Ethan:
This has been an awesome day! Tai Chi for seven made for a great start to the day; and we’ve really missed exercising with Cassie and Michael. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast; Cassie headed to the college while we took care of the clean-up; and then we packed up and drove out to Eagle Gorge. We were there by ten o’clock and got right to the fun – starting with renting mountain bikes and hitting the trails. Mom wouldn’t let us have the same kind of fun that we know that Cassie and Michael have had in the past, but even without Magi-powered assistance; we still had a lot of fun trying out the trails that are enough different from the trails at home or Quarry Lake to be both challenging and interesting.
Before I move on, I want to mention that Jayden could give Miles Sheldon a run for it on a bike, so he easily kept up with us; and the biggest difference between our friend and cousin is that Jayden’s confidence and talent is not marred by any need to brag about himself. Writing about my cousin isn’t normal for me, but I bring that up tonight because Ehlana would insist if she was doing this with me instead of hanging out with the girls next door. To be blunt, Jayden is a tween chick magnet. Ehlana and Naomi had a lot of fun with that today, and while Jayden did too; but not in any weird ways. We all joined in to have fun with new, temporary friends; and Jayden probably didn’t completely break the hearts of the three girls that were most-interested in hanging out with him.
I don’t want to add anything more about that sort of thing; so let’s move on. After the biking, we went swimming – where the first of the other tweens met up with us; we had our picnic lunch; and then Michael took us rock climbing. This next part is going to get weird, but the girls would want it mentioned too; so I’m stuck with reporting that Mom got mistaken for Michael’s wife by one of the climbing instructors. Yes, Mom and Cassie get mistaken for sisters fairly-often by strangers, and Mom loves the implicit compliments, but at least one of her kids can’t help but find it weird; and the upcoming round of jokes directed at Mom, Cassie, and Michael after we get home again are sure to be fun for the adults and something that I could live without! ;^)
The rock climbing was way better than the rock wall at Quarry Lake; all five tweens in our group impressed our instructors; and I don’t want to mention the reactions to Mom’s climbing talents from pretty much everyone around us. Don’t let this get around, but my father is a very lucky guy; and I am very glad that Mom picked him. Moving on, we went swimming again after the rock climbing; and then it wasn’t much longer before Cassie caught up with us after she was finished at school. She joined us for more swim time; our dinner was the take-out chicken and sides meal that she picked up in the city and brought with her; and then we spent the evening going for an hour-long hike and one more swim. We’d planned on heading back to the townhouses at dusk, but Mom, Cassie, and Michael ended up spending some time with two sets of parents of some of the tweens we were playing with; and we were all invited to a campfire. We joined in on that fun for a while; six of us took turns offering a sample of our musical talents; and then we said our goodbyes and headed out at ten-thirty because Cassie still has work to get done tonight.
I ‘won’ the first shot at taking a shower, so I’m waiting for Jayden and Aiden now. Michael’s doing some work on his computer while I’m doing this and the rest of my usual bedtime computing; and he’s waiting for Cassie to come back because they really will need to be up late tonight.
We’re running out of time for this visit because we’ll be heading home tomorrow morning, but that’s also pretty much all I have for this report; so I’ll just wrap it up and enjoy a little time with my favorite brother-in-law.
Okay, Aiden will be my favorite brother-in-law eventually, but you know what I mean; and Michael is an awesome older brother.
That really is it for tonight; so I’m out of here!
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan Proctor – one of the twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!
