Ethan:
My twin is away for the next five days with
Cassie, Michael, and Naomi, but Mandy’s staying here now for most of the
summer; and Brianna is here for the night and ‘kitty-sitting’ in Ehlana’s room;
so I’ve managed to stay busy and entertained since they left for Cassie’s
townhouse. I’ll leave the bonus travel
adventure for Ehlana to cover; and move on to the rest of the news since our
last report.
The barbeque birthday dinner last night was
a blast – and scary for some of the girls and adults; thanks to the food games
that Miles and Zack instigated. Ehlana
and I had some gifts to open; we had the cake and ice cream dessert; and then
we played for a while until it was near-dusk and time for the campfire. The games included Volleyball, Frisbee,
Croquet, and water games in the river; so there was non-stop action going on
around the back yard until pretty much everyone was ready to wind down once Dad
got the camp fire started. Music, scary
or funny stories, and toasted treats helped to keep the family and friends fun
going; though some of the parents and older teens had to multi-task their
entertainment with some work – especially once the youngest kids started
falling asleep by ten-thirty.
Mom and Dad ordered the campfire rap-up by
midnight. Miles, Zack, and some of the
other guys weren’t ready to just get in their tents and go to sleep yet, but
Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim supervised us and kept the weird to a
minimum. Cassie did some studying while
waiting for all of the kids to sleep, but then she’s been multi-tasking her
weekend assignments and prep work for her mid-terms next week; so most of us
are just amazed that she’s managed to play with us as much as she has this
weekend. Aiden and I weren’t among the
first sleeping campers, but we didn’t get involved in the late-night games; and
got more sleep than about half of the other guys.
Our weekend adventures resumed this morning
with a large gang for Tai Chi by the river.
Breakfast for a huge gang of kids, teens, and adults was a wild blast of
fun; and getting ready for church was an adventure too with limited washrooms
and a lot of people needing to get ready for the service and Sunday
school. I will leave Ehlana’s trip story
to her, but that news and adventure approval did affect my day by lunchtime
too; since Cassie and Ehlana had extra work to do to get ready for the extra
passengers and guests. Cassie also
studied in the office with Dad while he did his homework for an hour and a half
or so; and then Cassie and Michael did a canoe ride with Ehlana, Naomi, Aiden,
and me before it was time for them to finish packing and loading Cassie’s
car. Aiden and I did some biking and
swimming when the girls were busy; and then Mom had one more surprise for us
when she decided not to cook again; and took us to the Inn for the early buffet
instead.
That last blast of food fun with Cassie and
Michael had to be shared because they spent some time in the kitchen with his
family too; and then the decision to have Brianna stay at our house tonight and
take care of Mandy was made to help her out after Zack and Eli kept trying to
hide her in Cassie’s car while we were saying goodbye to her – and Michael,
Ehlana, and Naomi. Zack and Eli couldn’t
razz me about having Brianna stay here with me because they had just been
trying to get rid of her, but Mom’s glad to have Brianna staying the night too –
especially after saying goodbye to her girls for the next five days. I will not be surprised if Brianna spends
more than one night here – and possibly more time during the days this week
than normal.
Once we finished saying goodbye to my
sisters, Michael, and Naomi; we split up while Mom went home with Brianna so
that she could get an overnight bag. I
helped out at home with getting ready for our guest; and then Brianna and I had
some play time at the park and a canoe ride there and back with Mom while Dad
finished his homework. Brianna, Mandy,
Silkie, and I watched a movie in the lounge after that; Brianna fell asleep before
the end of it; and Mom and Dad took care of getting her tucked into Ehlana’s
bed with Mandy for the night while I took Silkie out for a quick bedtime walk.
Ehlana and Naomi are still in-transit to
the townhouse, but I’ve had enough fun for today; so I’m going to get some
sleep. Stay tuned – this could end up
being a very different sort of week for me without Ehlana here; and I’m sure
that she and Naomi will have an amazing week with Cassie and Michael too.
Ethan – out!
***
Ehlana:
Naomi and I are having our bedtime girl
chat as I write this. We were left on our
own when Cassie and Michael headed up to bed because she needs to sleep ahead
of her first day of mid-term exams, but we haven’t stayed up to party all night
– especially since we’ve had a very busy weekend. Instead of doing that, we grabbed quick showers;
and it isn’t much past-midnight now – which seems strange since we didn’t get
here until about eleven o’clock.
Unloading the car, putting our bags and other things away, and having a
bedtime drink and snack didn’t take long – and Cassie hit her goal of being in
bed by eleven-thirty.
