This has been one of those crazy, amazing
days around here, with a lot going on; so let’s jump right into the adventure
report and I’ll try not to get it too jumbled up!
Tai Chi this morning was the only quiet
time Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and I had for pretty much the rest of the day
through until now. Michael was working
the breakfast shift; so he couldn’t do that with us, but I was okay with that
because he was able to spend some extra time with us between that work and the
dinner shift. Exercising by the river
really was a great way to get the day started; and then the breakfast rush for
twelve while also juggling bathroom time kept us hopping for the next couple of
hours. I was in on the cooking and
clean-up; and was last to hit the shower and get ready for the day – mostly because
Dad and Uncle Blaine both needed to get ready for work; and the Moms were busy
with the younger kids and other chores.
Chris, Martin, and Dawn were on the clean-up crew with me, and scary as
this is; the boys actually helped us without any major complaining or attempts
to supervise while leaving the work to Dawn and me. Since Chris will be heading off to college in
August; that was a good sign that maybe he’ll be able to survive his first year
taking care of himself; but we’ll see how that goes. Dawn’s expectations for him are fairly low;
so I could be wrong about that.
Life just got busier for me once I was
ready for the day; mostly because a lot of the adults in our family were busy
with other responsibilities; so I was one of the draftees recruited for kid
control of all of the younger cousins – including the Johnson family
cousins. Kara, Eddie, Nicole, and Robyn
arrived in town late last night with their grandparents while the parents had
stayed home to deal with one more day of work or other issues before coming
here tonight. Chris and Martin were set
free to do their own thing after breakfast; but Dawn, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and I
were all asked to help out with keeping the younger kids busy and entertained.
Part of the reason for that wasn’t just
because of the parental jobs around here.
Uncle Mark and Grandpa also needed to hit the road for the airport to go
and pick up Uncle Mark’s family. They’re
here for multiple reasons that include the holiday, Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s
anniversary; and to spend time with Caleb; and they’ll be here until next
Saturday. Adding the Everett clan to the
family mix this weekend is just making everything just a bit more crazy – and fun!
That’s getting us ahead of the story,
though; so let’s get back on track.
We – the older kids and teens – had our
little gang of kids rounded up by nine-thirty, and by then; half the parents
were already either at work or getting started on chores that ranged from
housework to grocery and supply shopping.
Having the kids out of the way made all of that easier, and while it
might have been nice if Dawn and I could have had some teen time with some of
my friends; we managed to have fun with our younger siblings and cousins. Michael helped out with the fun too after
being set free from the Inn; and he met up with us at the park playground. Aunt Leanne and Aunt Deborah had us taking
care of Zack and Leah along with the rest of the cousins; but Caleb and
Sebastian were not included in our play group.
I should add that Kara, Eddie, and Nicole didn’t really need any
supervision; and they all helped out with the younger kids too. Eddie would have liked to have some guys his
own age to hang out with; but he survived the play time with Ethan, Jayden, and
Zack without any major psychological or physical damage.
While the playground action kept us busy
for hours between morning and afternoon visits, there was some biking involved
in our play day too; and I used the trailer on my bike so that Zack and Leah
could go along with us for the rides. We
also did one visit to the Emporium and a ride around the new section of town;
went swimming once in the afternoon; and Zack and Leah had short naps in the
trailer during the afternoon ride until we ended up at the park for the second
round of playground fun. Lunch was at
our house; Mom, Aunt Leanne, and the grandmothers took care of that meal and
clean-up; and that didn’t feel like a break at all for Michael, Dawn, and I as
we kept busy getting the younger kids fed and then cleaned up again.
While we were busy playing, the rest of our
incoming family guests began arriving by mid-afternoon – and that continued on
for the rest of the day until after eleven o’clock. I didn’t see most of the afternoon arrivals
until we came home for that swim before Michael needed to get to the Inn for
the dinner rush; but it was the first contingents of the McEwan clan getting to
town first and ending with the adults that weren’t able to hit the road until
finishing work for the day – and then got stuck in the thick of the holiday
weekend traffic messes between their homes and ours. The Everetts were in town by dinnertime too;
and all of that extra work and driving was the main reason behind the decision
to have that meal at our house.
I’d better take a minute here to write a
blurb about Uncle Mark’s family; though my interaction with them – or at least
the adults – was fairly limited today.
Uncle Mark’s parents, Aaron and Lorelei – Lori – don’t seem to have
changed much since the last time they were here for the wedding. The same can’t be said for Uncle Mark’s
sister, brother, and their spouses and kids.
Two years is a long time for kids that now range in age from two and a
half to going on eight; and parenting those five kids has affected the parents
too. On the bright side of that, I’ll
mention that Uncle Mark’s sister and sister-in-law both look great; so keeping
up with their little angels is apparently keeping them in great shape too. Their husbands look healthy and happy too;
but a touch of grey hair here and there suggests that the kids are affecting
them too! ;^)
I can also tell you that Uncle Mark feels
the same way about his sister’s and brother’s kids as Aunt Grace feels about
Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden; though it’s a bit different for them too. Aunt Grace has a closer relationship with her
nieces and nephew, and while the older kids in Uncle Mark’s family like him a
lot; I’ll guess that they’re not quite as close to him because work always kept
all of the doctors in the Everett family busy when he lived in Seattle. Let’s leave that train of thought there and
get back to the recap where I left off with the pre-dinner action at our house.
