I went outside after Mom allowed me to say hello to everyone, and then to go out. Olivia and Aunt D. kindly stayed with the dogs for a minute, and thanks, guys. I then went out, and ran with them a little, feeling the open air breeze on my face. It was a beautiful day, so far. We got them back inside their crate. Then I talked to Aunt Tammy in the kitchen, about how their trip to Texas was. They had taken a truck/ R.V., one with a bed over the driver and passenger seats. It was cool to listen to how they were on the road, and then staying at hotels, half of them in a room and some in the R.V., stuff like that. I had gone inside the vehicle when Zach came over one day, and it looked really spacey, unlike ours. A real booth table, and couches, plus a roomy bedroom in the back, and another bed over the driver seats. A dogs life. I also spoke to Caroline about what college she might be going to, because sadly we won't be here to see her graduate. Oh well. Almost really afterward seeing Jeff and Madelyn, the kids (Caroline included) migrated downstairs, unsure of what to do. The elders (Caroline and Madelyn) were all for wii, which we played while we decided. It was fun to watch everyone switching off and competing in a game called Tanks.
I kinda wanted to dabble in a character game, with a plot and, of course... characters. Olivia was either wanting a game like tag or barbies interested her also, Sophie just being along for the ride. We were pretty divided. I didn't really know what Rebecca wanted. She continued to play TANKS. When Sophie asked what Rebecca got for Christmas, Rebecca talked about getting a barbie R.V. Coincidentally, Sophie had gotten one too! They went and Rebecca showed it to Sophie. Later when Sophie asked me what I got, after saying a little about what I got, I told her about the A.M.E book, that you could ask it anything. She was amazed, but didn't get what I was saying, she thought it could really answer any question you ever had. She also wanted to see it. I went to my closet upstairs, Sophie on my tail, wanting to look at this strange new device. I decided to make a little joke. I said once you spoke into it and flipped to a page, it would show it to you. I knew that the sections in the book were color-coded, and also I knew in a book that if you put your thumb on one part on one day, and open it again, sometimes it takes you to that actual page. I thought about how I had gone to an alien page, and said, "Are we alone in the universe," and opened a blue page, for the space part. And it took me to the page. Sophie was so flabbergasted. The funniest part of the day.
I continued to be lucky, but did more safe things like saying, "Give me a question from the subject of nature" knowing it to be green. But then came a sad part. Sophie asked to do it herself, to try it out. Oops. How would I solve this one? She took it and asked what was the body part in your body or something along those lines, and it came to something totally different. I thought on my feet. "You have to concentrate," I informed her. "Like this." and I did one of the things I had done before again. She wanted to show everyone else. Downstairs, Caroline and Madelyn tried it out, and saw the trick. They told Sophie it didn't work, but I continued to persuade her it did. Rebecca told her I was lying, that it never did such a thing. I said to go to Society and Culture, and then I placed my thumb in the gold spot. Olivia said not to put any finger on the book, to just open it. I was caught, and so told that I had been tricking Poor Sophie. We still looked at it and the Guinness World Record Book, even though I had been caught. About after a few minutes more of playing wii and Olivia and I going and playing with Rebecca's barbies. Yes, I admit it. But Rebecca came over and hurt us, yelling and saying we couldn't play with them. Tyrant.
Lunch was called. We went upstairs, and saw that some sandwiches were on a plate on the dining room, with little red velvet cupcakes close by. They had tuna and lettuce on them, and something else. We sat down, and that picture you saw in "Highlights of our first couple of days of Leg #2 of Bourne's Big Trip", where all the cousins are at the table, is the seating arrangements we had. The sandwiches were different, but they were good. Olivia ate like five of those small cupcakes, as we talked and laughed, sharing our various trip experiences, as they went on one too, and of course we did. It was fun to talk of funny stories and stuff. Rebecca got from them a DVD about Adventures in Odyssey, which looked pretty cool. I talked to Madelyn about her favorite book, and to Olivia about some things. It was a fun time. The adults were in the living room, and talked about a lot different things. Politics, sports, and families they knew were all part of the conversation. After we ate I had one little cupcake, and we took some pics. It was a good time. I enjoyed talking to my fun cousins. We decided after and while we ate to play manhunt, with the teams being Madelyn, Sophie and I, against Caroline, Olivia, and Rebecca. It was to be interesting face off.