I have news to report from the rest of the
weekend too, but before I go there; let’s cover the rest of the story for this
trip and adventure in the city. Michael
offered to do trips here with Ethan, Aiden, Naomi, and I – in pairs; and Naomi
and I were picked first because we’d talked about hiding in Cassie’s car with
Brianna. We’re also going to be here for
five days; while the other available time was only for three days due to
Michael’s schedule; so we get the extra time too. I’m sure that Ethan didn’t mention the jokes
about Naomi going with him instead of me because he left this part of the
update to me, but I got teased about going with Aiden instead too; so the four
of us had to deal with those jokes.
Naomi’s parents still needed to approve her participation this morning,
but we had that by the time we were done at church and Sunday school; and it’s
been a bit of a whirlwind since then while we tried to mix more play time with
getting ready for five days away from home.
I’ll also cover the travel part of our day,
since there was extra fun for Naomi and me thanks to Cassie’s need to use her
Magi talents while Michael drove and she worked on her assignments. She needed to use her wards while doing that,
so Naomi and I could talk telepathically; use our Magi talents on my iPad; and
have other Magi-powered fun for a lot of the trip time. Cassie and Michael wouldn’t let us make the
car fly or even try running it without the engine the way Cassie and Tim did on
one of their trips home with Tim’s Corvette, but that was still awesome; and
Naomi learned a lot about Magi-powered computing and studyi9ng from
Cassie. It was also a great way to start
our ‘holiday’ adventure!
Okay, that’s all for now for the travel
news. Let’s back up to yesterday; and I’ll
do a quick blast through of the rest of the news from the weekend.
I loved the birthday Tai Chi, breakfast,
and gifts a lot – especially since we got to have that fun without a major gang
around. Naomi met up with me in time to
go and watch Ethan and Aiden’s game, and while we hope for the best for them;
they really don’t have a very good team this year. That’s at least partially done on purpose,
since the baseball wouldn’t be very much fun for any of the kids if all of the
best players were stacked on one team, but I find it harder to watch Ethan play
‘normal’ and lose games than when that happens to Naomi and me instead. The Brontos lost again, but that was easier
today – at least for the team mates that were also going to our party at Quarry
Lake. The Emporium ice cream treats
helped too; and then Ethan and I mostly had fun in the back yard while we
waited for our friends to all arrive and until the vehicles were loaded with
the picnic and day-camp supplies that we’d need while at Quarry Lake.
The family and friends we were with all day
is what matters more than the ‘what’ we did at Quarry Lake or home, but I’ll
add that my favorite parts of the Quarry Lake adventure included playing in the
new lazy river; the rock wall and zip line, and the water slides and water play
time in the lake. The picnic was awesome
too; though I could live without the food games from the usual group of guys
that, apparently, reminded some of the older teens of the ‘bad’ Gremlins from
the old movies. We had another round of
scary food fun at dinner, but lots of fun with the swimming, canoe trips, and
back yard games before and after that last meal of the day. I loved the campfire too; Naomi and I were
among the girls that the boys tried to scare once we moved into our tents for
the night after getting ready for bed; and then we went to sleep once we could
do that and not worry about being scared awake again.
While I loved Tai Chi that was just with our
family yesterday; it’s fun to have a gang now and then too; and even Zack’s
antics while showing off for his buddies was entertaining. Breakfast for a major gang was crazy; and
then I also had to share my room and bathroom with most of the girls while we
took turns getting ready for church and Sunday school. The biggest news for that is likely the
simple fact that we managed to get that many girls ready to go out in such a
short time with limited bathroom space, but we had fun; and then it was great to
be able to sit down and relax for a while.
The quieter fun during the service and Sunday school was still exciting –
especially for Naomi and me as our parents worked out the travel plans and
approvals for us. We’ve covered pretty
much everything else, though I should add that we also had some work to do
today for the camp clean-up before lunch.
There was a lot of help for that; so it didn’t take very long; and then
most of us got back to having fun. Naomi
and I split up for some of the time while getting ready for our trip, but that
was mostly so that she could have a bit of time with her parents before being
away for the week.
I think that covers pretty much all of the
news from the weekend, so I’ll just add that I am so glad that we could do this
trip tonight without a booster seat; Naomi and I are going to have an awesome
week in the city with Cassie and Michael; and now we’re nearly ready to get
some sleep so that we’ll be ready for all of those adventures.
This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live
from what is now my past!
