Let’s begin this report with the campfire
and camping news from last night.
After taking my break between work and play
that included writing that last update; I joined the gang of teens and kids
around the campfire; Michael and I took a long turn playing music that included
a few duets; and then we were both busy taking care of kids as they fell asleep
and needed to be tucked into their sleeping bags for the night – once we had
the ready for bed. The older kids wanted
to party for quite a while, though; so we had to juggle the needs of the
younger kids with having fun with them; and that kept us on the go through
until a bit after one o’clock. We had
some teen and tween wind-down time after that, but Michael and I needed to be
up before dawn for our breakfast shift at the Inn; so we headed to bed by a bit
after one-thirty. Rowen and I had
Ehlana, Naomi, Brianna, and Faith with us for the night; and we actually got to
have some sleep despite this being a first for Faith. Sure, she’s done the babysitting sleepovers
with us; but she was a little angel for us while camping too.
Michael and I were up early; dealt with
some sleepy bathroom breaks for a couple of kids; and then we left Rowen and
Tim in charge while we headed to the Inn and got to work on the special ‘opening
weekend’ breakfast buffet. There was a
big turnout for it, including all of our campers and the grandparent volunteers
that helped Rowen, Tim, and the other teens and tweens with getting all of the
kids to the Inn. They were among the
earliest guests, and Mom and Dad took over with Ethan and Ehlana because they
also needed to get them fed in time to have Ehlana and Naomi to the park in
time for their first ball game with Vicky’s Hair Herons. They didn’t end up sitting at one of the
tables that I covered this morning, but I did still share some hugs and kisses
with them – including the good luck hugs for Ehlana and Naomi when they left
for the park.
The weather was awesome for their game, but
I had to finish my shift at the Inn before going to catch the end of the
game. As I mentioned already, we had a
big turnout for the buffet; and I ended up working until nearly-ten before
Miranda set me free to go to the park.
The Herons were more than half-way into
their game against Green’s Garden Geese by then; they’d battled to a tie by
then; and Ehlana and Naomi insisted after the game that my added cheering was
the difference as they went on to earn a ten-to-eight victory. Since they each had three RBI’s and four hits;
I’d say that they had more to do with that win than I did, but if I helped to
motivate them; then I’m glad they enjoyed the show while Aunt Leanne and I had
fun on the sidelines – along with Brianna and Faith.
By the way, our aunts, uncles, and cousins
will not get to all of Ethan’s and Ehlana’s games; but they do plan on being at
Ethan’s first game next weekend too – and I had some extra family support for
my first game tonight too.
After the game, Mom was one of the
volunteers for the ice cream run for the Herons to the Emporium, but Dad and I
came home to get started on our chores; while Ethan and Aiden just happened to
end up at the Emporium with all of those girls instead of coming straight home
with us. That worked for Dad and me
because we didn’t have to worry about them while getting started on mowing the
lawn and the rest of the gardening and other chores. We worked until one; had a quick lunch break;
and then I worked until three-thirty before getting ready for my short shift at
the Inn ahead of my ball game.
I took my ‘uniform’ with me, but still
worked the dining room until five-thirty along with just a bit of prep line
help. Michael worked the full
dinner-to-close shift again tonight; so he couldn’t come and watch my
game. Tim was there for Rowen, though;
and we eventually had all of our camping kids with them again because we’re
doing a second night of babysitting and camping while the parents are back at
the Inn for night number two of their stay-in-town getaway. Tim wasn’t in charge of those kids while we
were playing our game, but he did play with a bunch of them at the playground
when our game was too boring for some of the younger boys like Zack, Sebastian,
and Eli.
Our team – Emerson’s Erosion – was up
against Landry’s Landslide tonight, and while I’m not going to brag about it;
Rowen and I had a pretty good first game of the season. We helped our team to a sixteen-to-nine win;
and no, we were not motivated simply to keep up with Ehlana and Naomi! Sure, we’d have been teased about it if we’d
lost after their team won, and we had some great cheering support for our game
too; but our win was really all about having the better team tonight. What really matters, though, is that we all
had a fun evening; enjoyed the wonderful hot weather; and then we moved on to
my house for another campfire and camping adventure – though we didn’t have
quite as many ‘extra’ teens and tweens with us tonight.
We had some support getting the kids back
here and settled in for the campfire, but then the parents and grandparents
moved on; and I was kept busy playing with the kids until Michael joined us
after work. Okay, I was kept busy with
the kids after that too; but it was more fun for me to do that with
Michael. After a late night last night,
we lost more of the kids to dreamland much sooner than last night; though I’ve
just skipped over some of the fun details that I should include in this
update. First up; some of us went
swimming to cool off after the game; I had a micro-shower while the
grandparents were still helping out to get cleaned up after work and the
baseball; and there were other games going on in the back yard once the campfire
started – like glow-in-the-dark Frisbee and running around with glow sticks and
playing hide and seek around the house, storage barn, and tents.
I had fun with all of that; Michael and I
worked hard when it came to getting kids ready for bed and tucked in for the
night; and then we eventually had some quiet time while telling scary campfire
stories to the older kids and tweens. We
wrapped up the campfire at midnight; needed another hour to get everyone into
tents and have a bit of babysitter wind-down time by the river; and now Rowen
and I are in our tent for the night with our four junior camping buddies.
Rowen’s sleeping already, but I needed to
do a bedtime email check; had to deal with some family business work that
couldn’t wait until Sunday night; and now I’m getting this update done before
getting started on my nap. We’re going
to be busy in the morning, but that’s going to be an all-day trend because some
of us are also going to be dealing with a last day of exam studying for our
first exams on Monday along with church and work. I won’t need to cook a major breakfast in the
morning because Mom and Dad picked up boxes of bakery treats for us to use to
feed the campers; and there are also jugs of drinks and other options that will
only require being set out on tables along with the paper plates and plastic
utensils. All of that will help, but we’ll
still need to get all of the kids ready for church and there on time; so I
should really be sleeping now so I’ll be ready to get that done in a handful of
hours – after our morning Tai Chi by the river.
We are having an awesome weekend, and I’m
sure that Mom and Dad are too; though we – the kids – do not need or want those
details from any of our parents doing the weekend getaway at the Inn! ;^)
That thought has me wishing that Michael
was cuddling with me tonight, but since that can’t happen when we’re busy with
our junior campers, I’ll just wrap this up and maybe dream about future co-ed
camping adventures for the summer!
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
