Happy 3rd Anniversary, Uncle
Nick and Aunt Deborah!
Their big day, and the even bigger,
best-ever kind of gift, was the top news story around town – and for this
double-update! Even better, from my
perspective, is that we’re getting new neighbors on the street later this
summer!
That’s right – Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah
were given the Ayres’ family home for their anniversary. Grandma and Grandpa Ayres have already bought
one of the townhomes in the new section of town; they’ll be moving in sometime
during the first week of August; and there is going to be some remodeling of
their ‘old’ house so that it’ll be ready for Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and the
kids to move in by the Labor Day weekend.
I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess that downsizing the
Haberdashery and selling the building to Miranda and Jacob had Uncle Nick’s
father thinking about downsizing their home too – though as far as I know; he’s
in no hurry to retire or sell the business.
For the record, in case Witch Falls is
nothing like it is now in some distant future when you’re reading this, Uncle
Nick, Aunt Deborah, and the kids will be our four-doors-down neighbors to the
west; with Michael and his family in the middle of that five-home block. All of the houses along the river have large
back yards, so we’re not too close for comfort or anything; but I’d be okay
with it even if we were – and it’s going to be awesome to have all of my
hometown cousins on the same street with us – or at least the same stretch of
river; since Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, and Caleb aren’t actually on our street
too.
Since I’m on the anniversary topic anyway,
let’s keep going with that report before backing up to the news from yesterday.
Our involvement with the anniversary fun
was limited to the dinner party at the Ayres’ family home – and the pre and
post dinner action. I guess we were
also, technically, in on the kid-free night that Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah
had last night because we had Leah with us for our camping adventure; but then
we didn’t find out about Sebastian going for a grandparent sleepover too until
today – and we definitely don’t need the early celebration details! They’re getting a second kid-free night
tonight, but we’re not involved with that at all; since Uncle Philip and Aunt
Liz have Leah and Sebastian with them tonight – and we again do not need any
other details for the continuing anniversary celebration for two; so please don’t
go there!
The dinner party and play time was fun, and
the gift opening part of the night was definitely the highlight. That wasn’t only because of the
house-gift. We – those of us not in the
loop – found out that most of the collective family adults were in the know –
and their gifts were all new home related in a very big way. Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and the kids are
going to have remodeled bathrooms, bedrooms, a play room like Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne have in their house; new appliances, and some new furniture to go
along with the family antiques and heirlooms that will be staying with the
house. Mom and Dad were in on that too,
but I’m not going to list individual family contributions; since those gifts
were given to Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah in one big package – pretty much the
same way that Uncle Adam gave Aunt Leanne her remodel gift before they got
married. The only thing I will mention
is that there isn’t going to be a kitchen remodel; but that’s simply because
their kitchen is already gorgeous and modern thanks to the work that Grandma
Lydia had done a few years before Mom and I moved here.
I’d better start moving this along; so let’s
switch gears and go back to catch up on the rest of the news and fun beginning
with Monday morning.
The rain we’d gotten overnight on Sunday
ended by morning; so Tai Chi by the river was a go – if a bit damp again. Wet shoes was a small price to pay for the
extra beauty and peace that comes with exercising by the river! We had a comparatively small gang to feed at
breakfast after a busy weekend; and then it was time to make a play plan for
the day once most of the parents had gone to work and most of the cousins had
been dropped off at our house. The Moms
and Grandmothers must have decided that the teens and older kids in the group
were overdue for some fun that was not, by necessity, toddler or pre-school
rated; and the suggestion for a canoe trip to the whirlpool was approved – even
though that meant more work and alternate entertainment plans needed to be made
for all of the younger cousins.
All of that needed to be worked out; and it
took quite a while to get canoes, a picnic, and everything else we needed for
the whirlpool adventure ready to go.
Michael, Tim, and Rowen were the only friends going on the trip with us;
and the ‘us’ cousins were Dawn, Jillian, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Kara, Eddie, and
me. We went with using four canoes
instead of putting four kids in one and only going with three. The boys were in one canoe; Rowen and I took
Kara with us; and Dawn and Jillian each had one junior paddler in their canoes –
Jaimie with Jillian; and Kaitlyn with Dawn.
It was heading toward eleven by the time we set out upriver; but that
still left us with lots of time to get to the whirlpool and back again by
dinnertime.
