We’ve done our very best to get our summer
holidays off to a great start today; and did that by heading out to Quarry Lake
for a play day – and to finally get around to checking out the new activities –
particularly the new biking trails!
That was a decision that we made at
breakfast this morning; with the ‘we’ being Michael, Ethan, Ehlana, and
me. Naomi and Aiden were soon signed up
for the trip too; Rowen and Tim eventually came out to play with us too; and
there were other teens and kids out there from town today too – including the
gang that Rowen brought with her when she caught up with us by mid-afternoon –
while she was waiting for Tim to finish work and drive out to the campground
too.
I’ve gotten ahead of the story, but our early
wake-up call to see Dad off on his way to the city; then nap and Tai Chi that
followed for those of us still at home; and the work we did to get ready to
head out to Quarry Lake this morning wasn’t newsworthy. Michael had to do some chores around home
first before he was set free for the day too; so I led the charge for rounding
up the gear and a picnic for our day trip; and then picked him up on the way
out of town. We added Sophia to our gang
too, but Ryan had other plans; and Jessica came out to the lake with Rowen,
Patrick, and their little gang.
We arrived by eleven-thirty; went for a
swim first; and then we rented bikes and hit the trails. Yes, we’ll likely take our own bikes out most
times when we want to ride the trails there, but this was a special occasion;
and we didn’t want to haul all of our bikes back and forth today along with
everything else – especially when we also didn’t have Dad’s truck to put them
in.
Moving along, we biked the trails for an
hour; went for another swim; and had our picnic lunch. Rowen met up with us shortly after we
finished cleaning up from lunch; we did the rock wall and zip line; and then
went for another swim before doing more biking – this time with a bigger
gang. Tim caught up with us in time to
join in on the biking; we did another round of rock wall and zip line fun; and
then played in the water after that again until picking up food for dinner at
the campground. We stayed and played
until eight; brought our gang of kids and teens back to town once we had them
tired out; and dropped them off with their parents – or brought them home with
us as needed.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had four junior
movie watching buddies with us in the lounge after we finished doing all of the
post-day-trip work; Ethan and Ehlana kept Naomi and Aiden overnight; and we
watched one movie before Rowen and Tim headed out because they’re both working
in the morning. Michael stayed for a
while longer, but only because we took care of getting the four kids into their
beds for the night and then had a chat with Mom in the office before he went
home and I got to work.
Mom and I used a time phase until she was
finished her work for the night; I came up to my room and multi-tasked my work
with some Jacuzzi time; and then I did my ‘real time’ work after getting into
bed with Mandy for the night. I only had
about an hour of work that couldn’t be done in a time phase; so I’ll manage to
be sleeping before one-thirty if I wrap this up now and get on with the nap
part of my day.
I haven’t written about it here, but I’ll
need all the rest I can get because we’ll be heading to Crystal Springs in the
morning for the annual summer shopping trip; and Michael and I will have a gang
of kids to take care of this year as two of the junior chaperones. We’re doing the trip early this year because
we have other plans for the end of the week that might have something to do
with the fun we have planned for Ethan’s and Ehlana’s sixth birthday.
You can flip digital pages in my future to
read all about the shopping trip and upcoming birthday fun, though, and I
really do need the down time to be ready for a full day of shopping, so I’m out
of here – digitally speaking; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
