Happy 4th of July, everyone!
Happy Un-Independence Day, Mom!
We had a cooler start to the day, but the
weather has also been beautiful and nearly-perfect for a holiday. I’m also fairly sure that some fireworks were
going off first thing this morning while Michael and I were busy sharing our
good morning hug and kisses before Tai Chi by the river – even though my
parents, brother, and sister didn’t hear or see a thing; and insisted that
didn’t happen. That did give Michael and
I the excuse to test that assertion out during the fireworks show in the park,
and while I’ll concede that it was louder and brighter tonight, it was also
dark out; and the kisses felt about the same to me.
That’s gotten off-topic, so let’s get on
with the holiday report.
Tai Chi was followed by an even busier
breakfast and morning rush than we had yesterday. I was not on the cooking crew because Mom and
Dad told me to go and get ready for the day first. I was finished doing that in time to help out
a bit before we all sat down to eat, and while the meal was a blast of fun; it
was time to get to work after that. The
kitchen was clean by the time I needed to head for the school. Rowen collected me on her way there; we met
up with Michael; and the three of us walked to the school. We had picked playing with the school band
this year; and we were among the first members of our group to get to the
school. The trailer was already set up
for us; so we got our instruments out of the cases and tuned up while waiting
for the rest of the band.
Tim stopped by for hugs and kisses from
Rowen, but he only stayed for a few minutes to talk with us before moving
on. He was helping his Dad out again
this year; and then went along with Kyle while his cousin drove one of the company
trucks pulling a float trailer. That
wasn’t as exciting for him as playing in the band was for us; but I expect that
he’ll hope to be one of the drivers next year – even though he’d still need a
co-pilot to do that while still having the learner’s permit that he’ll be able
to get in August.
I missed out on all of the pre-parade
action at home, but that work was going on while I was warming up with the band
and waiting for the parade to start; so I’ll add that bit of news in here. Mom and Dad kept the oven loaded with food
that they were warming up; salads and other donations were loaded into the
truck along with coolers, chairs, and the rest of the usual day camp gear that
we need for these family adventures at the park. A delegation of teens and adults were put in
charge of keeping the kids entertained while the work was getting done, and
when it was time to stake out a spot to watch the parade from; Violet, Dillon,
Jake, Stephanie, Christina, Josiah, and Dawn were put in charge of doing that
with all of the kids from our collective families – including the Bassett kids.
Trust me – playing in the band was way, way
easier!
Maybe that’s why so many of the adult
volunteers come back for more every year; though that has me wondering why Aunt
Leanne isn’t doing something in the parade every year too considering how often
she tells Mom and Dad that they pick responsibility over fun. I’m not suggesting that she should have been
in the parade this year, but then I did also hear her own jokes about being
mistaken for a blimp if she had been.
She did have fun today, and wasn’t allowed to do any work anyway; but it
was also a very long day for her too.
While Aunt Leanne also had lots of jokes and comments about her size,
pregnancy, and things she could have done at the parade and park celebration to
speed up going into labor; I’m also sure that she’s glad that she didn’t have
an Independence Day baby.
Then again, if my prenatal cousin was
thinking about making an appearance tonight; I wouldn’t be surprised to find
out that the noises of everything from the fire trucks in the parade to the
fireworks tonight were enough to have her choosing to wait a bit longer. ;^)
Getting back to the holiday adventure
stories, after warming up; Michael, Rowen, and I had lots of time to just hang
out and talk with our friends and band mates while waiting for our turn to head
out onto the parade route. We were the
last musical act this year, and while I’d have rather gotten going sooner; we
were at least in a decent spot to watch the parade as it rolled out of the
school grounds. One thing that is
different about being in the band compared to the teen praise team is that we
couldn’t interact with the crowd as much while concentrating on the music and
our conductor, but getting to do that with Michael was great; and I did still
get to see everything going on around us – even if I couldn’t acknowledge that
I did most of the time. I also preferred
getting to play music for my favorite people as we passed them way better than
if we’d been able to interact more with any of them had we passed them during
one of our micro breaks between songs.
