Happy 8th Birthday, Miles!
Ethan:
Ending the first week of September with a
birthday party adventure at Quarry Lake has been awesome – even though Miles is
having a guys-only party and camping night.
Our day started with a somewhat-cooler Tai
Chi workout by the river, a hot breakfast, and then yard and house chores for
most of the morning, but then we wrapped up in time to get cleaned up and ready
for three of us to go out and play. Dad
stayed home to work this afternoon instead, but Mom was helping with the driving
out to Quarry Lake, and while Ehlana and Naomi weren’t invited to Miles’ party;
they went out to Quarry Lake for a play afternoon too – and just happened to
end up doing that with about half of their girlfriends and quite a few other
kids and teens.
Miles had a plan for his party activities,
so we biked the trails at Quarry Lake first; played on the rock wall and zip
line after that; and then went swimming and played on the slides and around the
lake during the hottest part of the afternoon.
We had a blast with all of that; and then we had time to dry off and get
changed before heading home again – to Miles’ home. The Pizzeria pizza dinner was delivered
soon-after we got there, so we only had time to put our bags in our assigned
tents – four guys to a tent. Aiden and I
got the honor of being in Miles’ tent with Miles and Joshua; and I think that
was entirely because of our video gaming talents. The girls are likely happy that they weren’t
here for dinner; since the pizza-eating and root-beer-drinking contests were a
bit scary. Aiden earned some bonus
points for winning one of those contests – even though he hadn’t really tried
to do that at all; and won because the other guys had been so busy razzing and
goading each other that Aiden had just ended up finishing his drink first.
Miles had fun with the usual birthday
gifts-opening and desserts; and then we had a campfire after dark that included
scary stories and other games along with more snacks and drinks. That started earlier in the evening and was
ended by parental decree at ten o’clock, but we had a blast; and at least some
of us are ready to head for our tents. I’m
doing this update while Miles and Joshua are taking their turn in the house and
bathrooms, but we won’t be going to sleep anytime soon; since Miles wants us to
play video games all night. He won’t be
able to do that, but we’re still sure to be up late; and Aiden and I will need
to keep up with Miles and Joshua or get razzed about it tomorrow.
They’re on the way back to our tent; so I
need to wrap this up. I’ll include the
rest of the birthday camping night story with my next report.
Ethan – out!
***
Ehlana:
I’m having a camping night too – at Brianna’s
house; and we have Naomi and Faith with us while Zack is at Eli’s house for the
night because they set that up expecting to bug Naomi and me all night; and
then weren’t allowed to change the plan when Brianna saved us from that fate
with her camping invitation.
Ethan covered the morning non-news; so I’ll
start with the girls’ side of the Quarry Lake report. Naomi and I didn’t set anything up with our
girlfriends for the day, but it isn’t unusual; and having our friends there
with us was mostly a case of siblings and their best friends coming out to play
while Miles’ friends were there too – especially for the kids of parents that
were helping out with the transportation and party anyway. Aunt Leanne, Aunt Grace, and other Moms came
out for the afternoon too – along with their kids; so we had lots of people to
play with even though Miles insisted on a segregated birthday party.
I wonder how many more years he’ll do that
before changing his mind about girls? ;^)
We – the girls – did honor his wishes and
left the boys alone. While the boys went
biking; we played on the rock wall and zip line; Naomi and I did some biking
after they’d moved on, but only with a few friends; and then we stayed on the
far side of the lake from the boys when we were all playing in the water. Naomi and I love spending a lot of time with
our favorite two boys, but an afternoon without them didn’t keep us from having
an awesome time; and then we went home to the Carrington’s home for a group
barbeque dinner. The plans for the rest
of the night had been set by then, so Naomi and I set up our tent after we got
there while dinner was still being cooked; we enjoyed that meal in the back
yard; and then we went for a walk that included picking up our overnight bags
for Naomi, Faith, and me; and getting Silkie out for her evening walk too.
Mom and Dad are not the only parents with a
kid-free night, but while they went out for a while to Sheldon’s; I won’t be
covering any of that news in my journal – or what they might be up to for the
rest of the night while their kids are away.
I can tell you that we played some outdoor,
after-dark games around the back yard that included glow-in-the-dark toys that
kept Brianna and Faith entertained for more than an hour; Aunt Leanne and Aunt
Grace joined us for some girl chat time in our tent; and then we’ve been
listening to music and talking since they headed into their houses for the
night. Brianna and Faith are sleeping
now, but Naomi and I have been continuing our chat time that has included commentary
on boys in general and speculation about what they’re doing tonight with their
camping adventure. We got quite a bit of
that right now that we’ve seen Ethan’s update, but that shouldn’t be shocking;
since boys our age are very predictable!
They’ll be up late, but we’re close to being ready to sleep, and I don’t
have anything to add tonight; so it’s time to move on and finish our wind-down
to nap mode. This has been a really good
day; and I’m glad that we’ve had a bonus Quarry Lake play day; since they won’t
be open for much longer before closing down for the winter – at least when it
comes to their best day-trip activities like the rock wall and zip line. Seasonal camping continues into October, but
that’s almost entirely for seniors that stay there in the summer and head south
for the winter. The families with
trailers at the campgrounds in the area don’t get back to them even on the
weekends very often once school is back in session.
Okay, it’s definitely time to move on after
that last bit of rambling; so I’m out of here.
This is Ehlana Proctor; coming to you live
from what is now my past!
