Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 4, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy Labor Day!

We’re home, on the third floor, cleaned up, and rea

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy Labor Day!

We’re home, on the third floor, cleaned up, and ready for our last sleep of the summer!  Let’s get to this double update; and see how much of the news we can cover before we’re ready to crash and nap!

Starting from after baseball on Saturday, that family barbeque was great; our second campfire was a blast with bonus birthday fun for Miranda that included our music; the songs from Cassie and Michael; and the usual scary stories from various parents, grandparents, and teens.  The adults began to head for their homes by eleven or so – along with the youngest kids; and then we stayed up too late with teen and tween chat time; a late swim; and dealing with some junior pranksters that didn’t want to stop their fun even to get some sleep.

Tai Chi by the river on Sunday was followed by a crazy-busy blast of fun while we got ready for the church service in the park and our play day.  That included sharing bathroom time; getting everyone fed; and dealing with the pre and post-meal work.  We managed to get to the park on time – including bringing the load of food donations for the charity booths.  The teens did an awesome job with their music and skits; Pastor John had an entertaining and concise message for us instead of a sermon; and then we were on the go again as we helped out with the kids and getting lunches rounded up ahead of the co-ed ball game.  Our Warriors team earned the win and championship over the Rangers, and we had fun with the game watching, but the cheer squad competition was more than expected; and Aiden and I were drafted to help out!  Yes, that might be scary if we’d been asked to grab pom-poms and cheer too, but Naomi and Ehlana got us to help out with a new tactic – using our band music as a distraction for the Rangers’ players!  We had a blast with doing that; were a hit with all of the spectators; and that helped Miranda and Cassie and Leanne out with earning the cheer squad win too.

After that, we moved on to a swim break in the river; ice cream treats; games at the booths and around our little day camp; and, eventually, a major family dinner.  We needed to get back to work after we ate – this time to get ready for opening the dance with an hour-long set on-stage!  While all of our music time was awesome, the personal highlight for us was getting Cassie and Michael to join us for a special song that we dedicated to their parents – and for a belated birthday gift for Miranda.  We know that was a success because of the tears as well as the applause; so the rest of our night was awesome too!  We danced a lot with Naomi and Aiden after packing up our gear.

We’re skipping over a lot of the details, but as always; it is being with our favorite people that make our adventures so much fun; and the work that goes in around the entertainment isn’t a big deal for us.  We had more work to do as the dance ended and we helped out with younger kids and hauling our gear home.  It was too-late for a campfire after that, but we still stayed up late with another round of tween and teen chat time by the river – after we got our junior tent mates off to sleep with bedtime stories and music.  We haven’t mentioned our weekend guests by name very much in our latest reports, but the Malloys have been enjoying their visit; Valerie and Marcus have loved the camping and play time; and we’ve managed to keep them happy all weekend.  That’s true for Jayden and the rest of the collective visiting cousins; so we are glad that everyone is having such an awesome weekend too!

After another late night, Tai Chi by the river this morning made for a serene start to our day and then we were back into the crazy-busy as we all got ready for breakfast at the Inn and our morning shopping adventures.  We had that meal with Naomi, Aiden, and some of our friends while Valerie and Marcus opted to sit with some of our cousins.  Ehlana and Naomi had more fun with the shopping; and then we were home for a while and helping our guests to pack and load up for the trip home before we headed back to the Inn for the first buffet of the afternoon at noon.  that final big meal of the holiday weekend was another highlight of our day; we spent about a half-hour after that saying goodbye to most of our weekend guests; and then it was time to head home again – and get to work on the campground clean-up.

We don’t need to get into a major report about that, but that work was not a highlight of our day.  More than half of our recruited work crew left with first loads of gear to take to their homes and then didn’t come back.  Michael helped us with everything; Dad ended up getting frustrated with the lack of support for us and loaded up his truck with all of the gear that hadn’t been picked up by our fellow campers; and then he and Michael delivered all of that gear before Michael went home and Dad went back to his work in the office.  We did a swim break with Naomi, Aiden, Brianna, and Faith after that; they all headed for their homes after that; and Ehlana and I helped Mom with the rest of the house chores that kept us busy until we stopped for a snack-dinner with Dad.

Since then, we did some family business work with Mom; a Magi lesson; and bath or Jacuzzi time once she sent us upstairs for the night.  We now have our bags packed for school in the morning; Ehlana has her outfit picked out; and yes, I know what I’ll be wearing too; since I don’t want to embarrass Naomi by comparison!  That also pretty much brings us up-to-date, and we are ready to crash and nap soon; so that’s all we have for this final update of the summer!  Stay tuned, since our first school year with having Cassie and Michael at home again is going to be awesome! ;^)

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

dy for our last sleep of the summer!  Let’s get to this double update; and see how much of the news we can cover before we’re ready to crash and nap!