From now on I will call Caroline's team The Eagles and Madelyn's team (which I was on) the Pack Rats. No reason why, except that Caroline and Olivia do basketball at Perimeter, which their mascot is the Eagles. The Pack Rats because, well, throughout the game we hid away like rats, and packed away our plans like a treasured keepsake. Well, those are kind of reasons, but no matter. We started out, and they went to plan and we did also. Madelyn was in charge, but I was good at the strategy and so controlled that part of it. I planned to put a person out to be a scout, just to scout their area, and give us a status report. We would hide and wait, hide and wait, and wait for them... to make the next move. And because Sophie didn't want to be alone or scared, I went over as the scout. I went by the air conditioning things, by the hill and fence. I looked on the back porch from the second floor, just looking beyond where I was. I saw Caroline going down the wooden steps from the back deck third floor, and saw Olivia and Rebecca all going down. So they were planning to be on the third, so they could see everyone. Smart. They were talking at the pool section, but I couldn't catch any of their words. Then it happened. Rebecca was talking and turned my way. Her eyes opened wide, signifying she saw me! "Look!" she yelled. She nudged the others. And I ran, ran, over the hill, down the valley, into the treehouse where Madelyn was.
I told her their positions and what happened. Sophie came over because she didn't like being alone, and we stayed in silence for a minute. We decided to still leave them to make the next move. It would work out better that way. Sophie and Madelyn were by a wall, and we were ready for it as I hid at different places, behind trees. They said time out, and a surprising thing to us, they said they no longer wanted to play manhunt, that it was confusing and Capture the Flag would be better. We were fine with this agreement. But they said the same teams were to be in the new game, the way we now were. I was fine with that, but I also wanted to be on Olivia's team later on, and Caroline was always cool. I would never get that chance, sadly. Oh well. We took the flag (a cylinder metal pole) and put it by the hammock, under the shade of trees and the camouflage of many, many leaves over it. Passing by, you wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary and wouldn't think to look there. We positioned ourselves, Madelyn and Sophie down at the bottom of the yard, by the driveway, along the driveway and the rose garden. I hid behind a bush, guarding the other end in recluse, giving the person coming over some bait.
The bait was, "Oh, nobody over here," they would say, and so they casually lose their alert mode of looking out for somebody. That was the PLAN. It probably wasn't going to be a reality. Then I would tag her, as she was on our property. Rebecca I could catch, if she was coming over. Caroline maybe not. I doubted Olivia. What if they didn't come single? What if someone was with them? Then I would call for Sophie to come and help out. But what if she didn't hear me? NO! Stop. I should just wing it, not having all these "what if" moments. I should alert myself and lookout for the enemy. And that was when I peeked over the bush and saw Olivia opening, and closing the gate. I tried to stay down and out of sight, but she yelled out into the distance that she knew I was behind the bush. DANG! She saw me! Everything's ruined! Oh well. I decided not to play cat and mouse any longer, so I revealed my place. I moved toward her, as she moved back. We played a few words back, trying to be casual, give the other one a trick, not trusting one another. She laid her hand on the fence head. I said hello, and she did ditto, and when I lunged she went back. I laughed, and toyed with her mind a little. I said some things like, "So, you're planning to try to get the flag, or are you just the staller?" Then I heard Madelyn and Sophie over there, fighting with Rebecca and Caroline. As I looked back, Olivia raced with her very fast legs for the treehouse!
