Naomi, Ethan, Ehlana, and Aiden:
Happy 18th Anniversary, Mom and
Dad – or Mom-and-Dad-to-be for Ethan! ;^)
Yes, I’m taking over this journal tonight;
and that is happening because we’re giving my parents a kid-free night. Okay, the Carringtons get more credit for
that because they’re stuck with Zack and Eli, but we’re happy to make this
co-ed sofa sleepover sacrifice for my parents too! Before we get to the news of the day; let’s
start with a Cassie and Michael travel update; since that’s what we’ve been
talking about anyway.
We’re still getting used to the time change,
but it is Monday morning in China, so while we’re writing this; Cassie and
Michael are already hours into their first ‘work’ day that includes business
and charity meetings all day. They had a
vid-chat with my parents this morning our time, and since that was after their
first sightseeing day; we got to hear some of their stories from the Great Wall
and Forbidden City tours. Ethan and
Ehlana have had video chats with them too, so between us; we’ve probably been
given most of the highlights of their Sunday.
There have been a few pictures sent too, but we’ve been advised that we’ll
have to wait until they get home before we’ll get to see all of them – and the
videos. Their work so far today probably
won’t be interesting for us except for how much good those projects will do,
but if you are one of the few that might be interested in the boring business
details; I’m sure that Cassie and Michael have an archive for their work
somewhere that you can look up and read later!
Our adventures weren’t together to start
this morning, but I had fun with my family with the anniversary breakfast that
I put on for Mom and Dad with a little actual help from Eli. The fun continued at church and Sunday
school, but for the four of us, that was off-set by just a bit of sadness as we
got ready to say goodbye to all of the visiting cousins except for
Kaitlyn. I helped out with the final
goodbyes after church, but not with any of the packing or work before lunch
because I was busy with my family and a barbeque lunch at our house. Ethan and Ehlana did help out first, but then
they joined the party at our house – along with Aiden; and we’ve been together
since then. We should mention that Ethan
and Ehlana’s parents took care of the drive and meet up with Jayden’s parents
and that Kaitlyn and Jeremy went along to have a late lunch visit with them
too. That choice was made so that Uncle
Mark could stay home in case of doctor emergencies while Uncle Adam went along
to help out with the Johnson clan meet-up and cousins’ return to their
parents. They had the same kind of late
lunch plan, but all of our favorite parents were home in time for the
anniversary buffet dinner party at the Inn; and most of the kids stayed behind
instead of doing the drive too.
We were happy to stay home and enjoy the
lunch and afternoon of play time with my family and a lot of our friends. Mom had the day off from the salon; and the
weather was great for most of the day except for one little blast of rain that
rolled through and didn’t last for very long.
In addition to the back yard social time and games, we had groups of adventurers
go biking, canoeing, and swimming. It
was a bit different to be sharing all of that with my family at the center
after weeks of having that kind of fun around Ethan and Ehlana’s family, but
then we still have connections through the Ayres anyway; so there are overlaps
that are close to us anyway. The
sleepover plans were finalized before we went to the Inn, so Aiden and I packed
our overnight bags and dropped them off here on our way to the Inn.
As usual, we were put on kid-control duty
at the Inn, but we were also at a table next to Mom and Dad; so we were able to
keep up with most of the roasting that the adults sitting with my parents
offered while we all enjoyed the always-awesome food. Having Brianna, Faith, Leah, and Hailey with
us was not a challenge at all; and we’ll thank whoever was behind keeping Zack
and Eli away from us because we’d had enough of them for today by then. No, I am not going to add details; and we are
not going to let their goofiness diminish what has been an awesome day in every
other way. We were at the late buffet so
that most of Mom and Dad’s best store-owner family and friends could join us;
and we were there for nearly two hours before my parents-to-be brought us home
with them for the rest of the night. We
took Silkie for a bedtime walk; there was a group Magi lesson after that; and
then we were sent upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time while the parents in the
house continued to work in the office.
Ehlana and I took turns in her Jacuzzi; the boys opted for showers; and
we all mixed in some music play time around getting cleaned up and ready for
bed.
We’ve started a movie, but the bedtime
computing and chat time has kept us from getting immersed in the story, and
that’s okay with us; since the only good parts of the show are easy to pick out
because the blowing stuff up and fights and chases are the only good parts
anyway. As mentioned, we’ve been talking
about Cassie and Michael; wishing that we could be there with them; and
dreaming about future trips that we can take to get out there and see the world
too! We love many of the precedents that
Cassie and Michael have set for us, but waiting until after college to start
with major trips might not work for us.
We’ll have to see whether we can do better, but even our parents
probably won’t let us spend a summer in Europe or elsewhere when we’re
thirteen; so we’ll table that idea for now!
Getting back to Cassie and Michael, they’ll be in or near Beijing all
week. Ethan and Ehlana will have daily
updates in their journal; and we’ll all keep up with their travel stories –
hopefully with regular updates directly from them! We’ll be busy around here while they’re away,
and while there will be a lot of fun too; we’ll be doing more work that for
Ethan and Ehlana will include play time at the lab or archives. They’ve been very good about playing over the
past two weeks and more, so I’ll cut them some slack on that, but then I need
to get back to helping my parents more-often too; and Aiden is going to be
spending more time at the bakery. That’s
part of life even for Magi kids, so we’ll deal with the responsibilities and
fit in the play time when we can.
Since that is including a co-ed sofa
sleepover in our imminent future, I’m ready to get back to the cuddling with
Ethan; so that’s all for this report! I
won’t be here for the update tomorrow night, but while Ethan might enjoy
getting the control back; I can promise you that he won’t have as much fun as
he is right now while I write and he holds me!
I am a big fan of being an active participant in cuddle time; so I’ll
get back to doing that right now! ;^)
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