Being on the teen side of these little
adventures is very different from being one of the kids; but it’s also still
just as much fun – even when things occasionally get weird. I seriously doubt that things like this get
included in many Magi journals, and it isn’t something that I ever even think
about as a Magi Master; but nature does call for some even when miles away from
‘civilization’ and you have to deal with it when you’re one of the teens in
charge of the group. That was a
non-issue for Michael and Tim with Eddie for obvious reasons, but while I’m
again not going to mention any names here; the concept of dealing with certain
biological needs in the ‘wilderness’ is not something that most junior city
girls are comfortable with. Rowen and I
did the best we could with the situation; though the toughest part of that
scene was managing not to laugh our heads off about it! ;^)
Anyway, our paddle to the whirlpool, the
play time there, our picnic, and the trip home again were all really great; and
I was really happy to finally get to add some adventure to the fun mix for our
cousins after a comparatively boring start to their holiday with us. The fun continued when we got back and were
given approval for the campfire and camping we’d talked about while away for
the day – especially when we offered to include all of the younger cousins and
some extra friends for both. That meant
getting a lot of work done before and after dinner; but we were fired up and
had lots of help for setting up tents and hauling the usual camping gear out to
those tents once they were set up. We
had all of the cousins except for Sebastian, Caleb, and Brianna; Michael
invited Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia; Rowen invited Patrick, Scott, and Lindsay;
and Ethan and Ehlana added Naomi and Aiden to nearly complete our group of
camping enthusiasts. The last two
invitees were Eli and Hailey; and they were added to avert the meltdowns that
were imminent when they thought that they were being left out of the fun that
Leah and Zack were going to be having with their older cousins.
Some of that happened before and after
dinner, and the family and friends meal was a fairly large event; but that
pretty much covers the main news through to when I wrote my to-be-continued
update last night – and dinner was fairly standard barbeque fare – and meant to
be a quick meal. While I was busy with
camp set-up and kid control then, Michael and Tim needed to get to their ball
practice; so they missed out on the tail-end of that work – and eventually came
back after stopping in at their homes to pick up overnight bags and some
campfire snack donations. Michael and I
also missed out on a wedding work evening at his house, and though I wish we
could have helped out with that too; Jake and Stephanie had lots of help for
that work – and they wrapped up in time to come over and catch part of the
campfire with us.
Even though we had a bunch of younger kids,
even Zack, Leah, and Eli didn’t start dropping off to sleep until nearly
eleven; so the teen and older kid campfire fun couldn’t kick up a notch or
three until after we had all of the younger kids tucked into sleeping bags for
the night at a bit after midnight – and then Michael and I volunteered to be
the sleeping kid monitors to make sure that none of them woke up and wandered
off while everyone else was having fun by the campfire with songs and scary
stories. We were actually okay with that,
since it also meant that we had a bit of privacy for a minor make-out session –
and we could share those moonlight kisses by the river without worrying about
getting caught out late by our parents!
By the way, even though Dad likes to joke
about getting in trouble over late-night moonlit kisses when he was a teen;
Grandma has assured us that he never really did get into trouble for things
like that. Grandpa did have fun with
those scenes, and while the details vary among my grandparents, aunt, and
father; I can picture Grandpa using the ‘That’s my girl!’ comment with Aunt
Leanne over any scolding anytime she was caught out late with a boy. That wouldn’t have been the same for Dad, and
maybe that’s unfair; but it is funny too so it makes for great stories.
Getting back to the story, Michael and I
did make some cameo visits to the campfire until it wrapped up at one-thirty
and the fire was doused. Some of us went
for a very late swim after that; and then it was time to get ready for bed and
call it a night. With so many younger
kids, we – the teens – needed to split up to make sure we had at least one teen
with each tent full of junior campers. I
had Leah, Hailey, Kaitlyn, and Kara with me; and Rowen ended up with Ehlana,
Naomi, Sophia, and Nicole. Michael and
Tim didn’t have any problems during the night; but definitely had their hands
full in the morning with their junior campers – especially when it came to
keeping up with Zack and Eli. Before I
get to that, the last thing I’ll mention about the camping is that one good
thing about having all of my tent mates sleeping by the time I went to bed is
that I was able to get right off to sleep without any bedtime chats. Skipping the usual bedtime computing worked
out great too.
We didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep before
it was time for sunrise Tai Chi, but my wake-up call from Ehlana and Naomi was
fun; and so was the Tai Chi by the river that Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam joined
us for because Brianna had them up early anyway. They then stayed for breakfast, and Mom and
Dad had extra parental help for the work needed to get ready for a major
camping breakfast; but they also went with easy-food options too – and we ate
outdoors either by the river and tents or on the back porch.
After getting a lot of the day off for our
whirlpool adventure, Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were drafted for kid control
duty today. We had to help with the
breakfast clean-up and camp break-down work too; but followed that up with a
lot of play time with the kids for the rest of the morning. That fun included playground time at the
park; bike riding on the trails that Michael and Tim led while Rowen and I
mostly stayed and played with the younger kids; swimming in the river at the
park or at home; and a picnic lunch that was at home in our back yard; but also
parent-free while they were mostly busy doing other things elsewhere.
The adventure of the day for the older
cousins was a trail ride, and while she wasn’t one of the drivers; Mom had set
up the ride and arranged for the drivers to take us out there and back again. Violet and Dillon were our drivers for the
trip out to the ranch; took a late lunch break from the lab; and used Mom’s and
Aunt Leanne’s minivans. We had Pam and
two of her kids for our trail ride guides; and they made sure that we all had a
blast for the hour and change of horsing around out on the ranch trails. I spent most of the ride time with Kaitlyn
and Kara; and I was again feeling a sense of déjà vu except from the teen
perspective instead of being on the kid side of the adventure like I was just a
few years ago. Jake and Stephanie took
care of the return trip driving duties for us; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I
were back on kid control duty as soon as we got back – including going for the
swim that we all needed after collecting a fair bit of dust off of the trails
during our ride. We did that at my
house, but then moved the gang of kids and teens over to the Ayres’ house after
that because most of the volunteer adults were there by then and working on
getting the dinner and party set up.
I’ve already covered the highlights from
dinner, and while the social time continued there until nearly dark; we split
up and started heading home then.
Michael, Tim, and Rowen came home with me; and we only have Dawn and
Jillian with us tonight while the rest of our cousins are split up at other
houses – including with grandparents or great-grandparents for some of
them. Ethan and Ehlana were ordered off
to bed shortly after we got home, and Michael and I took care of getting them
tucked in; so teen movie time was set up and ready to go already by the time we
joined Rowen, Tim, Dawn, and Jillian in the lounge.
Dawn and Jillian had some fun teasing Rowen
and me about having cuddle buddies – or more specifically, their lack of them,
but they didn’t really mind staying and hanging out with us; and we had fun
watching an action flick that Tim had picked out. We briefly considered a second movie, but
four out of six of us picked a bit of video gaming instead of another couple of
hours of movie watching; and Dawn and Jillian had a lot of fun winning their
video game competition over Michael and Tim while Rowen and I kept ourselves
entertained by distracting our boyfriends at key moments in the competition
that definitely helped Dawn and Jillian to win those games – and keep the boys
from being too upset over the losses.
Michael, Tim, and Rowen headed home at a bit
after midnight since they are all working part-time jobs tomorrow; and Dawn and
Jillian had both gone to bed by the time I got back from saying goodnight to
Michael out on the front porch after we also said our goodnights with Rowen and
Tim – and they’d gone over to her house for some goodnight hugs and kisses of their
own. It was nearly one o’clock by the
time I climbed into bed with Mandy and my computer, and everyone else was in
bed and probably asleep by then; but I’ve had some catch-up work to do for the
family business and my email and computer checks took a while too.
None of the work was particularly fun, but
needed to get done; and that’s why it’s now closer to four than three as I’m
writing this. I’m running out of steam,
and will likely need to do a bit of self-healing when I have to get up again in
a couple of hours; but all of the fun over the past two days has been worth the
lack of sleep – and the need for the extra work tonight. We’re now half-way through the first week of
the cousins’ holiday, which is also half-way for all of the younger visiting
cousins before they’ll be heading home on Sunday. We don’t have any major fun plans for
tomorrow, other than the now-annual grandparents’ lunch at the Inn; but I will
be on kid control again for sure – even though I don’t know how many kids I’ll
have yet; and won’t have Michael, Tim, and Rowen to help me out with that.
Now that I’m thinking about that, I should
have gone off to sleep hours ago instead of doing the work! There isn’t anything I can do about that
other than the morning self-healing thing; but I can wrap this up now and get
what bit of sleep I still have time for between now and whenever my Tai Chi
wake-up call comes in a couple of hours; so I’m going to do just that.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
