Ethan and Ehlana:
Naomi left it up to us to cover our birthday news along with the shopping adventures stories; so let’s get to all of it – starting from yesterday morning.
Waking up with our favorite cuddle buddies for both mornings was great, and while Tai Chi with gangs of family and friends was awesome too; we’ll pick the breakfast buffet at the Inn today for a top highlight – even ahead of our birthday breakfast! Each of those meals were amazing for different reasons, and while we loved our birthday gifts; we don’t really want to write about them because gifts aren’t nearly as important to us as the fun we got to share with so many of our favorite people.
We can’t really compare days equally after those morning meals. The work we helped with before heading to Quarry Lake and then the drive out to the campground was only similar for total time – about an hour-and-a-half from the time we finished eating to arrival at the campground or mall. We were not put to work setting up our day camp, so we got right to the water play time with our friends; and we had a blast all day. Our entertainment highlights included all of our usual favorites – rock wall climbing, zip line rides, Aqua Bike rides; and all of the swimming and water play fun on the slides and diving platforms. There is no way to cover every moment of our day, and we’re mostly happy because we managed to have fun with pretty much everyone at the Quarry Lake party with us – including aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Mom, Dad, Cassie, and Michael all had turns playing with us too; so everything about our birthday was awesome!
We stayed at the campground until the last group headed for home for our birthday barbeque dinner, and that meant that we didn’t have to do any work once we were back at our house. We had a bit of play time before we sat down to eat; that meal included another round of the usual birthday fun from being roasted by our friends to the song, cake, and ice cream. More play time followed the food; we kept entertained until the campfire started at dusk; and then we only had adult company for the first hour or so of the campfire. Cassie and Michael offered two duets before they headed home; and we danced to both songs with our favorite dance partners. Aiden and I got razzed about that, but then that was true for cuddling with Naomi and Ehlana respectively; and we didn’t have a problem with those trade-offs. Miles and Joshua needed to do their worst with Zack and Eli around to impress and compete with; so none of that fun at our expense was a surprise.
The campfire rolled on until later than it should have, and since Naomi already mentioned our co-ed camping plans, the only news she couldn’t cover last night was the raid on our camp from Zack, Eli, and the buddies they had camping with them in Zack’s back yard. As expected, Miles and Joshua led a group of our buddies to help out with trying to scare all of the girls and mess with us too, but while they had their kind of fun with the raid; at least some of the guys probably wish that they hadn’t done anything because Naomi and Ehlana were far from the most-annoyed girls at our camp. Let’s not get into those details; and we’ll just hope that at least some of our friends get a clue sooner instead of later; since we really don’t want to deal with years of these tween and teen dramas. We did eventually get time for a nap; and then we were still up early for Tai Chi and getting ready for our shopping day today.
We had a bit of extra work to do because we packed up our tents and gear before heading to the Inn for the breakfast buffet, but not all of our friends needed to rush around; since Aiden and I were the only guys in our gang to go on the shopping trip. All of the girls were going, but most of them didn’t need to worry about their tents – though they did pack up their own camping gear and overnight bags. The breakfast buffet was a food highlight of our day, but the only news we had before hitting the road was that Cassie and Michael didn’t end up being our driver-chaperones. Brianna made that happen with hugs and dimples that she used ruthlessly on Aiden and me while Naomi and Ehlana enjoyed watching us cave in to Brianna’s request to spend most of the day with Cassie. We ended up with Mom and Aunt Grace instead for the drive each way, but since Faith, Leah, and Hailey were with Brianna; we ended up spending a lot of the shopping time with the bigger group. There was some guy time shopping too that Michael did with Aiden and me, but we were also recruited to be pack horses – porters – for the girls too; and we took care of the extra trips to the minivan or truck with loads of purchases.
Lunch was at the mall; the supply shopping was done last; and then we picked up fast food for dinner and hit the road by around five-thirty. The girls were not finished with shopping yet, so they were dropped off at the Galleria for another round of fun that got in on the annual shopping day in the city sales. While they did that; Aiden and I helped Michael with deliveries to mo0re than a handful of homes; we dropped Aiden off at his house; and our last stop at our own home ended with Michael trading Dad’s truck for his car. Some of the girls still needed to be picked up, so Michael went to do that and ended up taking Cassie and Hailey home. Dad and I stayed and eventually helped out with another round of porter work as we unloaded the minivan and hauled everything to wherever needed in the house for clothes and supplies.
Once we got that done and some chores dealt with – including taking care of starting loads of laundry, it was bath or Jacuzzi time for three of us. That nearly brings us up to now. We did a bedtime chat and snack with Mom and Dad to share stories from the city or home; and now Ehlana and I are winding down toward nap time with our usual twin chat and a light version of our computer checks. This has felt like a two-day birthday celebration – and not just because quite a bit of our purchases today were paid for with birthday cash! We’ve loved everything; and we know how blessed we are to have such an amazing family and group of friends! We’re also getting really tired; so that’s all for this update. The weekend is here, but don’t expect too much from us; since right now it feels as though we need a couple of days to recover and rest up from our first week of summer holidays. That might not happen for us, but we’ll keep you posted with our next couple of reports. For now, we really just want to get some sleep; so we’ll wrap this up right now and go off to dreamland.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