I ran there, as Sophie ran up, and chaos exploded, both of the sibling trying to either catch or get away. I guessed that Caroline and them were gone, because Madelyn came running up. Sophie touched Olivia, but Olivia pretended she didn't feel it, still running. Madelyn yelled that she was tagged. Olivia stopped. We decided to yell out loud we were putting her in the treehouse, while actually placing her in the screened in porch where their our blue couches and a stone floor, and yellow walls, table in the middle, and a giant window on the back wall, showing a hallway. It's a cool design. We made the strings that hold it from the dogs go away, to be fair, and made Sophie guard Olivia. Then Madelyn and I went in different positions again, now affirmed that it was a probably that we would win this. Then the weirdest thing happened. Sophie jogged over, and we heard yells, and a shut of a door. Olivia had gone inside. Why? No one knew. It was cheating, to go inside and maybe even go back to the other side. Or it would be cheating for her to be in the comfort of the house, and we would be cheating, because it would be hard for them to get her or even find her. We were so confused she was in there. As Rebecca and Caroline ran down, we paused the game and went to find her inside.
She joined them! We found them all in the forest by the driveway, and were appalled she cheated. Caroline told her to go back, and she later did. As Caroline and Rebecca came back by the rosebushes and Madelyn and Sophie, held them off, I went back in the back. I went along the deck of the second floor, and saw a silver thing on the staircase railing. What a stupid place to hide the...! Wait, it was a broom! Haha, wow, well played, Caroline, well played. I then moved my way down, and found another pole on a table, and took it. Yet another stupid place to hide it. I took it, and went back over as I found out when I showed it in Caroline and Rebecca's faces that they had another one somewhere else. Instantly I was reminded how I left that there a few days prior. Oh well. We continued to play that game, having some fun times and good adventures. It got boring, however, and people wanted to play something else. So we picked Sardines, and Olivia went to hide. In that game everybody counts, and you separate, and after that when you find the hider, you do NOT proclaim it but hide with them. Everyone keeps adding on. The last person to find the person is it. We all looked around when done counting, and Rebecca and Sophie were with each other, and Madelyn and Caroline together also. I was the lone ranger there.
As we looked in different places and then went back again, we saw Madelyn and Caroline had vanished. Sophie and Rebecca wanted me to leave as they went along. We parted ways. I came back around the driveway and found that Sophie was alone, Rebecca had gone. We continued to search, thinking they might be inside, and went in the middle of the living room to see the adults talking about a very true situation. We went back out, and were pretty scared as we didn't know where they were or what happened to them. I thought I heard and saw a black shadow in the woods, and then realized it was just my imagination toying with me. Sophie was really afraid, and kind of shaky. Then I heard a noise of yelling, and our names being called. It came from the direction of the back yard. We went by the pool and decks, weirded out. We had gone through from inside. I looked up, and then saw Olivia, Madelyn, Caroline, and Rebecca, all on the top patio outside of Mom and Dad's bedroom. Sophie was behind me. Last one is it! I raced up as they told Sophie what was up, and then she came running to. I won. So Sophie was now it. But we didn't want to play this either. So, we went back inside and decided to see what the parents were doing.
In the living room, we prayed with everyone, and Jeff prayed that the trip would go fine, and that everything would be okay, that we would keep up. Earlier I had read a blog post to them, I just remembered it now. It was the Sports Saturday one, in which they were in. They liked it pretty well. But after the prayer, which was really a good job Uncle Jeff, we said goodbye as they left a little bit after. It was a great visit, with great conversations, satisfying food, and fun playing time. I look forward to the day we see them in June, or later. I'll miss that clan. They're really cool.
So, as I got ready for the party coming around, Mom went to get a haircut. Dad was to take me to the party. I was a little apprehensive about that, because Dad might embarrass me. And there was girls there. But I also hoped she would like the small book I got her, and that it would be fun. And, that party, was going to be one of the most interesting I have ever been to.
TO BE CONTINUED...(SEE "THE JEFF CLAN VISIT AND ALYSSA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY: ALYSSA'S BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR END OF STORY.)
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