Happy 16th Birthday, Elliott!
This report is coming to you from our tent
again, but we’re at Quarry Lake tonight; and I’m writing this while taking a
break from the late night fun with Michael and our friends – which is why I
need to do this as quickly as I can.
Staring from this morning, Tai Chi by the
river with bonus exercise buddies – but not with Michael – was really
great. I miss getting to do that more
often with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, but they don’t usually do their workout
at the same time that we do ours anymore thanks to the kids; so that isn’t
likely going to change until Zack and Brianna start exercising with them
too. The breakfast buffet surprise was
fairly awesome for the kids – including Zack and Brianna; while getting
everyone there was a crazy-busy rush of non-stop action. Miranda put on a mini breakfast buffet for
our gang and offered it to other breakfast customers too; but that really just
worked out better for Jacob and the kitchen staff because it was also a
kid-rated menu for that buffet with two types of pancakes, waffles, bacon, and
sausage – along with scrambled eggs for a bonus option for the adults. Michael couldn’t join us for that either
while he worked, but it might have been easier in the kitchen than keeping up
with kid control was for Rowen, Tim, Dawn, Jillian, and me.
That was an hour-long blast of more crazy
fun; and then it was time to get back to the campsite – and for some of us to
get the tents packed up and the little campground cleaned up while others took
care of kid control for a while. I then
needed to get ready for the day at home; pack for my day and camping night at
Quarry Lake; and get a ride out there to help out with the work going on there
for Elliott’s birthday. Violet gave me
the ride out there, but I was only out there a couple of hours ahead of my
family – and Michael came out with my family once he was finished work at the
Inn for the morning. Elliott’s parents
had other teen volunteers to help with the set-up for the tents and for his
party, but I only had a bit of help for setting up the three tents that I
brought with me.
By the way, I haven’t mentioned it before,
because I’ve never used it; but Quarry Lake has a couple of group campsites
that are only for tenting, and don’t have much in the way of services for the
spot except for two power outlets and one water tap; but are perfect for groups
to use for things like birthday parties or small group weekends. When they’re not actually booked by a group;
they’re used for tenting overflow when they run out of individual lots on
busier weekends.
I don’t really have time to get
side-tracked, and have a lot of news to cover; so let’s get back to the update.
While I was helping out with the party
set-up, my family was at home getting ready for their day at Quarry Lake. They were ready to come out here by shortly
after ten o’clock; came here with a caravan of cars, vans, and trucks; and then
needed a while to set up their day camp before being able to play for the
day. Michael joined me for the tail-end
of the party work, but while lunch was offered to us; we did that with my
family instead because Elliott’s party didn’t start until after lunch. That meal wasn’t memorable enough to write
about here; but we did have fun with everyone before heading out again to join
Elliott, Nora, and the rest of our friends as they started arriving for the
party.
We’re beyond playing a bunch of party games
these days, but Elliott’s parents had time slots set up for us for climbing the
rock wall and going for rides on the zip line; they’d rented a handful of bikes
for us to use on the trails; and we were free to do anything else at the park –
including hanging out around the small pavilion they’d also booked for the day
and toss Frisbees and footballs around.
While Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were together for most of the afternoon
and we had a blast; we also weren’t nearby for the top news event of the
afternoon – when my grandfather broke his arm falling on the rock wall.
Yes, the safety equipment worked just fine,
but he hit his arm against the wall hard-enough to break it; and then needed to
be lowered back down to the ground. The
news that most people won’t find out about is that Uncle Adam did most of the
healing for Grandpa’s arm back at the clinic – with part of that happening
before the x-rays were taken so that the break didn’t look like more than a
mild fracture; so the cast that Grandpa is apparently sporting now for the next
couple of weeks is really just for show.
Mom apparently also took care of dulling the pain before he left for the
clinic with Uncle Adam; but I didn’t hear about that until later – when I had a
chance to talk with Mom and Dad before they headed home for the day so that
they could get to the barbeque dinner they were hosting and their co-ed
ballgame.
I wasn’t thinking about baseball while
writing my update last night, but Michael and Tim had a ballgame tonight too;
and Michael had to miss it because I was being selfish and didn’t take the
shift at the Inn instead so that he could play ball instead. Okay, he’d have worked anyway because Miranda
was a bit short-staffed tonight; but I’m just joking about that anyway; since I’d
only agreed to work the buffet shift tomorrow while my cousins are here.