Starting from after baseball on Saturday, that family barbeque was great; our second campfire was a blast with bonus birthday fun for Miranda that included our music; the songs from Cassie and Michael; and the usual scary stories from various parents, grandparents, and teens.  The adults began to head for their homes by eleven or so – along with the youngest kids; and then we stayed up too late with teen and tween chat time; a late swim; and dealing with some junior pranksters that didn’t want to stop their fun even to get some sleep.

Tai Chi by the river on Sunday was followed by a crazy-busy blast of fun while we got ready for the church service in the park and our play day.  That included sharing bathroom time; getting everyone fed; and dealing with the pre and post-meal work.  We managed to get to the park on time – including bringing the load of food donations for the charity booths.  The teens did an awesome job with their music and skits; Pastor John had an entertaining and concise message for us instead of a sermon; and then we were on the go again as we helped out with the kids and getting lunches rounded up ahead of the co-ed ball game.  Our Warriors team earned the win and championship over the Rangers, and we had fun with the game watching, but the cheer squad competition was more than expected; and Aiden and I were drafted to help out!  Yes, that might be scary if we’d been asked to grab pom-poms and cheer too, but Naomi and Ehlana got us to help out with a new tactic – using our band music as a distraction for the Rangers’ players!  We had a blast with doing that; were a hit with all of the spectators; and that helped Miranda and Cassie and Leanne out with earning the cheer squad win too.

After that, we moved on to a swim break in the river; ice cream treats; games at the booths and around our little day camp; and, eventually, a major family dinner.  We needed to get back to work after we ate – this time to get ready for opening the dance with an hour-long set on-stage!  While all of our music time was awesome, the personal highlight for us was getting Cassie and Michael to join us for a special song that we dedicated to their parents – and for a belated birthday gift for Miranda.  We know that was a success because of the tears as well as the applause; so the rest of our night was awesome too!  We danced a lot with Naomi and Aiden after packing up our gear.

We’re skipping over a lot of the details, but as always; it is being with our favorite people that make our adventures so much fun; and the work that goes in around the entertainment isn’t a big deal for us.  We had more work to do as the dance ended and we helped out with younger kids and hauling our gear home.  It was too-late for a campfire after that, but we still stayed up late with another round of tween and teen chat time by the river – after we got our junior tent mates off to sleep with bedtime stories and music.  We haven’t mentioned our weekend guests by name very much in our latest reports, but the Malloys have been enjoying their visit; Valerie and Marcus have loved the camping and play time; and we’ve managed to keep them happy all weekend.  That’s true for Jayden and the rest of the collective visiting cousins; so we are glad that everyone is having such an awesome weekend too!

After another late night, Tai Chi by the river this morning made for a serene start to our day and then we were back into the crazy-busy as we all got ready for breakfast at the Inn and our morning shopping adventures.  We had that meal with Naomi, Aiden, and some of our friends while Valerie and Marcus opted to sit with some of our cousins.  Ehlana and Naomi had more fun with the shopping; and then we were home for a while and helping our guests to pack and load up for the trip home before we headed back to the Inn for the first buffet of the afternoon at noon.  that final big meal of the holiday weekend was another highlight of our day; we spent about a half-hour after that saying goodbye to most of our weekend guests; and then it was time to head home again – and get to work on the campground clean-up.

We don’t need to get into a major report about that, but that work was not a highlight of our day.  More than half of our recruited work crew left with first loads of gear to take to their homes and then didn’t come back.  Michael helped us with everything; Dad ended up getting frustrated with the lack of support for us and loaded up his truck with all of the gear that hadn’t been picked up by our fellow campers; and then he and Michael delivered all of that gear before Michael went home and Dad went back to his work in the office.  We did a swim break with Naomi, Aiden, Brianna, and Faith after that; they all headed for their homes after that; and Ehlana and I helped Mom with the rest of the house chores that kept us busy until we stopped for a snack-dinner with Dad.

Since then, we did some family business work with Mom; a Magi lesson; and bath or Jacuzzi time once she sent us upstairs for the night.  We now have our bags packed for school in the morning; Ehlana has her outfit picked out; and yes, I know what I’ll be wearing too; since I don’t want to embarrass Naomi by comparison!  That also pretty much brings us up-to-date, and we are ready to crash and nap soon; so that’s all we have for this final update of the summer!  Stay tuned, since our first school year with having Cassie and Michael at home again is going to be awesome! ;^)

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 3, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’re just taking a moment between our adventures at the park and the camping that we need to get to now; so this is just a placeholder report.

Look for the double update tomorrow night; and we’ll just get back to our last camping night of the summer!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 2, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

Happy 56^th Birthday, Miranda!

