Ethan:
It’s quieter here tonight compared to the
past two days, but we still have three guests.
May will be here for the week before going to spend a week in Washington
D.C. while we’re on holidays with Cassie and Michael; and Stefan and Madelana
are staying for another couple of days before leaving on their camping
adventure on Wednesday. They’re here
instead of at the Inn so that they can hang out with us – and May; though
Ehlana and I haven’t spent a lot of time with them yet this afternoon or evening
because we’ve all been very busy today.
For me, that busy started later than normal
because we skipped Tai Chi this morning, but we still had to feed our gang of
visitors; share bathroom time while getting ready for church; and then getting
there in time for the Sunday service.
While all of our weekend guests were invited to join us for that
service; most of Cassie’s and Michael’s college friends opted for the extra
sleep instead. The highlights of the
morning were all related to wedding-themed stories and jokes, and I’ll include
the news that some of those jokes were directed at Naomi and me; though I won’t
go into the details. Some of our friends
– and Zack and Eli – had too-much fun at our expense; which is a bit weird when
you think about that happening at church and Sunday school.
Moving along, we had the post-wedding
luncheon for all of the invited weekend guests and most of the members of our
combined families. I’m not going to try
to cover all of that news either, since it was a blast of non-stop busy and
too-many cameo moments to include here without writing a novel instead of an
update. All that really matters is that
we collectively had a lot of fun; and then we got busy helping our guests to
get ready to head home or elsewhere.
Ehlana and I – and Naomi and Aiden – spent a fair bit of time helping
out with kid control too, but we were in on most of the goodbyes and some of
the work too as each group got vehicles loaded and hit the road.
Mom and Dad weren’t given any driving
duties to the airport or elsewhere, but they were kept busy all afternoon too
as we saw our families and Cassie’s and Michael’s friends on their way out of
town. Most of the visiting collegians
needed to get to the airport, but Serena and Wendy needed to be taken to
college because they’re starting their sports training in the morning; so that
was likely the toughest trip to deal with for our driving volunteers. All of that traveling made for long days for
everyone doing that – whether going home or doing round-trips; so we owe a lot
of thanks to a lot of people for that as well as all of the help we got here at
home.
I want to include Michael’s family in that,
since the Bassett clan in particular helped out a lot – including taking care
of the visiting members of the Stone family; since Jacob, Miranda, and their
kids that aren’t on a honeymoon now were all busy at the Inn or pizzeria. We spent time with Michael’s grandparents,
uncles, aunts, and cousins too – though for Ehlana and me; that was more time
with the youngest cousins while they played with our younger cousins. They were among the first guests to leave
town, but then they also had one of the longest trips home; and tomorrow is a
work day for more than half of the adults in their gang. That shouldn’t feel funny to me, since Dad
will be back at work tomorrow, but I only get that sense because Michael’s
aunt, uncle, and cousins take their work more-seriously than is normal around
here.
Take that as meant; since I don’t want to
offend anyone on either side of that personal perspective line. ;^)
That’s enough for the packing up and travel
news; so let’s move along. As I
mentioned, we still have guests; so dinner was at the Inn and another buffet
opportunity for Cassie’s friends. Our
quiet evening at home included some office work for Dad; teen time for our
guests with Rowen, Tim, and some others; and chores for Mom, Ehlana, and
me. Ehlana and I got ready for bed
early; she’s sharing her Jacuzzi with May and Madelana now; and we just
finished a bit of a bedtime chat with the three teens before I came to my
room. It’s been a very long weekend; I’m
tired; and ready to get some sleep. I
think that’s enough for my side of the report too; so I’m going to end it here
and get right to the nap time.
Ethan – out!
***
Ehlana:
This has been another awesome day, but
instead of repeating Ethan’s news from my perspective; I’m going to include a
few random thoughts and comments about the entire wedding adventure of the past
three days.
First; let’s look at some news that might
not get much attention in other Magi journals.
There are so many fun stories that I can’t
cover them all, but while May’s wedding date with Cody was nearly as much fun
as the dates that Ethan and I had with Naomi and Aiden; I personally liked the
surprises for Jaimie and Kaitlyn when they found out that Micah and Jeremy were
at the wedding ceremony – and then just happened to get unexpected invitations
to the dinner and reception too! Aunt
Leanne hasn’t been successful in claiming no knowledge of those invites, but
then our cousins didn’t seem to mind; and they had fun with Micah and Jeremy –
including the time they spent together with the boys today at church and then
at the luncheon before their father made a show of rushing them out of town and
away from the dangers his daughters were facing from the boys in his familial
home town.
