Happy 10th Anniversary, Liz and
Philip!
They have apparently had a really amazing
mini-holiday, but I overheard more details than I needed to hear; and won’t be
writing about any of it in this journal.
Look elsewhere in the archives if you really must get that info – or just
use your imagination and move on.
I’ll get to that part of the update
shortly; but let’s cover the earlier news first.
Tai Chi by the river was the only quiet
time I’ve had between then and now.
Breakfast was busy with all of the work and running around on both sides
of the meal; and then I was off to work – in the back yard. With everything else we have on the go this
weekend; yard work on Saturday isn’t an option.
I mowed the lawn and weeded the gardens in near-record time while Dawn
and Jillian worked with their four junior helpers to do some of the lighter
chores – like sweeping the porches and cleaning the windows and doors. They did not get that work done in record
time; but they did have a lot of fun playing together while still actually
getting most of that work finished by lunchtime too.
My lunch break was more of an eat-and-run
deal; and then I was on the go again – and spending the afternoon helping
Rebecca and Michael with work around their house and yard to get ready for their
weekend guests. While Jacob and Miranda
had a lot of that work done on Monday and Tuesday; we still had a long list of
chores to do that kept us busy through until Rebecca and Michael needed to get back
to the Inn and help with the dinner rush.
While I was busy with that work, Dawn and Jillian spent the afternoon
hanging out with some of their friends; Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden were
dropped off at KidZone for a few hours; and Mom did her normal Friday shopping
a day early because she’ll be busy tomorrow too.
When I was finished at Michael’s house, I
had time to come home, grab a shower, and get changed before heading over to
the Ayres’ house. I’d expected to be put
to work in the kitchen; but Dawn, Jillian, and I were instead put on
kid-control duty. We took Ethan, Ehlana,
Naomi, Aiden, Leah, Eli, and Zack to the park for some playground action;
followed that up with more fun and games in the back yard; and then dealt with
getting them fed when we eventually sat down for dinner around the tables in
the back yard. There were more kids and
teens there by then, including Rowen and Tim; so that was a fairly wild hour or
so of busy – especially since some of the kids were a bit too fired up and they
were bouncing off the walls.
That’s quite a feat at an outdoor event!
;^)
The dinner party had been a surprise for
Liz and Philip, and they had fun; but I didn’t even talk to them much while I
was there and busy with the kids. Since
Eli and Zack were two of the most-tightly wound kids; I’m sure they appreciated
what I was doing more than they missed getting to spend any time with me. While their anniversary was the big family
event of the day, the bigger story was actually that their party would be the
last big event that Liz’s parents would host in the family home. It’ll officially be Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s
home by sometime next week; and there’s also a very good chance that the dinner
tonight will be the last big family and friends party that Grandma and Grandpa
Ayres will host. As with Uncle Adam and
Aunt Leanne; it’ll be Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah’s job now.
Moving this along, my day was not nearly
over after dinner. I was set free from
kid control duty, but helped with the clean-up before moving on to the
Inn. Jacob and Miranda hosted a late
dinner party for Jake, Stephanie, their wedding party, and the grandparents and
parents of the bride and groom. That
party didn’t start until the Inn was closed for the night, and while I wasn’t
expected to help out with anything; I was early-enough to help with closing the
Inn and getting the mini-buffet set up and ready by the time all of the guests
arrived.
The only real difference between that
dinner and the wedding party party last night was that the parents and
grandparents were in charge of the roast for Jake and Stephanie. They kept all of us entertained for an hour
and a half; Michael, Rebecca, Lucas, and I took care of the post-dinner
clean-up while everyone else headed for home; and then Michael walked me home
while Lucas went home with Rebecca – and he’s spending the next two or three
nights there. I’d have liked to keep
Michael with me tonight too, but he’s going to be working the breakfast shift
at the Inn; and we’re both going to have a very long, too-busy day that would
just be harder to get through on no sleep.
I really need to get to that down time now,
but before I do that; there are a few bits of news I need to include.
First up, it’s quieter here tonight because
Naomi and Aiden have both returned to their homes. Aiden stayed every night that Naomi was here,
and his parents were okay with that; but didn’t give him the option of another
sleepover tonight – even though Mom and Dad wouldn’t have had a problem if he
had stayed another night. If Liz and
Philip were offered another kid-free night, I didn’t hear about it; but then I
didn’t get to do a nightly recap with Mom or Dad because they were already in
bed by the time I got home.
I’m not going to be able to spend much time
with Dawn and Jillian for the rest of their visit here, and neither will Violet
and Dillon; so I hope they’ll manage to have fun without me. The weather is forecast to be great; so they
will at least be able to do whatever they want to do outdoors while I’m busy
with all of the wedding action. Their
two weeks here has seemed to blast by, and I’m going to miss them when they
head back to Woodvale; but this will also be one time that I’m going to be
ready for a break in the action after weeks of too busy.
Rowen and I both ended up missing our
baseball practice tonight, and I wish that I could have been there for it; but
I could say that about everything else I missed out on tonight too. I also missed Michael and Tim’s football
workout again this morning while doing the yard work. That’ll be the last one for the week, and
while Tim had a better turnout today; there still aren’t nearly as many guys
joining in as he’d hoped there would be.
We’ll see if that gets better the closer they get to the start of the
official training camp with Coach Robinson.
Okay, I was going to take a look ahead to
the plans for tomorrow, since I’m thinking about them anyway, but you can flip
a digital page to get that info anyway, and I really need all of the sleep I
can get; so let’s just skip that and I’ll call it a night now.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
