Aiden, Ehlana, Ethan, and Naomi:
Happy 9th Birthday, Faith!
I have been put in charge of writing this journal update because the girls in our little group insist that Ethan is too-modest to write about his amazing football skills in our first game of the season and our fledgling high school sports careers while Ehlana and Naomi don’t want to admit that they were the two most-popular cheerleaders at that game. The last part of that is something that their boyfriends have mixed feelings about, but since I am drafted for this little job because of the football game; I’ll start with that part of this update.
Our sports adventures started with the final day of training camp as we got ready to play against Maple Valley. We were happy to start with a home game; and worked extra-hard during the practice knowing that we’d have lots of family support at the game. Coach Robinson had us as ready as possible to play our best after just a week of training; wrapped up our practice by three-thirty; and sent us home to rest up before returning to the school an hour ahead of game time. Ethan and I met up with the girls for that break and to get in on the barbeque dinner at the Everetts for Faith’s birthday party. Let’s pause to insert her party news while on that thought.
The four of us wish that we could have gone to Quarry Lake with the rest of the gang that went there for that part of Faith’s party, but Ethan and I couldn’t go; and Ehlana and Naomi didn’t want to ask for anyone to drive them when they would have only been able to go out there for a couple of hours after their cheer squad practice. Instead of doing that, they helped with the set-up at the Everetts that included tents for Faith’s camping tonight with some of her girlfriends and cousins – and the campfire that we could only make a cameo visit to after the game and minor team party that Will Carter hosted at his house. We can report that Faith is having an awesome day; loved her many gifts including the group gift that we got for her; and isn’t getting bugged too-much by any of the guys – including the small gang that are camping with Zack in his back yard. While we couldn’t spend much time with Faith and had to eat and run right at the start of her birthday dinner; we did at least add in a bonus gift of two campfire songs during our visit on the way home from the Carter’s home to here – music that was also used as an excuse by next-gen parents to call it a night and take their kids home from the party.
Getting back to football, many of the spectators at the game will credit Will Carter for the win, and he definitely should get some credit, but Ehlana and Naomi want me to make it clear here in this journal that Ethan was the true star and he’s responsible for making Will look so good tonight. Ehlana wants me to take some credit too and point out that Aaron also had a really good game, but we all know that Ethan somehow managed to lead us while trying to avoid extra attention as he also earned two touchdowns and had double the yards gained compared to anyone else – not to mention getting an interception on defense and being part of the reason that Maple Valley only managed to earn ten points – with none of them directly against him. Aaron and I each had one touchdown and gained some decent yards too, but most of that was thanks to Ethan because as he got more attention from the Maple Valley defense; we got more opportunities. Our team scored thirty-eight points on the way to the win and kept the lead once we got the first touchdown, but we also didn’t cruise our way to the end and part of the reason for Maple Valley’s low score was because they chose to try for touchdowns for all of the second half of the game when field goals would no longer be enough to get them back into the game. We stopped them on four fourth-down plays – including when Ethan got that defensive interception; and only kicked our one field goal near the end when it didn’t really matter anymore and Maple Valley ran out of time for a comeback.
Ethan and I are biased, but Ehlana and Naomi are the most-beautiful members of the cheer squad; they have the best gymnastic tricks in each of their routines; and we are so-glad that they picked us over all of the other guys that wish they were available! I could try to make a joke about Ethan playing better than I did because of Ehlana being more-distracting, but the truth is that Ethan is better than I am – at least for now. I may catch up eventually, and Ehlana’s telling me to add that I’m also still one of the best players on our team along with Will and Aaron; so let’s concede that’s true and move along with the rest of our story.
While we were focused on the football action tonight, most of the collective weekend guests arrived and joined in on the family fun at the Everetts or the game. Faith made an appearance at the game along with the gang of family and friends that included our parents, grandparents, cousins, and more. She didn’t stay for long, but we still had a large gang of supporters through to the end of the game – though the campfire started at the Everetts at dusk. The post-game action at the school took a while; we all headed over to the Carters’ home once we were cleaned up and had dealt with our gear; and then the four of us stayed for about an hour to get in on the Pizzeria pizza and the victory celebration. We’ve already covered our campfire contribution; and we came home from there – along with my future parents-in-law. There is still a lot that I haven’t covered, but with so much going on in one day; I might need the rest of the night to write about everything. Ehlana wants me to mention that the family cottages are all in use this weekend; and the guests include the Rice clan and about half of the Johnson-McEwan gang. The Proctors are not here because Jaimie and Kaitlyn are at college, but the Malloys are here for the weekend and Valerie and Marcus opted to join in on the girls’ or guys’ camping tonight.
We did not want to do that too, since it has already been a long day; and we didn’t want to stay up half the night with our cousins and their friends. It is late as we’re writing this now, and we have a busy weekend ahead of us starting with all of the championship games we have booked for tomorrow; so let’s finish this up. Everything about our first football game was amazing; we hope that our baseball games will go as-well tomorrow; and I hope that I don’t get asked to take a turn at writing these journals very often; since Ethan and Naomi are having more-fun with their co-ed cuddling and I prefer it when that’s true for Ehlana and me instead! We really do need to get some sleep, though, so that’s all for tonight. Unlike Ethan and Ehlana, I’m okay with staying oblivious to most world news stories and don’t need to talk or write about them! Okay, that’s a total fib, since two of my best friends do keep me informed and we talk about those stories, but we don’t need to do that tonight; and I’m good with moving on to a bit of quality cuddle time with Ehlana before we drift off toward nap time. I expect that Ethan will be back in charge of their next update, so I hope their future journal readers have enjoyed my rare turn at helping out with this part of their daily routine and hope that I’ve done badly-enough that they won’t ask me for help again! ;^)
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