Michael did get a ride back to town in time
for helping out with the dinner prep work, though, and then Tim headed to town
in time for the game – along with some of the other guys on both teams. They collectively have a terrible group of
girlfriends because we all opted to stay and Quarry Lake and play while they
were busy with their game. Maybe that
had a lot to do with why it was also a short game thanks to what was apparently
a stellar pitching display from the Werewolves’ pitcher. He only gave up three hits and two runs; and
earned a lot of strike-outs and pop-fly outs to get a lot of three-batter
innings. Tim and his buddies had eight
runs, but he was motivated too; and earned five of those runs on two home runs;
so their batting-halves of each inning were fairly short too.
It’s amazing how motivated a group of teen
boys can be when they’re missing out on play time with their girlfriends in
swimsuits! ;^)
They didn’t exactly miss out on all fun and
no work at Quarry Lake because Elliott’s birthday barbeque had been early due
to the ballgames; so once they left for town; some of us had to volunteer to
help with the clean-up while others did go on to play or do other things – like
get their tents ready for tonight. Rowen
and I were among those volunteers; and then we went to play in the water for a
while to cool off before going for a climb and ride on the zip line without the
boys. We always have fun with them too,
but it was nice to do that for a change with just the two of us – having a
little competition on the climb; and then enjoying the thrill of the ride back
to earth.
The party at the pavilion wrapped up not
long after the dinner clean-up was finished; and party central moved over to
the campground after that. There was
minimal adult supervision for that because Quarry Lake required it; but even
the two ‘adult’ tents were segregated from the rest of us; and they had their
own little campfire for the night when they were lit at dusk. All of the guys except for Michael were back
by then, and Rowen and Tim had even gone for a late-evening bike ride before
the rentals needed to be returned and the new trails were closed to biking for
the night. Being on my own at first for
the campfire felt weird when most of the other teens were cuddling together
around the fire; but then that did give me a chance to take a turn on the guitar
to help with the music – and then not need to do extra playing later when I
could cuddle with Michael.
Rowen and I got the baseball update from
Tim when he got back, but I didn’t get the co-ed game news until Dawn and
Jillian came out here again with Michael once he was finished work – and that
co-ed game was finished. That game was
short too; but only because the Pub Pirates invoked the mercy rule after Mom,
Dad, and their team had a nineteen-to-four lead. The cousins’ cheerleading squad was given
credit for the big win; though there were jokes about the win being for Grandpa
too when he was there to support the family despite his broken arm. Dawn and Jillian also gave me the report from
the family dinner I missed, and Michael told us about his shift at the Inn; but
there wasn’t any major news from any of that to include here.
I’ve had a great night since Michael got
here; and cuddling with him has only been part of that fun. We took a turn playing and singing –
including a couple of duets that were good-enough to get a bunch of our friends
up and dancing to our songs; and we’ve had a blast – especially with Tim,
Rowen, Dawn, and Jillian. We also had a
cameo visit from Jenny and Evan, and while I haven’t mentioned them much in my
journals; Jenny does spend a lot of time out here at Quarry Lake – including some
overnight camping adventures – including the one she’s having tonight. While I’m sure they’re going to be in for a
newsworthy night that Rebecca and I will hear about tomorrow at work; that
story isn’t one that I’ll be including in my journal.
Trying not to think about that does remind
me that I have more fun to get back to; so let’s get this report wrapped up so
I can do that!
The campfire is being put out as I write
this; but we had fun with that until a bit after one o’clock. We’ve been hanging out around the tents and
doing things like going for walks around the campground since then; and this
little break has been so that we can take washroom breaks and get ready for bed
before meeting up for a bit of bonus teen fun that is mostly going to just be goofy
and not worth reporting in any detail here.
What I will mention, though, is that Rowen and I have every intention of
having a tent mate swap tonight – which is why I brought three tents. Dawn and Jillian will be more comfortable in
their own tent instead of packed in with Rowen and me – though they have teased
me about a tent mate swap too.
Michael and I won’t be the only teen
couples doing that tonight; and our chaperones are likely just looking the
other way – if they’re worried about it at all.
Since we’re way overdue for some alone time; I’m very happy to be
getting that cuddle time with Michael – and I’m sure that a bit of quiet,
quality make-out time will be part of the fun for us tonight – even if that
means we’ll only be having naps before we’ll need to start out morning at
sunrise.
That’ll be because we need to pack up our
campground as well as get ready for the day and back to town in time for
church. I’m sure that some of our gang
won’t make it to church tomorrow; but Michael and I have our orders – and a
ride coming to get us – and Dawn, Jillian, Tim, and Rowen. Being late won’t be an option.
Now I have one more good reason to wrap
this up, and don’t really have anything to add tonight anyway; so, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
