation out to
the Norton farm or other points of interest – like KidZone; and we cleaned up
about half of the campground.
Oh, did I mention that Violet and Dillon
were doing a sleepover last night while there weren’t any kids in the house? I’m fairly sure that they’re going to like
Thursday night camping adventures as much as we do! ;^)
Michael, Rowen, and Tim stayed to help out
with the work after breakfast, but then they all moved on to other chores or
work for the rest of the morning. While
they were busy; I did some chores around the house to get a head start on the
work for Saturday – including mowing the lawn.
Michael was at the Inn today for lunch and dinner because he’s getting
the afternoon and evening off tomorrow for Joshua’s birthday party; but we
still had some afternoon play time with Rowen and Tim during his break and he
was back with me again in time for our little camping campfire.
He did miss out on dinner and a cooking
night at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house, but that actually worked out
pretty well for me because it gave me more time to spend with my aunts, uncles,
and cousins that I might have had if we’d been able to do that together –
especially since Rowen and Tim probably would have been with us too if Michael
had been on his usual Friday night off.
I especially liked getting to spend some time
with Christina and Josiah – and Violet and Dillon. There’s never enough time for everyone,
though; and I still haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Aunt Grace, Uncle
Mark, Aunt Deborah, and Uncle Nick as I’d like to do lately. That seemed especially weird tonight with
Uncle Nick as I realized that I’d gone from seeing him practically every day
until school was out for the summer to hardly at all. Part of that was because he was still at
school with the other teachers last week; but it still felt strange tonight
while actually paying attention to that – and admit that I hadn’t really
thought about it at all since being set free from school for the summer.
Apparently Magi Masters are not immune to getting
caught up in the normal, self-centered life of a teen, but don’t tell anyone –
it might ruin our reps! (That’s a joke – I don’t actually care about my
reputation at all the way some teens do.)
The dinner and cooking night was mostly to
help Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Deborah with getting meals
ready for the holiday weekend incoming family.
It’s a ‘home’ year for them; but an ‘away’ weekend for the Proctor-Rice
clan. Hanging out together tonight was
also because we won’t be doing that with Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, Violet, or
Dillon next weekend. They’ll all be away
for the holiday weekend too – either in Granite Park or Woodvale. I’m glad that we got to hang out together –
even though I didn’t get to spend a lot of time actually talking with my aunts
and uncles while we were all busy.
While I’m thinking about them; I’m way
overdue for a family pregnancy update.
Aunt Grace and Aunt Deborah are both through their first trimester now;
and their first and second pregnancies are both going great. Being pregnant during the hot summer months
might not be something that a lot of women would prefer for timing, but going
through that during the second trimester might actually be the best time – you’re
not hot and barfy like you’d be in the first trimester; and not so big and
uncomfortable all of the time like you would be in the third trimester. The only news there that really matters,
though, is that my favorite expecting moms and their babies are doing fine; and
they’re very happy right now.
The real fun for them – and some of us – is
just around the corner; but I’ll have more on that later this summer.
My cooking play time ended when Michael was
finished at the Inn and he came over to meet up with me – and with Rowen and
Tim – so that we could move on to our second camping night in a row. We only have Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden
with us tonight, and while we had time for a swim and some campfire fun with
them; they were all sleeping in our tents before eleven o’clock. Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I stayed up and
around our little fire until after midnight; followed that up with another
swim; and then some riverside chat and cuddle time.
Rowen and I are in our tent with Ehlana and
Naomi now, but we’re still winding down while I’m doing this – and the rest of
my usual nightly computing that’s already done now – and she’s been checking
out YouTube teen campfire videos. It is
late, and we do have a major birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon and
evening; so we should probably wrap this up and get to sleep. It’s been another really great day, and while
our little family and friends adventures might seem boring to a lot of teens;
it seems to me as though every day of our summer holidays so far has been
amazing and exactly the best-ever-so-far kind of fun I’d hoped that we’d have.
With Joshua’s party tomorrow; that trend
should be continuing; and I am really going to enjoy sharing all of that fun
with Michael and our friends. That’s it
for tonight, though; so, until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
