We don’t have any fewer people here
tonight, but it seems a lot quieter; and we’re definitely going to bed a lot
earlier.
Our day started out with rain, and while
that meant Tai Chi was indoors; the timing was decent and it was already drying
up outside by the time we needed to walk to church. It was a busy travel morning at Uncle Adam
and Aunt Leanne’s and Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s houses with getting the
younger kids ready to travel; but that didn’t affect us at all since Dawn and
Jillian are staying for another week. We
didn’t get to spend much time on the goodbyes with the rest of our younger
cousins, though; because they hit the road with their drivers and chaperones
right after church.
That meant saying our quick goodbyes to
Grandma and Grandpa – and we won’t see them until the week before Labor
Day. They’ve spent the rest of today –
and will spend Monday - with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Jayden, and their family in
Granite Park before heading for the airport and their Tuesday morning flights
that will eventually have them in Japan for the first leg of their trip. Josiah and Christina had volunteered to take
Kara, Eddie, and Nicole to the half-way point for their trip home; and Aunt
Leanne and Aunt Deborah were both very grateful for their help with that –
grateful enough that they bought them dinner at the Inn tonight when they got
home again.
Okay, the whole family went out to the late
buffet anyway; but it’s the thought that counts, right?
I should have said that the whole family
except for one went to dinner at the Inn.
I was already there and didn’t join them. We were too busy in the kitchen to take the
time off to do that; so I worked with Michael to try and keep up with the
dishwashing that kept falling behind because we were a bit short-staffed and
busier than expected for the beautiful summer day we’ve had since the rain
stopped this morning.
Michael was at the Inn most of the time
since he left the church after the service until it closed for the night; and didn’t
even take much of an afternoon break. I
was at home for lunch and played with my family and cousins for a while this
afternoon; but went back to the Inn with Michael after he only came over long
enough for a swim and a visit before needing to get back to the kitchen
again. That didn’t give me time to
entertain Dawn and Jillian as much as I should have, but they spent the rest of
the afternoon with Violet and Dillon; and it sounded as though they had fun
when we did our bedtime chat a little while ago.
I don’t really have much more news from
today. Michael and I stayed until all of
the work was done at the Inn; we went for a swim at his house with Jake,
Stephanie, Rebecca, Jenny, and Jonathan; and then we were both ready to call it
a night. Ethan and Ehlana were still up
when I got home, but ready for bed and waiting for me to tuck them in for the
night. I was happy to do that and spend
the little bit of time with them, and the bedtime chat with Dawn and Jillian
was fun too; but I was ready for some Jacuzzi time after that; and had a quick
soak without any multi-tasking. I’ve
only been in bed with Mandy for about twenty minutes now, but I’ve already
finished my ‘must-do’ work and the rest of my usual nightly computing – thanks to
doing a bit of Magi cheating to make that happen.
It’s time to get some sleep soon, but
before I do that; let’s cover a bit more of the action that I missed writing
about yesterday.
First up, I wanted to mention that we had a
very large group with us at Quarry Lake – not just our collective family; but
quite a few of our friends too. Not all
of the parents could go because they were working in stores, but if they couldn’t
go; they had support to get the kids out there – either with grandparents or
aunts, uncles, and cousins. In addition
to our family, we had the Bassetts; Emersons; Palmers; Faulkners; some of the
Nortons; Burroughs; Landrys; Sheldons; and a handful of others. Michael and Rebecca both got to go with us,
and while Lucas didn’t get to come and spend the entire day with us; he and his
Dad did blow off work for a couple of hours to come and play with his Mom,
sister, and younger brother so he could have a little fun time with Rebecca
too.
On the teen and tween drama side of things,
Jonathan and Jenny were mostly good whenever they were around us – and all of
the parents; but they also disappeared for long stretches of time. I have no idea where they’d found to go in a
busy campground; but there was no doubt that they were having fun entertaining
themselves wherever they were. Tommy and
Julian had been invited along too, and they were on their best behavior too
with all of the parents around – though in their case, that was more along the
lines of cutting back on the goofiness.
Since Dawn and Jillian really appreciated that; maybe they’ll figure out
that they’ll make better impressions on the girls of their summer dreams if
they tone it down a bit and not try so hard to impress them.
On the adult front, I’m not going to detail
all of the action; but there was definitely some hot going on there that had
nothing to do with the weather. I’ll
still put Aunt Leanne and Mom at the top of my hottest pregnant women in
swimsuits list; but I can also assure you that Aunt Deborah and Aunt Grace got
way more attention from guys at the lake than Uncle Nick and Uncle Mark were
comfortable with – and my aunts definitely looked hot. Ditto that for Mom and Aunt Leanne in the
not-pregnant classification.