I’ll try to keep the rest of these random
thoughts in order – starting from Friday.
Cassie’s imminent wedding has seemed
real-enough to me for weeks, but her dress-fitting check on Friday afternoon
and then the rehearsal at the church took that to a new level. Their gifts for the members of their wedding
party wasn’t a surprise for me, but the jewelry did have me feeling like part
of the group; it was an amazing moment; and then it was even better when Naomi
was given one of the ‘extra’ sets. I
wasn’t surprised by that, but Naomi was; so I loved getting to see that and
share in the extra love. Among all of
the other highlights for Friday; I’ll have to put the bedtime girl chat high on
the list – especially since we also had Rowen’s engagement to talk about along
with the Cassie-and-Michael stories and roasting. The teens kept most of that chat kid-rated
for Naomi and me, but they had fun too; and I’m sure that there was at least
some of the adult-rated talk time after the older girls left my room when it
was time for us to collectively have our naps.
For Saturday, I’m going to start by
commenting on the ballgame again; but only because Naomi and I got teased about
playing even though we had a lot going on with the wedding. Yes, we could have skipped it, but we do want
to play in the championship game on the Labor Day weekend; needed the win; and
knew that we’d be motivated enough to get that done. It wasn’t work, but from our perspective; not
much different than all of the work others were doing – including at the Inn
and other businesses that didn’t shut down for the weekend just because of the
biggest wedding of the summer.
Let’s move on to the wedding ceremony and
reception.
Now that I’ve had time to replay the
memories a time or ten; I’m amazed by how much was going on that we weren’t
involved in at all, and again; there are too many stories to cover in any
update. While we were busy in our little
world that ha us next to the center of the action – and the bride and groom;
there were other circles of families and friends mingling and interacting
around us – but not with us for most of the day. Some of those connections were entertaining –
like between Cassie’s and Michael’s college and hometown friends. Now that most of those local teens had a year
of college behind them, there wasn’t as much of an issue with social
differences, but then, from what I’ve picked up from them; they were having
more fun comparing notes on theories about Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim –
and making up new jokes and stories to be used over the coming weeks and months
once they’re back at school.
The family connections were very different –
at least from my perspective. That has
everything to do with the different perspectives of the visiting members of
each family when it comes to their home town and how that affects the way they
connect with each other. I don’t want to
make this sound as though there’s a right or wrong to those differences because
there isn’t, but I do find those different perspectives interesting –
especially when we’re talking about people with common heritage, core values,
and beliefs. While most people might not
even notice those differences, when it comes to cases like Uncle Blaine
compared to Michaels’ Stone-family aunt, uncle, and adult cousins; what Ethan
and I can sense is jarringly-obvious.
Maybe my perspective needs changing too now that I think about that;
since they’re all successful regardless of the paths they’ve taken to get
there; they are all happy; and maybe that’s all that matters – not how they
feel about our home town or the members of their family and friends that
happily choose this lifestyle over the lives they choose to have
elsewhere. I certainly don’t apply that
kind of thought on others – with May being a handy, nearby example. In her case, I think that it’s awesome for
her to have dreams of moving far from home and working in Europe instead of
going home to China. I haven’t even
thought about the friends she’s left behind back at home, and while I have
thought about her parents and family; that hasn’t been in the same way I do it
for Cassie – knowing that our sister will be coming home after school while May
will not return to live in China – or at least she won’t be doing that anytime
soon.
That’s getting a bit too-serious; so let’s
move on.
If I’m trying to make any point about the
wedding and reception; it’s that everyone had fun; and most of that happened without
the participation of the bride and groom.
For most of the guests, that interaction only happened with cameo
moments and during the group entertainment moments – including the
ceremony. This isn’t our first wedding;
so I’m likely just analyzing this weekend because it’s Cassie’s wedding; and
means a lot to me. I do think that we
did a great job making it possible for everyone to have an awesome day, but I
also know that the amount of ‘sharing’ each guest got to have with Cassie and
Michael was very different; so it’s a good thing that there were so many other
social and entertainment interactions available to make it so easy for
nearly-everyone to have remember-forever-rated fun!