We didn’t get to start our day with the breakfast buffet at the Inn because of Miranda’s birthday, but that was a bonus for us; and most of the parents in our family chose that option ahead of the baseball games that have kept us busy all day.  Cassie and Michael led the way for Miranda’s birthday fun while they were there, but then they didn’t stay as long as we did because Cassie had promised to be at the park for Brianna and Faith’s championship game.  We were there for most of that game too, but stayed longer while having breakfast; and missed the first couple of innings.

There is no real need to go over each of the five family ball games we kept busy with today.  Whether playing or watching the games, we had fun; and mixed in some play and swim time too – which was usually with groups of younger cousins and friends for us as we helped out with keeping those kids entertained all day.  All five of our teams won their championships.  Ehlana, Naomi, and the Hair Haunts had the closest battle and won by just one run in one of the best games of the day.  I’m not bragging or anything, but Aiden and I had the most-convincing win of the day with a twelve-to-four win over the Pizza Pyros.  Zack, Eli, and their Pirates’ team earned the most-surprising win, but as we’ve mentioned for them this season; they’ve played better and more-seriously because of having Caleb and Sebastian on the team with them.  They still had their kind of fun during the game too and that added to the entertainment for the spectators and players, but they played well too; and earned the win.

Lunch was either at the pizzeria or park for our collective gang of family and friends.  Aiden and I were with the group at the park because we multi-tasked that with supporting Ehlana and Naomi during their game.  We picked up our food from the charity booths at the park; and we only missed one inning of the game while taking a gang to the river for a cool-down swim.  The pizzeria lunchers were away from the park for longer, but then Zack, Eli, and the gang of boys with them didn’t hang around for the afternoon ball games anyway because they chose biking the trails, swimming, and other games to keep entertained with for most of the afternoon.  Ehlana and Naomi took breaks from watching out game for swimming and more too, but they were there for us for more than half of our game; and we were motivated from the start with the good luck hugs and kisses from our girlfriends – even though we got razzed about that too.  Cassie has too much fun with that sort of thing, but since those jokes started with her back when she used to lead her team in gang hugs for luck with Dad.  Then again, she had a small gang of cheerleaders offering a gang-hug for Coach Dad today too; so they were in on both sides of those jokes anyway!  That brings us up to now, and this update is coming ahead of another big family dinner while Ehlana and I are quickly getting cleaned up after our busy park play day.  The rest of our adventures will be a near-repeat of last night, but we’re good with that plan and will love the dinner, campfire, and camping fun.  There will be a few changes for the campers, but that’s mostly because of some sleepovers for some of the visiting kids.  We can work with that – especially if we can manage some co-ed camping too, but that might be too much to hope for tonight; so we’ll have to let you know how that goes for us with the next report.

Speaking of that, we still need to cover the rest of the story from Friday.  We had dinner with the other teens and tweens while keeping an eye on the kids too; our evening included welcoming the rest of the incoming weekend guest along with back yard and river play time.  The campfire was a highlight of our evening – especially with the music that Cassie and Michael offered along with our ‘band’ contributions and the dancing that we enjoyed along with more than a dozen other couples.  As usual, we stayed up way too late; Valerie and Marcus were two of our tent mates in the segregated tents; and we really only had naps last night before getting up and going again this morning.

That’s all we have for now, and really need to get going because dinner is basically ready and being served; so we’re out of here and back to the real world adventures that we’ll be able to write about sometime tomorrow! ;^)

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!

Ethan's and Ehlana's Journals - September 1, 2023

 

Ethan and Ehlana:

We’ve had a work morning before getting started on the fun parts of our day, but our incoming guests began arriving early; and we were set free to play by late-morning.  Naomi and Aiden joined us by then; we hung out with our cousins and other friends; and then Jayden joined us when he got here before lunch with his parents because Uncle Blaine had meetings this afternoon.  Uncle Terry had those meetings too, so the Malloys are here for the weekend too; and we helped out with keeping Valerie and Marcus entertained.  That was true during lunch and all afternoon; and we had fun around the yard and river; during bike rides and park play time; and we’ll keep doing that for the rest of the day.

This update is early because we’ll be busy with another family meal that Mom and Dad are hosting; the campfire that will eventually follow; and then the camping that some of the kids and tweens will be doing after that in our back yard.  We’ve set up some tents; this update is happening while we’re getting out gear ready to take out to the tents; and then we need to get back to the fun with our family and friends which is starting with the social hour or so we have left before dinner will be available.  The rest of our news can wait for tomorrow night – or whenever we have time for our next report; since we may be camping every night this weekend thanks to an awesome weather forecast!  Stay tuned or read on while we get back to living the adventures!

Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!