The third floor has been taken over by
girls for the next two weeks; and it’s been a lot of fun around here tonight as
Violet and I have been catching up with Dawn and Jillian since we came up to
bed at a bit after midnight.
Okay, there is one boy up here on the third
floor with us, but Dillon was hanging out with Dad, Ethan, and Jayden earlier;
and then pretty much hid in Violet’s room until she joined him once we’d
wrapped up our girl chat time in my room.
By the way, I should really just start calling it ‘their’ room; but even
though they’re either both here or at his house; I still think of their rooms
as ‘his’ and ‘hers’ even though that isn’t really accurate anymore.
Moving along, let’s back up to the start of
the day and do the full update.
Tai Chi by the river was for four today
while Michael was at the Inn helping out with the breakfast rush. While he was busy, my morning and early
afternoon was all about yard work; and I got the rest of my weekend chores
finished today so that Dad and I can both take tomorrow off! The gardens are weeded and freshened up with
some new flowers that Mom picked up from the garden center while doing her
shopping; the walks, porches, and driveway are all swept or raked; the dock and
benches are cleaned too; and I won’t bore you with the rest of the list of
chores.
I had a break for lunch with Mom, Ethan,
and Ehlana, and finished up my work in time to be set free for the rest of the
day when Michael came over to hang out with me during his afternoon break. That wasn’t really the end of the work for me
today; but let’s not count the work on each side of dinner. I was drafted for the prep line and clean-up
crew; but spent the rest of the day playing with my family and friends – and
enjoying yet another beautiful, hot summer day.
Since I’d been working all morning and
after lunch, going for a swim with Michael, Ethan, and Ehlana was first on our
to-do play list; we followed that up with a bike ride and playground fun at the
park; and wrapped up Michael’s break time with an ice cream run to the
Emporium. Ethan, Ehlana, and I were home
again when Uncle Rick, Aunt Melissa, Dawn, and Jillian arrived; and I helped
Dawn and Jillian with getting their luggage up to their rooms while Mom helped
Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa was set free to go over to see Aunt Leanne, Zack,
and Brianna.
We met up with her once that little blast
of busy; Dawn and Jillian took turns holding Brianna; and then we were set free
again for a little while until I needed to be back at home to help Mom,
Grandma, and Grandpa with the cooking for dinner. This time, we didn’t take Ethan and Ehlana
along; and instead went for a bike ride around town that included a short visit
to the new med center so that Jillian could see it and a visit to the park so
that she could check out the new playground too. Most of the hometown family came over to our
house for dinner so that they could all spend some comparatively quiet time
with Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa. I’m
not including Dawn and Jillian in that; but only because we ended up having
dinner by the river or on the dock with Ethan, Ehlana, Zack, and Leah because
that’s what the kids wanted to do; and we were drafted to keep an eye on
them. Brianna was with us for a while
too, but we didn’t keep her out by the river for too long because of the heat
and lack of shade out on the dock.
After enjoying our barbeque dinner and
cleaning up, we had a couple of play hours available while waiting for the rest
of our incoming cousins. We went back to
the park with Ethan, Ehlana, Leah, and Zack to hang out at the playground;
Michael met up with us there once he was set free from the Inn after the main
dinner rush was finished; and then we were back at home again to go for a swim
and cool off before Dad pulled in with Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden. They’re actually staying with Aunt Grace and
Uncle Mark this week, so we needed to haul their luggage over there; but
everyone was still at our house then so Dad didn’t make the side-trip with the
truck.
Their arrival was just the start of a busy
hour or so as Kevin, Elaine, Scott, and Melanie all arrived together with their
kids. Kara, Eddie, and Nicole will be
spending a week with us, but Robyn is only here for the weekend; and the four
parents only changed the original travel plans for the kids so that they could
all get to meet Brianna and join in on a couple of days of new baby in the
family fun with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne.
They all got to spend at least a bit of time with Brianna tonight because
she was awake for a lot of the time while we were hauling luggage around and
doing the meet and greet thing with everyone; but we were all getting tired by
then too; so it wasn’t long before we split up and headed for our respective
homes for the night.
At our house, it was then time for the
parents to have some chat time with Violet and Dillon. Michael, Dawn, Jillian, and I joined them in
the living room for some of that time, but we also took care of getting Ethan,
Jayden, and Ehlana off to bed; and went for a late swim in the river shortly
before Michael needed to head home for the night. He and I were left on our own by the river
for our goodnight hugs and kisses; though we did have some observers watching
us – including at my house. Once again,
Michael and I didn’t end up having any alone time together, but it has still
been a pretty good day; so I’ll just be happy about that and hope for at least
a few opportunities to have Michael all to myself once or twice between now and
the end of July – no matter how unlikely that seems to be right now.
I’ve already mentioned the girl chat time
in my room, so I guess all that’s left is to mention that it’s mildly weird to
have Violet and Dillon staying together next door to me while Uncle Rick and
Aunt Melissa are staying in the room below mine tonight. Violet and Dillon aren’t having an issue with
it anymore; so I guess that they’ve fully crossed-over to that next level
now. It’s getting late, and I should be
getting some sleep while I can instead of sitting up and pondering things like
that – especially when it has me musing about sleepovers with Michael.
We’ve got a really busy weekend ahead, and
I want to be ready for all of the fun, so that’s all for now; and, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