You’re now wondering why I didn’t include
everyone, right?
I am not going to g into the details for
that, but can report that not everyone had a best-ever kind of day – even if
they had fun and maybe even enjoyed the dinner and party. Without naming names; I’ll just acknowledge
that there are a few people that aren’t as happy for Cassie and Michael as the
rest of us are. No, Gwyneth Hathorne did
not try to crash the wedding – though I’m sure that her feelings about the
wedding are very dark. That thought went
in a direction I didn’t want to go; since I only wanted to mention that to
point out that even the happiest times for some can be not-so-great for
others. The emotions behind those feelings
aren’t usually good ones, though; which is why I’m going to move on and start
wrapping up this report.
I felt better than I thought I would when
it was time to send Cassie and Michael on their way last night – early this
morning. That has everything to do with
the fact that we’re going to spend a week with them before they head back to
school in two weeks. The post-party
clean-up reminded me of how much work goes into a wedding, and while it was
worth it; I can’t help but find it funny that hundreds or thousands of hours go
into an event that lasts about a half-hour – not including the rest of the
wedding events like the reception. I’d
better not go into all of the costs that go into sharing weddings with the
people we love-most, since that might just scare the parents! ;^)
I really should wrap this up and get some
sleep; so I’ll keep the thoughts for today shorter.
We were all tired this morning, so if there’s
been a day when I’d have loved to sleep in and skip church; this was it – and I
can relate to the weekend guests that didn’t join us there today. Then again, at least a few of those teens
seemed to be more-worried about indoctrination into the faith than they were
about alien implants or being stuck in our alternate reality forever, but they
shouldn’t have been concerned about that.
It saddens me to know that so many people feel that way about churches
and religion in general, but I suppose that it’s easier to blame the
institution or organization than distinguish between them and the bad people
that too-often exploit positions of power – especially when that goes against everything
that our faith is supposed to represent.
I’m getting too-serious again, so on the
lighter side; Ethan and I had a lot of fun with our cousins and friends today,
and while we were all busy too; we made time to play in the back yard; swim in
the river; and have a last chance to hang out with our visiting cousins. We’ll still get to see some of them on the
holiday weekend, but we won’t see others – including Dawn; since she’ll be
starting college soon too. That’s
another story getting lost in the wedding adventure, but she’s ready for her
next step toward being a commercial jet pilot; and she is seriously fired-up
about getting started on her degree in aeronautics; and she’ll graduate from
that four-year course the same spring that Cassie and Michael will be done
college too.
Yes – we’re going to have a pilot in the
family! ;^)
Uncle Rick will also get to have decades of
fun with that too; since at the rate he’s going; he’ll insist that Dawn’s pilot
license will have cost millions. Okay,
not that much, but he is talking high-end sports cars already instead of having
it cost more than Violet’s first car; and there are hints that he’ll be moving
on to suggesting it would have been cheaper to buy Dawn a house instead of a
college degree. That might even be true –
if Dawn wasn’t getting fairly-substantial help from a family business funded scholarship
program.
I haven’t mentioned that Jillian is heading
for college too, but she is; and there may be some surprises for her that we’ll
keep you posted on in the near to mid-term future. ;^)
Finally, as I’m writing this and winding
down from the weekend; I’m thinking about the changes ahead of us that come
with Cassie and Michael being married.
Some things are yet to be decided – like where they’ll stay when at home
for holidays over the next four years.
That is definitely going to be different, and while Ethan and I would
like to have them stay here; we do understand that newlyweds might not want a
couple of kids and their friends hanging around at inconvenient times. Cassie will be starting her third-year at
school; so that could get interesting as she keeps up with current college
friendships and makes new ones with the next batch of classmates she’ll be
spending time with every day; and that might also translate into less time with
us this year – or at least fewer trips home or to see them. There’s a lot more to think about, but that
feels too-serious too; so I’d better just wrap this up and get some sleep.
Ethan and I do have three of Cassie’s
friends to entertain tomorrow; so we should make sure that we’re rested and at
full power so that we can do that. The
big event of the summer may be over now, but we still have half of the summer
break to go; and there is sure to be a lot more fun and adventure ahead of us!
This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live
from what is now my past!
