Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden:
Happy 8th Birthday, Brianna!
This update is coming to you from two tents tonight with the help of a vid-chat, and while we are exhausted; we’re still awake and hoping that the fun is finished for the day! For the girls in the tent at the Carrington’s home; they’re hoping that the ‘raids’ on the girls’ camp are finished while Aiden and I are hoping that Zack, Eli, and the other ‘raiders’ are finally tired-enough to sleep instead of trying to bug the girls. We’ve intervened as much is possible without ruining our reputations with the other guys, but those efforts weren’t enough; and even Faith was mad by the end of the last raid – and that basically never happens! We do have a lot to cover for this report, though, so let’s do that from the beginning!
The rest of our story from Friday afternoon included that dinner with Mom, Dad, Cassie, and Michael, and while we loved the food; we were very happy for that time together – even the discussion of the work plans for today. After Cassie and Michael left, we had a fairly-quiet evening. Mom did a group Magi lesson with us; we watched a couple of movies in the lounge; and then the co-ed sofa sleepover was definitely a highlight of our day.
Brianna’s birthday celebration began with a group Tai Chi workout by the river at her house; we had a major breakfast for her that Mom, Dad, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Grace all helped out with while we – the tweens – were on kid control and helped to make sure that all of our cousins were ready for our play day at Quarry Lake. We should note here that there was a chance of some rain in the forecast today, and we did get some, but the good news is that it did that while we were at Quarry Lake and it didn’t rain there at all. Moving along, by the time we finished breakfast, the gathering had begun for everyone going out to the campground – or at least everyone going there for Brianna’s party. There were a lot of people going along because of our plans – mostly the families of party guests and other friends that just wanted to enjoy a major play day opportunity! We’d gone home after the breakfast clean-up so that we could get the truck loaded with the picnic supplies and day camp gear. Cassie and Michael caught up with us eventually; helped with the work; and then we all hit the road for our favorite campground.
Writing about everything we did at Quarry Lake would take the rest of the night; so let’s just offer some highlights. The weather was warm-enough with a high in the low-eighties without being so-hot that we couldn’t enjoy the more strenuous activities like the rock wall or biking. The campground was very busy, so we had some limits for the favorite attractions, but we made sure that Brianna and her friends got to do everything they wanted; and the rest of us had fun all day – whether we could take a turn at every activity or not. The four of us were in the ‘can do’ group because Brianna wanted us along for some of them and it just worked out for us the rest of the time. We loved climbing the rock wall and riding the zip line as always; we took short turns biking the trails using the rentals that Mom and Aunt Leanne had booked for the day; and we love the Aqua Bikes a lot too. The beaches were very crowded, so we tried to avoid them most of the time, and the water slides were too-busy too, but we still spent a lot of time swimming in the lake and there were times when the diving platforms weren’t too crowded; so we had some fun practicing our dives for a while too. The picnic lunch was awesome; and we had a blast all day with our families and friends. Some of the adults – including Cassie and Michael – headed home early to help with getting everything ready for Brianna’s birthday dinner, the campfire, and camping, but we stayed until the last group headed home and helped out with kid control when it was time to round everyone up and make sure that no kid – or parent – was left behind.
We split up for a while after getting home – mostly to get changed and grab our gear for our tents. By then, the tents were set up at the Carringtons and here at our house for the girls’ and guys’ campgrounds, so Aiden and I got our tent set up before joining Ehlana and Naomi again. We did some work too, but the parents mostly wanted us to stay on kid control through dinner and beyond pretty much for the rest of the night. The meal time was scary for at least some of the tweens in the yard, so let’s skip writing about the food and drinks games that Zack and Eli led with a lot of support from some of the other guys. Brianna still had fun with her friends anyway; she loved her gifts; and we were all in on the usual birthday song, roasting, and desserts. We helped a bit with the major post-dinner clean-up, but there were a lot of volunteers; so that really didn’t take long. Back yard games and playing in or on the river kept us all busy until the campfire started; and then our favorite moments for that were the scary stories and the music. Brianna recruited Cassie and Michael for some duets and Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies did a set too – including some ballads for the couples to dance to and that more than a few toddlers and babies fell asleep during – to the grateful relief of their parents! Taking the younger kids home to bed started the exodus for pretty much everyone that wasn’t spending the night in one of the campgrounds, but the kids, tweens, and teens stayed around the fire until midnight – and beyond for some of the teens.
Since we were helping younger cousins and friends, we were among the earliest groups to move on to the boys’ or girls’ tents – mostly because we wanted to be available if needed by the youngest campers. We would have loved to spend more time together, but that didn’t work out for us – unless you want to include the few hugs and kisses we shared during the campground raids before we – the boys – were run off by the girls’ camp defenders. Quite a few of our cousins and friends had a lot of fun with those raids, so maybe it is mostly our problem, but we’ll never be interested in trying to scare or hurt anyone; so those hugs and kisses were the only parts of the raids that we did like. It is too-bad that our not-so-favorite pranksters can’t just have fun with that sort of thing – the way that Cassie, Michael, Rowen, and Tim did when they made river raids fun. That thought just had Naomi thinking about a raid of her own – to kidnap me the way that Michael and Tim did once when we were toddlers and they ‘rescued’ me from the gang of girls I was with at the time. That’s a fun thought, but we wouldn’t get away with me being the only guy in their campground – and no, it wouldn’t be better if they came and kidnapped Aiden too!
It does seem to have gotten quiet here, so it is likely safe to get started on our nap time now, and that does pretty much cover our news of the day too; so we’re going to wrap this up and try to get some sleep.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