The parade route only changes a little bit
from year to year, and the time to complete it is always very close to the same
too; so the only difference for us this year was that we were at the end of the
parade and had to pack up while the crowds were heading into the park and
getting started on the fun there while we were busy working for a while. Michael, Rowen, and I stayed and helped out
with packing up all of the gear from the trailer; and then Michael volunteered
to help out with the work at the school to get everything back to the music
room while Rowen and I headed home to get changed and meet up with any members
of our family that weren’t already at the park by then. I dropped of Michael’s saxophone at his house
too on my way home; and then eventually met up with him at his house once I was
ready to go back to the park and play.
We needed to hurry by then to get to the
park in time for the co-ed baseball game at noon, so while we’d had the house
to ourselves by then; we unfortunately didn’t have time to take advantage of
the opportunity. Our families had us
covered on the lunch food front, but I literally had to join my cheerleading
squad and get to work as soon as we arrived at the ball diamond closest to the
park entrance. I should clarify that
comment, since this year; Miranda and I were co-captains of our squad. She cheered for Mom and Dad’s team this year
because she didn’t have a team in the game – and because cheering with me and
the rest of the girls on our squad was more fun than just being a
spectator. Our squad included all of the
younger girl cousins in our collective families – including Uncle Mark’s
nieces. Violet, Christina, Stephanie,
Rebecca, and some of the Moms helped out too; and we had a blast cheering our
team on to victory.
Our Eagles were up against the Hawks, and
the teams were probably fairly evenly matched – except for at the cheerleader
positions. That wasn’t even close, and I’d
like to humbly report that Miranda and I are really good at motivating our
squad – and baseball team too. We didn’t
try to ‘steal’ the Hawks’ supporters this year; but we did send our junior
cheerleaders out along both sidelines and pretty much had everyone watching the
game cheering for the Eagles and jeering the Hawks. Our team had the ‘Home’ advantage, and while
the Hawks opened up a small lead in the top of the first inning that took our
team a few at bats to overcome before taking the lead; the game wasn’t all that
close after that. Even the
seventeen-to-eleven score was a bit misleading because the Hawks scored three
runs in the top of the final inning before the Eagles earned the third out to
end the game and minor attempt at a late rally from a nine-run deficit.
When I was envisioning my Fourth of July in
my thoughts and dreams last night, I wasn’t considering that we had two
baseball games to watch today – and didn’t have any time at all to play between
the matches. In this case, the ‘we’ didn’t
include all of the members of my family; but Miranda, Rowen, and I were there
for Michael, Tim, and their team even while we lost most of our junior
cheerleaders for that second game while they went off to play with our families
and friends. There were a few cameo
visits, and we had some new cheerleaders join the squad; but there was a much
smaller crowd of spectators for that game too.
Having more teens and Moms on the squad – including Tim’s Mom – made that
little adventure fun in a different way to the first game; but then that’s
probably why we didn’t just get bored after cheering for so many hours straight
without many breaks.
Having a lot to cheer about was good too;
and Michael and Tim in particular were fired up and happy to help us out with
that – even if Tim was totally weirded out to have both his girlfriend and Mom
on the cheerleading squad together.
I wonder why he doesn’t seem to have that
same problem when it’s Michael’s Mom and me cheering together. There’s probably a logical, simple
explanation for that inconsistency.
The Arrows were playing the Catapults, and
this time; the away team took the early lead and never looked back. I’m sure that the cheering helped out with
motivating my favorite players on the Arrows’ team; but we can’t take credit for
what was pretty much a blow-out, eighteen-to-six win. As I implied, Michael and Tim were
responsible for that; and either scored or batted in twelve of those eighteen
runs between them – including the runs that Michael scored off of Tim’s
hits. Michael couldn’t return the favor;
but only because of the batting order.
Speaking of that, some people might think that Martin gave Tim the
better batting slot on the team strictly because of the father-son thing; but
he does actually do that the way it should be done. Michael has the better batting average; and
Tim is more of a power hitter with more doubles and triples to go along with
more outs. I won’t get into the fact
that they both need to hold back and not show off all of their abilities, but
then if they did; games would need to end with the mercy rule every time – just
as they would if Mom and Dad, or any other Magi in town, played their best.
Then again, it might be very cool to have
an all-Magi match to see what would happen!
No, that isn’t going to happen; but it would be a blast if it did!
