Ethan and Ehlana:
We’re at home tonight and on our own because our visiting cousins are with other aunts, uncles, and cousins for their last night in town. We have a lot to cover for the past day and a half; so let’s get to it!
The trip to Quarry Lake was staggered for our various groups, but we were with the first group; and helped out with the work once we were there to get cars, trucks, and vans unloaded and everything set up for Jennifer’s picnic lunch by one of the beaches. There was time for a swim after that and before we had that meal; and then it was non-stop fun from there with all of the usual activities we love the most at Quarry Lake. We played there until five o’clock; Naomi and Aiden joined us to help out with some of the pre-dinner work while Jayden and most of the other ‘kids’ kept Jennifer entertained. Helping her parents was appreciated by the adults, but doesn’t help our reputations with our friends!
There is no way to cover all of the birthday dinner and evening entertainment details in our little journal reports, but all that really matters is that Jennifer had a blast; even the guys managed to play nice most of the time; and we loved sharing all of the fun with our friends. Evening canoe rides, swim breaks, and the campfire were the entertainment highlights; and our musical quartet ended up taking care of most of the campfire music that was apparently good-enough to have a handful of the couples getting up to dance – including two sets of parents and one teen couple. Co-ed camping wasn’t an option last night, but we stayed up very late; cuddle-time was an option for the campfire and later while we hung out in smaller groups in several tents. Jennifer and Jayden spent some quality time cuddling too, but that isn’t happening yet with most of the rest of our friends.
Moving along, we got a few hours of sleep; and then some of us needed to be up early for Tai Chi by the river and an easy-breakfast so that we could get to the first ball games of the day on time. Most of the other campers slept in and got in on a special post-birthday breakfast, but then they all eventually made it to the park or school for the second round of baseball games. We don’t want to do major recaps for all of the games today; so we’ll just report that Brianna’s Royals won over the Princesses; Zack and the Pandas lost to the Grizzlies; and Ehlana, Naomi, and the Harpies bested the Wasps. Zack and Eli were as entertaining as usual in their game; and that continues to be more-important to them than winning or losing. We had a co-ed evening game to watch today too, but while the Wraith had lots of support for our favorite young adults; they lost too – to Sheldon’s Shriek.
This is probably the best time in this update to add one of the top news stories of the day.
Congratulations, Isabelle, Andrew, and the Jacobs’ and Jennings’ clans – it’s a boy! Jacob Jennings’ birth isn’t responsible for the Wraiths’ loss, but our team needed alternate players tonight while Andrew and Dillon were busy and at the clinic instead of the park. Isabelle and Jacob are both doing well, but we only saw Jacob for a minute during a bike-by visit to the clinic late this afternoon. We’ll have more baby news as we get it, but that’s pretty much all we have about Jacob so far.
After we finished with the morning baseball and a visit to the Emporium for ice cream; we had a family picnic that Mom and Dad hosted; went over to Jennifer’s house to get our tent packed up and returned home; and then we had a casual play afternoon that included biking, canoeing, a visit to the park playground that was mostly for the younger cousins; and a couple of swim breaks when we needed to cool off. The last dinner for the visiting cousins was at our house too – mostly because the doctors and nurse in the family took turns at the clinic; we followed that up with the evening ball game; and then we split up for the rest of the night instead of doing a campfire for everyone because there wasn’t much time left for our cousins to spend a bit of quality time with their overnight hosts. We just finished up with bath or Jacuzzi time, and since we are going to have a very busy Sunday; a comparatively-early bedtime is an option that we’re happy to go with tonight – especially after staying up too late last night.
There is more news, but we’ll save that for our next report. While you flip the digital page in our future to continue reading – or not; we’re ready to move on to nap time now; so, until next time...
...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
