School’s out for the summer!
We’ve had a hot, beautiful, sunny day to
start off our holidays; and getting set free early was just an added
bonus. It isn’t as if we did anything
except play while we were at school anyway, but it’s tradition; and the
graduating seniors need that time for the usual rounds of visits with all of
their past and present teachers. I can
also report that I aced my Grade Nine; though that shouldn’t surprise any Magi
reading this in the future; and isn’t’ even a big deal compared to my
almost-four-year-old brother and sister graduating their Junior year of college
today too. ;^)
While we still hadn’t made any specific
plans for tonight by the time we were set free from school, the nice weather is
perfect for a camping night; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I decided to do that tonight
– even though we couldn’t do that with a big group of friends. As I’ve already mentioned, though, we couldn’t
do camping tomorrow night anyway because of Father’s Day on Sunday; and Mom was
okay with us setting up some tents tonight.
Ethan and Ehlana were good with the idea too; and Rowen and I have
Ehlana and Naomi with us tonight while Michael and Tim have Ethan and Aiden
with them.
Our campground has four tents, and the
additional four campers were added two at a time. Rebecca and Lucas were hanging out together
after school until his Mom was finished work for the day; and she gave him
permission to stay overnight as long as he could get home early in the morning
to help out on the farm. They still did
their own thing for dinner; and then came over after that to spend the rest of
the night with us. Joel got into town
tonight, and after checking with him while he was still on the way here; Jenny
accepted the invitation that Rebecca extended to her sometime between when
Michael and I had talked to her about camping with us and when she and Lucas
came over with their overnight bags and some food and snack donations.
I’ve skipped a lot of the action from
earlier today, but my morning and school time was fairly normal last day of
school stuff – including the play time and party that started at lunchtime and
continued until we came home. Michael,
Tim, and Rowen came home with me; we did a snack break with Mom, Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, and Aiden; and then we went out to play and ride bikes for a while after
getting permission for the camping. We
didn’t set up the tents then because we’d wanted to at least ask Rebecca and
Lucas if they’d be able to do that with us; but we’d wanted to do some riding
at the park anyway – and the twins and their friends had wanted to play at the
park with us.
We set up three of the tents before dinner;
Michael and Tim took care of grilling the burgers and hot dogs for nine while
Rowen and I helped Mom with the cold salads and veggies side dishes; and we had
dinner in the back yard once everything was ready. We just sat in lawn chairs for that instead
of setting up a couple of tables, and since we used disposable plates and
cutlery; the clean-up was easy too. Mom
went to hang out with Aunt Leanne and Aunt Grace after dinner; and the rest of
us played in the back yard; went swimming; and pretty much just goofed off for
a couple of hours. Rebecca and Lucas joined
us for the last half of that fun; we all spent some time with Dad when he got
home; and then we set up our campfire so that it’d be ready to go by dusk. Mom had come home for a while too, but once
Dad had everything hauled into the house and had finished hanging out with us;
they both went back to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house to have a mini
planning meeting that was mostly about what they were all doing with the med
center over the weekend – and to have a visit after being apart for the work
week.
By the way, I didn’t see Violet and Dillon
before they left for Woodvale, but they had dinner in Crystal Springs with Dad
on the way up there – and while he was waiting for the rush hour traffic to
clear before heading home. That worked
out for all three of them; and Dad was especially glad to see Violet and wish
her a belated happy birthday. Violet and
Dillon are safely in Woodvale now; but I don’t have any details beyond that for
what they’ve been doing since getting there.
I’ll pass on any news as I get it – though I might not get that update
until sometime after Violet gets home again.
Yes, Woodvale is technically her home; but
we’ve adopted her and this will be her home for real after she and Dillon
graduate.
Getting back to the camping action, we lit
the campfire once it was getting dark; and spent the next few hours playing
music, telling scary stories, and munching on snacks that ranged from
marshmallows and hotdogs to chips and cookies.
Jenny and Joel joined us by about ten-thirty, and they were delayed
because he’d needed to at least spend a bit of time with his father before
taking off for the night. His father
wasn’t thrilled with that change in plans, but accepted the reality that his
son preferred spending his first night in town with Jenny. He’s a guy, and not that old; so maybe he can
still remember what that was like when he was a teen.
We went for one more swim not long after
our last two campers arrived, and then went back to the campfire and some
quality cuddling as we dried off and warmed up again. Mom and Dad checked in with us when they got
home and let the kids feed them some toasted marshmallows; but then they went
inside and presumably up to bed. No
details from the rest of their night are required; but I’ sure that you can
guess that they’re usually very happy to be back together again after Dad’s
weeks in the city – especially when Mom can’t get to the city at all to see
him. Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden
were done in by midnight, so Michael and I took a break from the campfire music
to get them ready for bed and tucked into their sleeping bags. Once they were settled in, we went back to
the fire for a while longer; but most of us were getting tired by then too; and
we put out the fire at one o’clock.
My brother, sister, and their friends had
played a joke on us while we were wrapping up our fun at the campfire; and
Naomi was in Ethan’s tent with him while Ehlana and Aiden were in the tent that
the girls were supposed to be sharing with Rowen and me. Ehlana and Aiden were awake but pretending to
be sleeping; while Ethan and Naomi were actually asleep by then – and cuddled
together in his sleeping bag. Yes, I’d
sensed their change in locations from that distance, and the twins knew that;
but it was still fun for Michael, Tim, Rowen, Naomi, and Aiden – and the boys
thought that we should just follow their lead and switch to co-ed tents for the
night.
We didn’t do that, but I can’t say the same
for Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Joel.
They were still up and hanging out by the river when Rowen and I turned
in for the night; and I will not be surprised to find out that Jenny talked the
other three teens into the tent swap – even though they hadn’t technically ever
agreed to girls and boys tents. Then
there’s the fact that we’d only originally set up the one tent for Rebecca and
Lucas anyway; but that’s a moot point now anyway. What is relevant is that Naomi was moved back
to our tent with Ehlana; Aiden went back to the boys’ tent under his own power;
and we were all in our sleeping bags by one-thirty.
Rowen and I have been talking since then
while I’ve done my computer checks and she’s listened to some YouTube music on
Ehlana’s iPad. Ehlana and Naomi talked
with us for a while too; but it wasn’t long before they were both out for the
count. I had a bit of family business
work to deal with; took care of that; and then kept the rest of the computer
and email checks to a minimum.
We’ve got a busy work day ahead that
includes two baseball games; and while the yard work will keep me busy most of
the day; I’ll likely also do some babysitting both in the afternoon and evening
so that Mom and Dad can help out a bit at the med center while also juggling
the chores at home and their own baseball game tomorrow night. It’s supposed to be another hot, beautiful
day, but while I might wish for a play weekend to launch our summer holidays,
Michael still has to work anyway; and now we can always have our play days on
Monday and Tuesday instead when his parents are off from the Inn anyway.
Okay, we have a wedding to plan, a holiday
weekend coming up; and a lot more on the go all summer; but you know what I
mean – and we are going to need to find time to have fun here and there along
with all of the busy.
That’s all I have for tonight, and it
really has been a great start to our holidays.
I hope that trend will be with us for the next couple of months, but all
I’m really thinking about right now is getting some sleep; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
