Ethan:
We’re having a quiet night here at home
while the visiting cousins are with their ‘official’ host families tonight
before heading home tomorrow. Our last
full day together – and the camping adventure last night – has been great, but
I’m tired out; Aiden and I are already in our beds in my room; and he’s already
most-of-the-way to sleep. I’m ready to
spend some quality time in dreamland, so I’ll leave this update to Ehlana; call
it a night; and get some sleep.
Ethan – out!
***
Ehlana:
I’ll take this report – if only because I
know that Ethan and Aiden had a much-tougher night last night while trying to
help keep Zack, Eli, and some of the other guys under control. It was tiring just dealing with the food
games, attempts to gross us out; and then the late-night ‘scares’ while we were
trying to get some sleep in our tents.
Starting with the rest of the news from
yesterday, the play time before and after that major barbeque dinner was a lot
of fun – even with the scary or gross moments; the meal was an adventure that I
won’t say too-much about so that I don’t speak ill of the boys that had some
success with helping at least some of the girls lose their appetite with their
feats of eating and drinking; belching; and worse. We loved the campfire a lot; Naomi made sure
that she and Ethan had some quality cuddle time while we toasted treats, sang
songs, and listened to campfire stories.
The campfire was still going for the teens and tweens after the parents
sent the kids to our tents, but we didn’t get to sleep anytime soon with all of
the monsters out there trying to scare us.
Our teen chaperones eventually got even Zack and Eli to settle down and
go to sleep; and then they got to have some quieter time around the fire once
we were all asleep.
Some of us didn’t find out until morning
that a few of those teen couples were up very late – including Jaimie, Kaitlyn,
and their summer holiday ‘boyfriends’ – mostly because they were starting to
deal with the impending, inevitable separation.
I won’t go on about that, since it is going to be tough on all four of
them. We had a great start to the day
with Tai Chi for a small gang by the river; and then the fun level kicked up a
lot when most of the campers were surprised with the news of a breakfast buffet
at the Inn that the parents had booked with Miranda and Stephanie. That was both great and scary; so maybe Naomi
and I should blame to boys for losing our ballgame to the Lions this morning
too. Zack, Eli, and some of the other
guys they goaded into playing their food games too definitely grossed us out;
and might have contributed to our first loss of the season. It’s still a bit funny to have the only loss
of the holiday-vacation while our cousins have been here, but while we didn’t
try blaming the boys today; we did let some of our Moms and cousins suggest
that the games our family won were due to having Naomi and me on the cheer
squad; and the loss was because we couldn’t do that and play in the game too.
It’s flimsy; but we worked with it anyway.
There was an ice cream visit to the
Emporium after the game; chores to do at home that included the camp clean-up;
and, eventually, another barbeque lunch.
An optional trail ride or corral adventure this afternoon was a last
chance for the visiting cousins to go for a ride or play with the animals; and
anyone that stayed home was able to do whatever they wanted – whether that was
some shopping, bike rides or play time at the park or home, short canoe trips;
or just some lazy do-nothing time while it was a bit quieter. The final event that we did as a big group
was the barbeque dinner; and then we’ve moved on to our quiet night - though that didn’t really get started here
at home until about eight o’clock by the time we finished the clean-up and a
bunch of yard and house chores.
Quiet is relative, since Dad’s working in
the office and trying to get ready for his week in the city, but we – the four
kids – did some studying or surfing the internet while hanging out with Mom and
Dad; and Mom did a Magi lesson with us before sending us upstairs for baths
before bedtime. We had some hang-out
time with Ethan or Aiden while taking our turns in the Jacuzzi or tub – with Naomi
and Ethan having their baths first and then some cuddle time in the lounge
while waiting for Aiden and me. We had a
group bedtime chat in the lounge after I finished my soak in the Jacuzzi;
decided against staying up to watch a movie; and the boys headed for Ethan’s
room while Naomi and I have been wrapping up our day with some girl chat time
on my bed. We’re pretty much ready to
get some sleep now too, so I guess that’s pretty much all of the news from here. That just leaves the bits of news I have from
Cassie; so let’s cover that too; and then wrap this report up and call it a
night.
Cassie called me this morning to wish Naomi
and me good luck for our game, and then she was going to do supply shopping and
chores around home and then move on to a study afternoon. We traded stories with her tonight; found out
about her lunch with her neighbors and what was, apparently, a very
entertaining dinner at a pizzeria that’s owned by a neighbor-and-friends’
family that Chloe is close with and has known for most of her life – a family
that thinks she ought to marry their son and join the family despite the fact
that their son is away at college; has a serious girlfriend; and has no
interest in returning home and working at the family pizzeria. Cassie loved the entertainment, but the food
is apparently amazing too; so we’ll have to go there the next time we visit –
which could be much-sooner for Ethan and Aiden than it will be for Naomi and
me. Cassie’s having a quiet night too
and plans on an early bedtime – though with her; that can be relative when she’s
often still working into the wee hours of most mornings.
Okay, that’s all for tonight. Tomorrow is a travel day, and Mom will be
driving to get Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden home – or to the half-way point
meet-up spot they’ve set up with Uncle Blaine; so I’ll let you know how our day
goes. Ethan and I might even end up
spending some time at the lab if it gets too-quiet around here after our
cousins have headed out of town. That will
be especially-true if Naomi and Aiden need to spend time with their families
tomorrow too. All of that can wait for
the next report, though; so I’m out of here and off to dreamland.
This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live
from what is now my past!