Moving along, the baseball action ended up
filling up my entire afternoon, and while I was seriously ready for a break and
some play time; Michael and I had to go and help out with dinner and kid
control after the game. He got to go
home first, grab a shower, and get changed; but he did that fairly quickly and managed
to be back in time to join me in the long food booth line I’d been in – and then
he helped with hauling all of the food to our day camp site. We had parental and grandparent support for
getting the kids set up with plates of food and drinks; but then we were in
full kid-immersion while we ate and my brother, sister, cousins, and some
friends needed to tell us all about their games and playground adventures while
we’d been busy with baseball game number two.
There was other teen support during the
meal, including from Rebecca and Lucas; but Michael and I had the biggest group
of kids around us – mostly because Ethan and Ehlana really wanted to spend that
time with us; and more than half of our cousins were with them, Naomi, and
Aiden. Hanging out with the kids meant missing
out on most of the adult chat time, but we did hear about a bit of the news
from that side of the family. For me,
some of those highlights weren’t actually play and fun-related. Finding out that Aunt Leanne was sent home
for an afternoon nap was entertaining because it was her Mommy and Doctor
giving her those orders, and while she was the only Mom that wasn’t given a
choice for that; there were a few other Moms and Grandmothers that went to have
naps too – along with a few of my youngest cousins. I won’t go into the post-baseball stories
involving parents, aunts, and uncles that involved going home to get cleaned up
and changed – or why it took them so long to do that; but I’m sure you can use
your imagination on that.
Just don’t ever tell me about that if you
do – please!
It took a while to finish our meal, but
then Michael and I were left on kid control duty instead of moving to the
clean-up crew. That wasn’t all good
because we were instructed to take our group of kids for ice cream cones; and
to make sure that they were clean when returned to their parents or
grandparents when we were finished that little task. Since our group ranged in age from about one
and a half to eight, you can imagine the potential for mess; but Michael and I
managed to deal with it – even if not all of the adults were impressed with our
solution to several extreme ice cream messes.
That’s right – we dunked the kids in the
river to clean them up. We were told to
return them clean. Nobody said anything
about whether they had to be dry or not too!
While we had a lot of fun with all of that,
the dance was starting by the time Michael and I were set free; and we headed
for the stage and dance floor to meet up with Rowen, Tim, and a bunch of our
friends that again included Rebecca and Lucas – and Jenny and Joel. The change in action was almost shocking with
that move from kid to teen fun and entertainment; though we didn’t completely
escape interaction with the kids in our families. We did really enjoy the dance, play, and chat
time with our friends, though; and the cameo moments with the kids and adults
in our families was all good too – if a bit of an overload of action. I won’t try to write about everything, but
here are some of my personal highlights.
Dancing with Michael; hugging and kissing
Michael; and cuddling with Michael while we talked with our friends at one of
the picnic tables that bordered the ‘dance floor’ area topped my list. Having Ethan and Ehlana cut in on us once was
cute; and so was Michael’s dance with Ehlana while I danced with Ethan – until Naomi
cut in on us and danced off with my brother while leaving me temporarily
stranded on the dance floor. Other cameo
moments that I loved getting to see included Aunt Leanne dancing with Uncle
Adam and Zack; a dance that I had with Dad; and watching the dance that Mom had
with Ethan while we did that – right up until Naomi cut in on them and danced
off with my brother again.
I sense a pattern there – especially since
that happened to Ethan with the only other dance he had with any girl other
than Naomi – and that only happened because Aunt Leanne decided to try messing
with Naomi by asking Ethan to dance with her.
The fireworks were scheduled for eleven o’clock,
so other than taking a short break from the dance to go and play a couple of
games at the booths; Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I didn’t really get a chance to
play the games at all this year. Since
we’d also missed out on all of the afternoon stage shows while we’d been busy
with baseball; it felt as though we missed out on half of the fun today – even while
we were getting tired out by then from all of the busy. While hanging out with our friends for the
fireworks had been an option, Michael and I chose to meet up with our parents,
Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden, and the rest of the gang that met up at our day
camp spot to watch the show. We would
have had fun either way; but I especially love sharing that part of the day
with Mom, Dad, and the twins; so I hope that we at least rotate doing that with
them every other year or so for as long as we can do that.
