Ehlana and Ethan:
The biggest wedding of the summer – at least for our favorite people – has wrapped up; and we’re exhausted and ready for some quality nap time! While Rowen, Tim, Cassie, and Michael are currently on their way to Italy and the first week of their honeymoon-anniversary vacation; we’re quickly winding down toward an early bedtime because we really do need the extra down time to get back to full power soon. That’s also why we don’t have any overnight guests, since while we love all of the fun we have with our best friends; we do all need a break now and then – though I should add that Naomi wouldn’t actually have a problem with moving in with Ethan if she could make that happen now instead of starting the summer that Ethan and I head off to college! ;^)
Rowen and Tim’s wedding ceremony was amazing, and while we’ll still have happier memories of Cassie and Michael’s special day; we can admit that we had more fun last night at the reception with our dates – and that is entirely thanks to our age. While the time together, dancing, and co-ed sleepovers parts of our night were all better and awesome too; let’s not go there and comment on other general highlights of the day. The sanctuary was full for the ceremony, and that isn’t a surprise when basically everyone knows the Emerson and Landry clans and between them; they are also related to nearly every other family too. We did not help with the music at the church, but our little group was drafted for some unplugged songs – including several that came after Cassie and Michael offered their musical services for Rowen and Tim’s first song at the start of the dance. We handled the songs for the wedding party and two more as parents, family, and then everyone joined in; and then we offered a three-song set during a later break at around eleven o’clock.
This report is getting a bit disjointed, but backing up to the wedding dinner, we should mention that Jake and Stephanie catered the meal with the help of a small army of staff from the Inn and additional teens while the Inn was still busy with the usual summer weekend crowds. That’s why the food was so amazing and we were able to enjoy everything even while we also helped out with getting younger kids fed and generally kept out of trouble and entertained with activity packs that are basically a standard now whenever Miranda and Stephanie are involved in the wedding preparations.
Our kid control duties still needed to be fit in around the music and our own date-related fun like dancing with Naomi or Aiden. We didn’t need to keep doing that after our last ‘set’ of unplugged music, though, since all of the youngest kids were taken home or elsewhere as the party headed toward midnight and Rowen and Tim were getting ready to leave and head for their airport hotel – along with Cassie and Michael. Heading to our beds might have been nice, but wasn’t an option for us; since we were on the crew for the post-party clean-up that didn’t even really get started until the last guests headed out at around two o’clock – with some of them being nudged along and given rides by designated drivers. While there was still a lot of work left to do for today, the chores that couldn’t wait for morning took nearly two hours; and it was going on four o’clock by the time I went home with Aiden and Naomi took Ethan with her for our respective co-ed nap time. Naomi might not tell the truth about that with anyone else to keep from messing with her reputation, but I can assure you that while napping with our favorite cuddle buddies is always great; nothing else more-interesting happened and we really did just sleep!
Moving along, after those too-short naps, we needed to be up early again; Aiden and I still went with a morning workout by the river; and then the four of us were on-duty again – this time to join the work crew at the Emerson’s house – along with Mom and Dad – that was for all of the visiting wedding guests. That was a crazy blast of work and fun; most of us headed for the church in time for the service and Sunday school; and that hour and change was also one of the few breaks we’ve had today through to now.
Thanks to the forecast for thunderstorms in the afternoon, getting the Emerson’s back yard cleaned up and the pavilion taken down became a priority and work that we helped with, but then other than the cameo moments we took to eat at the barbeque lunch and then for a leftovers snack dinner; we’ve been working most of the time since then. In addition to helping the crew that needed to get the pavilion down and packed up ahead of the rain, we also helped with hauling luggage for all of the outgoing guests; we cleaned cottages and homes after they left; ran loads of laundry at multiple locations; and generally added in some kid control help when needed – including when kids needed to be entertained indoors when bands of rain rolled through town along with a couple of quickly-passing thunderstorms.
Mom and Dad were on driving duty for trips to the airport, so we didn’t see them until they got home – in time for dinner for Mom and after that for Dad; since he got one of the final groups that had late-afternoon or early evening flights. By then, we were down to continuing laundry work and final clean-ups at Cassie and Michael’s or Rowen and Tim’s houses, and by the time Dad checked in with us; we were getting close to being ready to go home with him.
We didn’t do that until Mom and Patricia and Tracey decided that everything was pretty much ready to close up the two homes while their owners were away and playing in Europe; and then we took Mandy with us and headed home after a last round of hugs and goodbyes with the rest of the work crew. Mandy, by the way, will definitely spend time with our cousins too while Cassie and Michael are away, but she seems happy-enough to be here with us tonight; and will likely be cuddling with me; since she’s already taken over her favorite throw blanket on the end of my bed.
That is pretty much all we have for tonight. It should be a bit quieter around here for the next week or two – and not just because four of our favorite young adults are away! Ethan and I do want to try and spend more time at the lab or archives, though, and this might be the best chances for us to do that before we’ll be getting busier again the further we get into August. Before we move on to nap time, I should also mention that we’ve already been razzed about the baseball game losses yesterday that were obviously our fault while choosing to go on our dates instead of playing in the games with our friends. We will take the heat for those losses because we won’t be given a choice anyway, but let’s point out that the other teams had fewer players too because of the wedding. Just for fun, I might think about offering an analysis of those games and the effects of losing Magi and non-Magi players, but while that idea is moderately-interesting; it doesn’t overcome my need for some quality sleep time.
We’ll keep you up-to-date with all of the latest as always and add in anything interesting we hear about from Cassie and Michael as they tour parts of Europe with their best friends, but that really is all for right now; crashing and napping is up next on our to-do list; and we are out of here and off to our beds to do that starting right now.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