After a long travel day, Uncle Mark’s
nieces and nephews were both tired out and ready to blow off some steam; so
joining in to play with the rest of us ‘kids’ was exactly what they needed. The ages of the collective cousins worked out
fairly well too. Eddie was only a bit
younger than Uncle Mark’s oldest nephew, Kellum. Colleen and Noah are around a year older than
Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden, and a bit younger than Nicole; but seem to be
getting along with all of them just fine.
The youngest, Noel and Julian, are in the middle between Zack and Leah,
and the twins; and they were happy to play with both the older and younger
kids. Having five extra kids to keep an
eye on after losing Michael’s help kept Dawn and I really busy; though we did
get some help from Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah once they were all
finished work for the day.
Our dinner was a barbeque potluck that was
a fairly large event even without having the entire collective family in town
yet by the time we sat down to eat. I
won’t try to report on all of the meal-time action; since it was just too busy
to keep up with everything. Dawn and I
were with the kids; we were entertained and run a bit ragged keeping up with
them; and then we basically dunked them in the river to clean them up where
needed before helping out with the early stages of the clean-up and then
getting back to playing in the back yard and at the park.
The latter part of that was because the
Everett-McKinley kids wanted to check out the new playground equipment that the
other kids had told them all about during dinner, and while we did most of the
playing with them; there was some grandparent support for Dawn and me too so
that we didn’t have to try and keep track of the entire group of cousins all of
the time. We were home from the park
before dusk, and while a campfire had been considered, there were still inbound
travelers to welcome at other houses; the earlier arrivals were more interested
in some quiet time and smaller group visits; and half of the kids were ready to
crash by then, so we instead split up and headed for home – or respective guest
accommodations that included the Inn for a few lucky visitors.
A smaller campfire at our house had still
been an option, but with the Fourth of July on Saturday, the majority of us
opted for a comparatively early night instead of staying up late to do
that. Chris, Martin, and Jonathan weren’t
part of that majority; but then they were okay with staying up late and playing
video games in the lounge instead. I’m
getting ahead of the storyline again; but that was a crazy-busy hour and a half
or so during the transition from full group to just having our own weekend
guests here at home with us.
Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa got into town
while we were at the park, and Grandma and Grandpa Rice were with them; but
went home with my grandparents. Grandpa
Duncan and Grandma Mercy are staying there too; so they also have a full house –
if a smaller one. Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne had more incoming Johnsons and McEwans by then too; so I didn’t even see
them again after getting back from the park; and Zack went home with the rest
of the Johnson family grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that were
staying at his house for the weekend when they were ready to go there.
Once we were down to our own guests and
Jonathan; the parents moved into the living room for some chat time with Violet
and Dillon. Dawn and I were there for
that for a while too, but took care of getting Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden off to
bed when Jayden looked ready to fall asleep.
Jaimie and Kaitlyn helped us out with that; we moved up to my room after
that; and had a fun little girl chat there while also winding down and getting
ready for bed. I closed the doors to the
lounge so that the guys wouldn’t bug us.
That might have worked out differently if Michael had come over tonight,
but they were busy at the Inn and he got stuck there until close; so we decided
that he should just go home instead of coming over when he’d just end up
playing video games anyway.
When we were ready to call it a night,
Mandy and I ended up getting Kaitlyn for a cuddle buddy while Jaimie’s with
Dawn tonight. Once we were on our own,
Kaitlyn and I continued to talk and watch YouTube videos, but she fell asleep
about a half-hour ago; so I started in on my computer and email checks after
that. There wasn’t any work that had to
be done tonight, and there were only a couple of personal emails to read and
answer; so I’ll at least be able to wrap this up and get to sleep soon too.
It’s going to be crazy around here in the
morning again – especially since we have the parade in the morning and need to
get our contributions for the food booths ready to go along with everything
else that goes along with a major family Fourth of July adventure.
I’ve skipped over a lot of news – like Uncle
Blaine’s work and meetings related to the med center and new construction going
on around town; all of the parental work and chores that I missed out on
entirely; and a bunch of travel, work, and school stories that were among the
conversation highlights of the collective reunions. A time phase isn’t an option tonight, though,
and I don’t want to be up all night writing about all of those fun little
details; so I’ll just wrap this up and call it a night.
While this wasn’t a holiday day for a lot
of my family, it sure felt like one to me – and most of the kids and
teens. Tomorrow is going to be even
better – and not just because I’ll get to share all of the fun with
Michael. You, reading this in my future,
can just flip a digital page to get that report, though, so I won’t bother with
a preview now when I can just be on my way into dreamland instead.
I can do that preview there while resting
up, and then hope that the reality tomorrow will be just as amazing, so while I’m
doing that; and until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