BMR Labs was one of the sponsors of the
fireworks show now, and the display has expanded a bit since they started
helping out with the costs; but that’s mostly in quality and quantity more than
the length of the show. It is amazing,
though; and I doubt that anyone left the park early – even when that meant
getting stuck in the minor traffic jam that came with getting out of the park
after the fireworks were finished.
I’ve already mentioned that Michael and I
spent some time sharing kisses during the fireworks show. We weren’t the only couple in our family
doing that; though I don’t think that we really need to add any details there –
especially since our parents were two of those other couples. Technically, so was Ethan and Naomi; but her
kiss for him was on the cheek; and it was the cuddling together for the entire
show that was most-adorable for them. I’ve
occasionally wondered if it would have been like that for Michael and I if we’d
known each other since birth, and I guess that’s possible; but I can’t quite
picture it – even though Naomi is definitely a lot like me on the fired up and
outgoing scale. While I might not be
able to picture being a couple with Michael when we were four; I can definitely
see Naomi getting teased for hugging boys.
Oh wait – she got teased for doing that
tonight! ;^)
The fireworks display was non-stop action
in the skies above us while also being a wind down time for everyone, but once
it ended; it was time to kick it up into high gear again as we packed up our
day camp; rounded up the kids; and hauled everything home. We didn’t have any vehicles to do that with,
so most of the older kids, teens, and adults were loaded up with gear; so were
all of the strollers; and the half-dozen youngest kids were sleeping and being
carried or in strollers too by the time we started walking home. Michael helped out with our things, but only
because his parents had enough help from Rebecca, Lucas, Jake, and
Stephanie. He came home with us; helped
with the work getting everything put away; and then we took care of getting
Ethan, Jayden, and Ehlana off to bed for the night before saying goodnight to
everyone else and going outside to sit by the river for a while with cold
drinks and a snack.
That meant leaving Dawn, Jaimie, and
Kaitlyn to fend for themselves, but we really wanted to end our holiday with a
bit of alone time; and my cousins probably drew straws for using my Jacuzzi
while I was busy. They also each at
least took one turn watching us from the window alcoves in my room and the
lounge; but didn’t attempt any interruptions.
They probably had some girl chat time with Violet that I missed out on
too; but I wouldn’t have traded the time with Michael for that – even if we
couldn’t enjoy any major make-out time with a house full of guests.
The quiet cuddle time on one of the benches
by the river was nice, though; and we had a fun little chat too while winding
down again after that post-party work action.
Going for a swim had been an option too, but I decided that I’d rather
keep my hair dry; and Michael wasn’t all that interested in swimming unless I
was going in too. We stayed out on that
bench for about an hour, and while I can’t report that everyone in the house
was sleeping by the time I came up to my room after sharing a long goodnight
hug and kisses with Michael; we don’t need the details on what was going on
with the members of my family that were still awake too. Yes, that plural includes more than two
people, and in multiples of two; but that’s all I’m going to include on that
subject – especially since some of the ‘kids’ that might not want the details
about that when it involves their parents will probably read my journals some
day in the future.
I know I don’t!
I didn’t have any bed buddies when I got up
to my room. Jaimie and Kaitlyn were
camping out in the lounge and Mandy wasn’t there because she was with Dawn
instead; so I just cleaned up; got ready for bed; and cuddled with my computer
and a stuffie before getting started on my nightly computer and email
checks. It was already heading toward
two o’clock by then, but there was some family business work that needed to be
dealt with; and that took more than an hour to get finished. I might have used a time phase for that work
if I didn’t have a house full of family to keep me from doing that, but even
though I was – and am – tired; I’m still feeling pretty good right now. We’ll see if I still feel that way by the end
of the night tomorrow, but the work couldn’t wait until Monday anyway; and I’m
glad that I got it done tonight even if it did mean losing some sleep over.
That does pretty much cover the main news
from today, though; so getting some sleep now is definitely in order. Tomorrow is going to be another crazy-busy
day with another big family breakfast; the church service in the park; the
lunch and afternoon family fun plans; and my own promise to help out with the
buffets at the Inn tomorrow too.
With all of that going on, I’m wondering
right now whether I could get away with a sofa sleepover with Michael tomorrow
night after we’re done at the Inn. That’s
definitely a cheery thought to head off to sleep with; so let’s just go ahead
and do that!
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
