Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 2nd Anniversary, Joshua and Sally!
Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim headed for their townhouses today because they all need to get an early start on their final year at college and their T.A. duties. They did a visit with their friends to wish them a happy day, but didn’t try to stay for the party that is going on tonight. Cassie is going to have the most work as she continues to be one of the top doctoral students in the languages program, but Michael, Rowen, and Tim will also be favorites for the Professors that they’ll be working with for their final two semesters. We’re going to miss them, but the countdown is at least on now; so the end of their time away from us is in sight.
While we’re on that thought, one of our favorite stories from the weekend – and today; we want to put the news about Cassie and Michael’s new house at the top of our happy stories. Uncle Blaine was in on sharing that news with our favorite collegians; and work on the riverside lot began this afternoon after they were on the way back to their townhome. They love the design that Uncle Blaine put together with help from Chris and Sadie; and we plan on making regular visits as the house gets built between now and Christmas. The house won’t be done by then, but the outside shell will be done by winter; and then the interior work will continue through until the landscaping can be done next spring. We’ll save up the design details for another time, but can reveal that their house will be next door to Aiden’s family home – on the lot that borders the bend in the river that is definitely one of the best riverside views east of the falls or park. Ehlana isn’t planning on marrying Aiden just for the proximity to Cassie’s future home – that’ll just be an added bonus if they inherit the Draper’s family home! ;^)
Now that our visiting cousins have headed home let’s also offer a teen and tween drama wrap-up. Jaimie and Kaitlyn are definitely the happiest cousins thank to their summer jobs and extra time with their boyfriends. Kara, Eddie, and Jayden each had some special moments with hometown friends, but nothing serious; and we’re fairly-sure that no broken hearts were left behind now that they’ve left for their homes. We haven’t spent much time talking about ‘the kids’ in our group; and there are a couple of stories there. For Zack and Eli, that means that they spent extra time on their pranks and jokes, and while they had a lot of fun; they also managed to annoy some of our cousins and friends. On the flip side from that sentiment, Brianna and Faith might be in the early stages of scaring their fathers; since they are generally adored by everyone – including most of the boys around their ages. I wouldn’t suggest that they have any ‘kissing cousins’ issues, but they do count some of our cousins among their fans.
These past two weeks have been both amazing and different from past summers. Our Johnson clan cousins accept us along with Aunt Leanne’s kids – just as Naomi gets included through Uncle Nick, but our relationships feel more like what we have with other friends. In a way, that’s semi-true for Jayden too as we all grow up; so maybe the way we’re feeling has more to do with the differences in our home lives than with anything else – including actual blood relations.
Those connections with our young adult cousins are something we’re thinking about tonight too. We don’t get to see our Rice clan cousins as much as we’d like, and don’t even mention them in our journals very often, but they do have close connections with Violet and her family that we just don’t have affect us at all. Most stories do eventually get to us, though, so we should at least mention that our young adult cousins and their families have hometown interactions that don’t directly involve us. Using Violet as an example, she and Dillon do go on road trips to Woodvale; they get visits from her family; and Jillian spends a fair bit of time with them too – through work at the lab and because Violet is basically a big sister as well as a friend. Dawn doesn’t get much time off due to her summer job, and will be back at school again soon, but we know that she keeps connected with Violet; and accepts the trade-offs necessary to make her pilot dreams come true. Don’t take that the wrong way – we all do that sort of thing in our own ways; and we’ll have our turn at making those education choices sooner than our parents will be ready for in about seven years! ;^)
This report is meandering a bit, but while we’re thinking about college; we should also mention that future education plans were discussed this weekend too – for Jaimie, Micah, and some friends that are a year away from starting college. The two ‘family’ townhouses aren’t officially booked yet, but that is going to happen; and Jaimie and Micah will be two of the collegians renting them after Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim graduate. Patrick and Jessica will be joining them for this school year – both of them with Rowen and Tim, but the plan is for segregated townhouses next year. We’d suggest that we should just buy the places, but the family business owns them anyway; and the leases are just for appearances. For our part of that story; we’re just glad that the homes will be ready for us when we need them.
That’s enough of the family drama and news for one night. Our actual adventures today included a morning at the lab between breakfast and lunch with Cassie and Michael; we saw them on their way after lunch – though they stopped for a bakery pick-up before leaving town. We had some rain and thunderstorms this morning, but it was nice out all afternoon; so we biked the trails, had some swim time, and checked out Brianna and Faith’s ball practice. The afternoon play time was with our best friends, but we were on our own with Mom and Dad for dinner and the evening. We worked in the office; did a Magi lesson with Mom; and wrapped up our day with bath or Jacuzzi time. We had a bit of music play time after that, and have been doing an extended bedtime chat and round of computing; so that’s why it is getting late. The forecast for the rest of the week is looking good, but we also want to get back to more time in the lab or archives; so we are probably going to do that in the mornings and then play in the afternoons. After weeks with a lot of camping, we’re also thinking about staying indoors at night, but we’ll see how that goes; and let you know if we change that and do some camping instead. Since we seem to be down to ‘what-ifs’ now, it must be time to call it a night – so we will!
Until next time, this little blast from your near or distant past is written for you with love from Ethan and Ehlana Proctor – twin junior Magi Masters of the Light!