Taking a little side trip; I’d like to
mention that it’s really great to see Mom getting more self-confident every year. I’ve always known that she’s amazing and
beautiful; but she hasn’t thought of herself as either in the past. Dad gets a lot of credit for that; but then
they’re helping each other to be more than they were before meeting and falling
in love. I’ll leave that there; and just
be really happy that all of Mom’s dreams are coming true – just as mine are!
Which brings us to the Michael and me part
of the Quarry Lake update. We had an
amazing day with Rowen, Tim, and our families and friends. I may have a few years to go before being a
match for Mom when it comes to hotness, but I’m definitely able to keep Michael’s
attention anytime I’m in a swimsuit; and I have developed quite a bit since
last summer. So has Rowen, and while we
got a fair bit of attention from other guys around our age; we were only
interested in the attention we got from our boyfriends. Tim made some jokes about needing to stay
close to us all of the time, but he and Michael were getting more than their
share of attention from other girls there too.
All of those months of weight training with the football team has really
helped their hot factor when in swimsuits – a fact that Rowen and I appreciate a
lot!
Since there was a lot of play time with the
younger kids, our afternoon didn’t get too hot; but doing everything with
Michael did make everything more fun for both of us; and I’m sure that Rowen
and Tim felt the same way. We had some
work to do too, whether that was kid control or helping the parents and older
teens with the work that goes along with the fun; but we still had lots of play
time too. Michael and Rebecca went to
help out at the Inn when we got back to town again; but only had to stay during
the dinner rush. They missed out on the
barbeque at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house, though that really just meant
that they had different work to do than I did.
We had fun at dinner too, but I was also run a bit ragged keeping up
with the younger kids – particularly since I didn’t have a lot of kid-control
support while dinner was being put together for everyone.
There was more help after dinner for our
play and swim time; and then I was seriously ready to just hang out and cuddle
with Michael when it was time for our campfire.
We still got recruited to help with the music, and did a pair of duets
too; but we also pretty much let some of the other teens handle the campfire
entertainment after the younger kids went to bed and the parents and
grandparents all vacated the campfire then too.
I really liked getting to chat with Jake, Stephanie, Violet, Dillon,
Christina, and Josiah until they were ready to call it a night; and ending the
night with a fairly hot swim with Michael at his house was definitely a
highlight of the day for us.
No, that wasn’t too hot for being in
public; but we were happy campers when we were ready to split up and head
inside for the night. Dawn and Jillian
had gone for a late night swim too, but they did that with some other teens at Uncle
Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house. That’s why
they were still awake and getting ready for bed when I got home. We were all tired out by then; but that didn’t
keep us from having an entertaining bedtime chat on my bed before they went to
their rooms for the naps we had time for until morning. They had some interesting comments about some
of the teen couples at the campfire, but the only thing I’ll mention here is
that Jillian is definitely more interested in Julian than Dawn is with
Tommy. That isn’t because Tommy is doing
anything to annoy Dawn or anything – she’s just finding out that they don’t
have very many common interests at all.
I guess that’s enough of a recap for
yesterday. The only email news I have
tonight was from our traveling cousins; and they all got home safely – and are
generally getting spoiled like crazy by their parents.
Isn’t it funny how that’s happening with
the same parents who were probably doing happy dances at the start of their
kid-free week? Maybe Ethan, Ehlana, and
I should give Mom and Dad a kid-free week too sometime and see if that would be
the same for us!
Taking a look ahead at next week, I didn’t
mention that Dad will be in the city.
While I was busy at the Inn, he was finishing getting ready for his
trip. He’ll miss out on week two of the
cousins’ vacation; but I hope he’ll have some fun here and there anyway – and he
might be ready for the kid break anyway.
Maybe we should talk Mom into going there to spend a night with him –
without the kids or teens. Here at home,
we don’t actually have a lot of actual plans for the week. There might be thunderstorms tomorrow if the
forecast is right; but the rest of the week is looking pretty good. We’re going to do our Thursday night camping
for sure; and Michael and I talked a bit about doing a big bike trip on Tuesday
if the weather cooperates and we can get parent and teen approval to do
that. The rest of the week we’ll just be
playing and having as much fun as we can.
Hopefully, that’ll keep the fun level up
for Dawn and Jillian even without Quarry Lake or trail ride adventures; but Mom
really needs to do some more work at the lab this week too while she and Owen
have the extra college teen help. I
know, it’s only the middle of July; but they only have about a month left
before Andrew, Dillon, and Violet will be getting ready to head back to school
again. I definitely don’t want to think
about that too much yet; so I won’t.
I’m going to call it a night and get some
sleep instead; so, until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
