Our campfire wrapped up at a bit after one
o’clock. We – the teens and kids still
standing – went for a moonlight swim after that; and then we got ready for bed
and headed for our sleeping bags by two-ish.
Add in the girl chat time after that with Jaimie and Kaitlyn for me; and
the three of us did not get much sleep last night before I was up and going
again – starting with Tai Chi by the river with all of my favorite exercise
buddies.
From there we had a couple of hours or so
of crazy-busy as we took turns getting ready for our play day at the park; had
breakfast; and cleaned up both the campground and the kitchen and dining rooms
before heading to the park for the church service. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I all needed to be
there early, and Michael had to grab his guitar on the way past his house; so
we had even less time than everyone else in our family for all of that work and
fun. I always love the church services
in the park, and we had a beautiful summer morning for that today. The music, skits, and random bits of fun that
go along with having kids and teens lead a service was all really special; and
we had a huge turnout too with a lot of area campers coming into town early
instead of waiting for the Labor Day festivities to start at noon.
I’m skipping over some of the work that
went on with my family for the charity food booths, but that’s partly because I
wasn’t in on that work at all; and also because we did a bit less on the
cooking front this year and more straight-up donations that didn’t require
cooking. Grandma’s locally famous potato
salad was one exception to that; but the salad was made up yesterday and just
needed to be hauled to the park along with the rest of the donations. The top highlight for the church service for
me was the duet that Michael and I did together. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re trying to
space those out so that we don’t hog the spotlight for every teen service even
though we get asked to sing together a lot; and we both like that it feels more
special because it isn’t something we do every Sunday. I’ll also modestly admit that we were a hit;
but that isn’t what the music is about; so let’s not make a big deal about
that. What was cool was having around
two thousand people at our service and enjoying our delivery of a fairly upbeat
message through our music and skits.
After that high-energy hour and change of
fun, Michael and I were busy with packing up from the service; we had to hurry
on to help out with getting the kids in our family fed or at least with food in
hand by game time; and then we were at the ball diamond for the co-ed
championship game by noon. Today,
Miranda and I were co-leaders for our cheer squad because the Inn didn’t have a
team in the game. We had a very large
squad of cheerleaders and junior cheerleaders; with Brianna being the youngest
and a few grandmothers that were young at heart – though they were all only
part-time members of the squad because it was hot out by then and they needed
frequent breaks or naps.
Our Eagles were up against the Hawks, and
while I’d like to have our cheerleading squad take some credit for the outcome
of the game; we really can’t do that. We
can take credit for bringing up the fun level for the game, and Miranda, Aunt
Leanne, and I had a blast with our squad, family, friends, and neighbors; but
the Eagles didn’t need any help today.
Mom, Dad, and the rest of their team mates were on a roll right from the
first pitch. They were the home team, so
the Hawks batted first – and their half of the inning was a three-up,
three-down display of great fielding that only took seven minutes to wrap
up. Instead of writing up an
inning-by-inning play-by-play though, I’ll just add that the final score was
fourteen-to-three; and it would have been a lot more lopsided if our team hadn’t
let up and helped to wrap up the game in under two hours.
With the temperature soaring, the
spectators – and their cheerleaders – were happy about that; and we all had
more time to play for the rest of the afternoon and evening. For Michael and I, that play time started out
with some kid control play action while the parents were busy going home and
getting cleaned up after the game. We
went for a swim; had an ice cream break; and caught part of a stage show for
kids while having our frozen treats and waiting to get back together with our
parents. We played games at the charity
booths after that for a while, and then Michael and I were set free for some
teen time with our friends. We eventually
met up with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, and some of the other football players
and their girlfriends; and it wasn’t a surprise to me that Tim had wanted to
hang out with those guys and talk sports – especially now that opening week for
college football was now over and they had a lot to talk about – including Kyle’s
first game of the season.
I haven’t written about those games at all –
and don’t plan on starting now! ;^)
Okay, one comment on that. Kyle’s team won their season opener; and his
family is very proud of him.
Moving along, we played for the rest of the
afternoon; met up with our families for dinner; and that hour or so of action
was as crazy and fun as always. Michael
and I were on park clean-up duty for an hour after that; and then we went to
the dance with nearly everyone else in the park. Sure, the game booths were still open, and
lots of people wandered over there to try their hand at winning the prizes, but
the music reached every corner of the park; and it was as easy to dance by those
booths as on the dance floor. Make that
easier whenever the dance area was filled beyond capacity. Michael and I danced a lot; had the usual
cut-ins from Ethan, Ehlana, and some other family comedians; and had a really
awesome evening with our families and friends.
It was a perfect, hot summer night for the
dance; nobody was in any hurry for the party to end; and the fun went on until
nearly twelve-thirty before the band finally wrapped up for the night and
everyone began either helping with the tear-down work or joined the exodus out
of the park. I guess you could say that
Michael and I did both, and including getting all of our day camp gear packed
up, carried home, and then put away; it took until nearly two o’clock to get
everything done. That didn’t keep
Michael and I from going for a swim before bedtime or having a cuddle session
out on one of the riverside benches; but we also didn’t drag that out too long
because he’s working the breakfast buffet at the Inn – and will be there off
and on all day while I’ll get to spend the morning with my family before going
to help out at the Inn too – after we have our family lunch buffet there at the
noon sitting.
Working at the Inn for the rest of the day
is going to be tough, and I want to be ready for the morning shopping too; so
let’s wrap this up so that I can get started on my nap time. It was three o’clock by the time I was in
bed. We don’t have any overnight guests
here because Aunt Grace wanted Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden at her house –
mostly to have breakfast with them; since they wouldn’t have stayed up for long
after getting home tonight. I did my
usual computer checks; had some family business work to deal with that couldn’t
wait until tomorrow night or Tuesday; and I time phased that so I wouldn’t just
still be awake at sunrise when it’ll be time to get up and going again. That has all added up to too much fun and
work for one day, though, and I’m past-ready to crash now; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
