Ethan and Ehlana:
We’re going with another early update – mostly because bedtime computing probably won’t work out for us very often while our cousins are here for their annual vacation-visit and especially when we’re continuing to camp every night.
Before we cover any of the ‘what’ we’ve been busy with since our last report; let’s cover some of the family travel news as the holiday weekend has wrapped up.
First up, Cassie and Michael headed back to their townhouse late last night after the fireworks at the park because Cassie needed to be back at school this morning due to her T.A. duties and the need to continue the work on her Master’s degree thesis. May has stayed behind; and will get a ride to the airport when she’s ready to head out on her next sightseeing trip. While Cassie and Michael were the first to head out, we’ve had other weekend guests leave this morning instead of enjoying the full day here with us; and this update is coming to you while we’re having a break in the fun due to the biggest round of departures for the day. Some of our collective guests are staying for another day or two – not including the teen and kid cousins that are here for a week or two, but May will be the only adult guest at our house by tonight. The people that are staying will either be working for another day – the architects in the family; or extending the visit for extra time with siblings or babies; so we’ll only spend time with them when we have group meals.
Moving along, the rest of our afternoon fun at the park yesterday included some games and a swim in the river; the picnic dinner with our collective families and friends was a whirlwind of too-busy as we did our part to help out with all of the younger kids and the clean-up; and then we had a blast at the dance. We couldn’t possibly cover all of the news, but some of our favorite highlights included getting teased by our family for technically being on dates for the dance with Naomi and Aiden; being entertained by Jaimie and Kaitlyn as they spent a lot of their time during the evening with Micah and Jeremy; and the multi-faceted fun that went along with Jayden and his early introduction into summer vacation romance! After they danced together a lot last night; it is now general knowledge that Jennifer Byrd has set her sights on our cousin, and if there was a true contest over him; she’s won – though we’re not sure that actually happened at all; since we’re getting some hints that the other girls had other motivations when it came to their interests in Jayden. It’s a bit early for any of our friends to get involved in those kinds of teen drama games, and at least one of us doesn’t want to write about that; so let’s move on.
We were together with Naomi, Aiden, and a bunch of our friends for the fireworks, but our family was nearby too; and we loved sharing that last blast of holiday fun with everyone. The fireworks display was bigger and better than normal, but that was mostly due to a budget that included funds that weren’t used last year due to the pandemic. As usual, we headed home after that; helped out with a lot of work and kid control; and we stayed up late while seeing Cassie and Michael on their way and then hanging out with the rest of the campers in our back yard until we were ready to get some sleep. Finally, for last night, we’ll give Brianna entertainment points for sneaking into the boys’ tent and falling asleep there, but her joke attempt doesn’t really work against Naomi when we all know that Ethan only loves her in a favorite cousin sort of way! ;^)
We’ve been busy so far today, and that sounds weird when we’ve also been taking a ‘rest’ day after such a busy holiday weekend. After a crazy round of breakfast fun and that clean-up, we saw our first group of guests head out of town; checked in on the holiday weekend sales at some of our favorite stores; and then we’ve been playing, biking, and swimming since then. We’re going to head out on another bike ride soon; follow that up with another family barbeque that will include a pot-luck with weekend leftovers; and then we’ll wing it for the rest of the evening through until we’re ready to crash and nap in our tents.
It’s time for us to wrap this up and get back to the goodbyes ahead of that biking now, and there isn’t anything to add that wouldn’t take much longer to include; 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!
