Waking up with Michael in my hotel room was
quite a bit of fun despite the fact that we were in separate beds and each had
a junior cuddle buddy thanks to Ethan and Ehlana entertaining us with the
wake-up call that got us moving and taking turns getting ready for Tai Chi.
Our workout was great too. We exercised outdoors by the pool, and while
we always have fun with Mom and Dad; we forgot to collect them on our way
outside so that they’d have more alone time before meeting up for
breakfast. No details of their alternate
start to the day are required; so let’s not go there. As usual, we had a small audience watching us
by the time we finished out Tai Chi forms; we followed that up with a short
swim in the pool; and then hurried up to our room to take turns getting showered
and ready for the day.
That, by the way, is not impossible with
one bathroom and four kids and teens; but it is a lot easier to accomplish
while in a time phase! ;^)
No, there were no Michael and me make-out
opportunities while we were doing that; since we always had at least one twin
with us when we were together; and my time phase included the entire hotel room
– and everyone in it. I’ll try not to
think about that too much, since that just reminds me that Michael and I are
yet again way behind on finding time for make-out opportunities, yet with the
coming cousins’ holiday; we’re not likely going to get much alone time over the
next two weeks or so.
Instead of going on about what isn’t
happening for us; let’s move on to the highlights from our second day in the
city. We met up with Mom and Dad in time
to have breakfast at the usual diner; Dad had a five-person escort to the
courthouse before he went off to work with goodbye hugs and kisses. While he was in full law-immersion; the rest
of us went back to the hotel; packed up; and headed over to Wal-Mart to do some
supply shopping. Mom needed to make a
few shopping stops, though some of the purchases were for Aunt Leanne, Grandma,
and Aunt Deborah. We pretty much had the
van filled up by the time we went to have lunch; that was another fast food
break; and then we moved on to SportsFusion for a couple of hours of play time
before we needed to head for home again.
Ethan and Ehlana can’t do everything at
SportsFusion, but they did have fun in the indoor playground and playing some
of the arcade games. Michael and I did
most of that with them; and also went rock climbing and on the zip line. We needed to be on the road by three-thirty
or so, and managed to do that; pick up fast food for Aunt Leanne on the way out
of town; and even made it onto the highway heading south toward home before the
rush hour traffic clogged up the streets and highways around the city.
I’m going to take a little side-trip here
because Michael and Tim have both joined the club of pre-drivers that are
especially interested in the driving activity now that they are getting very
close to reaching that all-important teen milestone. Tim will get there first, but he’s been
allowed to drive farm equipment and vehicles already; so he’s really just
looking forward to being able to drive on the roads once he gets his
license. Michael hasn’t gotten to drive
anything faster than a go-cart or lawn tractor; and he’s become very attentive
whenever he’s in a vehicle – especially on longer trips like this one. He’s also already memorized the driver’s
manual; so it’s a good thing that Mom has too – not that he’d say anything if
she actually did make any mistakes.
Just in case you’re wondering, we’re Magi
Masters, not Saints; and yes, Mom does occasionally break laws while
driving! I know, that’s totally shocking
to find out that my Mom isn’t perfect; but deal with it. The more interesting bit of information with
that for you should actually be the fact that Mom can passively sense radar
signals – whether they’re coming from police cars in the area or planes
overhead. I’ll guess that’s a talent
that every driver in the country would love to have! ;^)
I’m still more than half a year away from
being able to get my license, but if you’re a parent of a teen in the same age
range as Michael and me; think about how scary it would be to have a new teen
driver with that particular built-in talent!
Getting back on-track, the point of my
little detour here was simply to mention that Michael is getting ready to be a
new driver; which is also why he sat up front with Mom for the drive home – and
spent a little time talking about driving and road rules with Mom and me. Ethan, Ehlana, and I also watched a movie;
munched on our afternoon fast food snack; and enjoyed the ride home and break
before we were back to the busy once we were at home and needed to get to work.
For Michael, that meant heading over to the
Inn to help out with the dinner rush already in progress; and he worked until
close after getting most of two days off.
I helped Mom with unloading the van; we put most of our purchases away;
and then hurried over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house to have dinner with
them – which included a fast food fix for Aunt Leanne. I like fast food as much as Aunt Leanne does;
but I was good with our return to ‘real’ food tonight. While I liked the grilled chicken, cold salads,
and the past and veggies meal; my favorite part of our dinner break was getting
to cuddle with Brianna for a lot of the time while Mom and Aunt Leanne caught
up on the latest news from home and away; and Uncle Adam tried to feed Zack
with as little mess as possible.
We love you, Zack; but do you really need
to work so hard on your ‘public’ personality even when you’re around family and
don’t need to do it? I won’t even go
into why you’ve decided that being a quasi-Neanderthal toddler is so much fun;
though I will feel sorry for Brianna.
She is so going to wish that her brother is more like Ethan as you grow
up together!
My kid control duties didn’t end with
dinner; though I didn’t get to take care of Brianna all night. My job was to keep Ethan, Ehlana, and the
usual group of kids entertained while the co-ed baseball practice was going on
at the park. We spent some quality time
at the playground; went for a walk along the path by the river to the falls and
back; and then we went for a swim back at home before the parents split up for
the night and took their kids home with them.
Mom and I did the full bath and bedtime
routine with Ethan and Ehlana once we were on our own; though Violet and Dillon
eventually came home and spent the night with us after having dinner with his
family and hanging out with friends after that for the evening. While I’m thinking about that, they had the
house to themselves last night while we were away; and maybe that actually had
more to do with their choice not to stay in the city. They got to have the alone time without the
five-star hotel costs! No other details
about their night will be requested or reported on for my journal; though I’m
sure that the topic will come up in girl chats that I won’t miss if I do manage
to avoid them.
Once Ethan and Ehlana were in bed, it was
time for Mom and I to split up for some quality Jacuzzi time. I multi-tasked most of my nightly computer
and email checks while doing that; added in some family business work; and then
took a break from the computing while doing my hair and getting ready for bed
once I was finished in the tub. Mandy
was happy to have me home again; and even happier that we were in bed
early. This is my last task of the day;
and I plan on being asleep about five minutes after I put my computer away for
the night.
The next couple of days are going to be all
about work and getting ready for our incoming cousins. My personal fun level is going to drop while
doing all of that work, but Michael’s going to be busy at the Inn anyway; and I
might need the break ahead of two weeks of extreme fun that will wrap up with
Jake and Stephanie’s wedding.
Wow!
Their wedding is just over two weeks away!
Now I’m getting very sleepy just thinking
about everything we’ll be doing to get ready for the wedding in addition to the
cousins’ play time between now and then.
Maybe I should skip all of the work tomorrow and Friday and just sleep
through until Friday afternoon to rest up for all of that. It’s a nice thought – especially if cuddling
with Michael for two days was involved; but won’t happen. I’ll settle for wrapping up this report and
getting a decent night of rest, though; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
