8/22-8/27

Our week started off pretty quiet, just a visit to the dentist and then to the ortho doctor for a new cast for Isaac.  When I got home, I noticed a bunch of bloody bandages around and when I asked Jacob what had happened, he told me he felt his legs were too hairy so he decided to shave them.  He had a bit of a mishap with the razor and shaved into the skin on his shins.  Yes, both shins! 

He has partially shaved legs and some nice scabs down the front.  He scars so easily, he'll have black stripes down his legs for years!  He spent the rest of the day babying his legs and smearing them with ointment.  We had some kids over to play and as I looked around at Jacob nursing his shaving injury, the Isaacs talking in Pee-Wee Herman voices, the girls up to something else, William and Miriam out riding on their power wheels, I felt like I was the ring leader in a crazy three ring circus!

Wednesday

Wednesday afternoon, Zaycon Foods used our home as a delivery location for ground beef.  The Isaacs (and Miriam for a few minutes) did traffic control while the girls helped package up the 60 pounds of ground beef we got into smaller containers.   We always have to do traffic control when we have an event where lots of cars are coming and leaving at the same time due to a short one way section of our driveway.  We've gotten pretty good at it!

Miriam was seeking shelter from the hot day

They thought it was disgusting to work with the meat.

Isaac received a cast he can get wet.  The doctor told us he was now free to shower and swim.  Hooray for both of those, the first more than the second!  We put it to use the next evening. 

We usually go boating on Wednesday nights but Dode had to replace the toilet in the upstairs bathroom.  It had always plugged up but was starting to plug up and just keep running at the same time.  After twice flooding the bathroom with more than two inches of water across the entire floor, I was fed up and ready for a change.  Dode bought the Home Depot salesman's recommendation for the best toilet out there and got it installed.  It sure would be nice if they'd line up a bunch of toilets that were hooked up so you could check the flush before you got home.  Once it was ready to go, he flushed it and I think his blood pressure went sky high.  He hates the new toilet and feels it's a ticking time bomb before it plugs up big time.  Lovely new low water toilets!

Thursday

Dode took the kids out to play behind the boat and I stayed home with the little ones.  Elizabeth's friend Colleen had never been in any boat besides ferry boats and was enchanted with the night.  The kids had so much fun, Dode took them back out on Friday night.

While Isaac and Anastaya were on the tube, Dode dumped them off harder than he's done in a long time.  Isaac even got to "enjoy" the sensation of running across the water before being slammed beneath the surface.  I'm not sure if that's the kind of activity the doctor had in mind with the new cast!  Dode says we might as well take advantage of that rod in his arm.

Anastaya, Elizabeth, Colleen Colburn

Friday

We've known for a while that Jacob needed to get his wisdom teeth removed.  We finally went to the doctor on Friday morning and he said they looked like a simple extraction and he could get Jacob in that afternoon.  Dode was able to take the afternoon off to stay home with the rest of the kids while I took Jacob back for the extractions.  Because Jacob's teeth were "simple" to get out and because we don't have very good dental insurance, Jacob was only given a local anesthetic and got to experience the entire thing awake.  Jacob's dentist had an interesting personality.  He yelled at the dental hygienist and even grabbed the suction device out of her hands to show her how to do it better, he berated her for going too slowly, he slipped and cut the back of Jacob's throat.  He even had to put one hand on the side of Jacob's face, pushing it into the headrest on the chair while prying at the wisdom tooth with the other hand.  But, Jacob is tough and he survived it.  A little over an hour later, we left the office with a numbed up Jacob and four less teeth.  He's laying low, watching movies and playing games on the gaming systems.  He's living on: pudding, ice cream, creme brule, and horchata (a Mexican rice drink).

One side of his face is pretty swollen

Saturday

Saturday we went to the Tulalip Days celebration for the tribes.  It started with a parade.  We got there early to get our spot along the parade route.  In Arlington, people are crowded together and four deep along the parade route.  At Tulalip, not so much!

We had plenty of room to stretch out 

This was a planned strategy of the children.

They figured if they spread out, there wouldn't be as much competition for the candy because the parade participants would throw to each of them individually.

the view down the parade route

The parade was arriving in just a few minutes

As we were preparing to go to the parade, Elizabeth heard we were doing something with the tribe and said, "Yes!  They always have lots of free stuff!"  She was sure right! 

Elizabeth's parade candy

(full sized photo in case you want to click and see her collection up close!)

One of the golf cars in the parade throwing candy hollered out, "Come get some donuts!" 

Isaac Colson was happy to comply.

Packing up

We hadn't brought any bags so we used the bag from my camp chair, until it would hold no more.

Candy from Miriam, William, and Anastaya and half of Elizabeth's

When we got home, I weighed it and it weighed 16 pounds

That doesn't count Isaac Colson's, Isaac's and 1/2 of Elizabeth's

The candy they threw was good stuff, full sized candy bars, long licorice ropes, chocolate.  It got to where we had to tell the kids to pick up the candy in the street in front of them!  Up until this, their benchmark of a good parade was the Lovell, Wy parade this summer where we got lots of candy (but not 4 pounds each), ice cream sandwiches and Miriam even got a slice of pizza.  I think the Tulalips have created a parade that's difficult to top!

After the parade, we walked to the festival area at their traditional tribal meeting grounds where they offered:  bouncy houses, balloon animals, face painting, spin art, hot dogs, chips, pop, cotton candy, and snow cones.  They also had drum making and shawl making for the adults.  All the activities were free and all you can eat but we didn't take advantage of everything.

Janice showed up Saturday afternoon and took the kids scuba diving in the pool.  It's something they talk about often and absolutely love to do.  I think every time they see her, they ask her when she's coming to take them again (even in the winter!).  They were thrilled to get to go again.

Saturday evening, we hosted a party for the people we attend church with.  It was a pretty good turnout.  I never counted heads but I know we had over 100 people (close to 150).  We've got photos of the same thing we take pictures of at every party, sorry!

These were our first arrivals.  Notice no one is on the hill behind them?  That was soon to change!

zip line

waiting their turn for the zip line

waiting their turn to eat

Some of the men at church cooked a Mongolian grill dinner.  You got to select what veggies and sauces you wanted and when you got to the grills, you chose your meat and they cooked it up for you.  The line moved pretty slow but everyone loved it and many people went back for seconds (and thirds).  The turn out was about twice what they were expecting so they ended up running out of food before the cooks got to eat any of that tasty food they were cooking.  Jacob thought it smelled so good that he tried some.  He really regretted it because he was a lot more sore after eating it.  We got to use our new snow cone maker which was a hit with the kids (and the adults).  With that and the popcorn popper, we do a pretty good job of getting some kind of nourishment in the kids.  This time we rented a port-a-potty so we didn't have to send people over to Haggen to use the bathroom.  (Our septic drainfield can't handle that big of a crowd.)

A funny "small world" thing happened at the party.  I was talking with a couple at the party.  The husband is a dentist.  I was telling them about Jacob's adventures and the dentist asked me the name of the dentist we'd been to.  I didn't know it but when I described where the office was, he told me he knew the dentist and had even gone to high school with him (they aren't from this area).  Apparently, Jacob's wisdom tooth dentist has a reputation for being excitable and a bit hard on his assistants.   I think Jacob would agree.

We got the same comments we always get, "I never even knew a house was back here!", "Your kids must love living here!"  (To which we respond, "No, they get bored like any other kid")  Those who've known us for a while ask, "What are you going to add next?"  Several adults, and a few kids told us, "You really know how to throw a party!"  Quite a few people asked us if we'd spent the entire morning getting ready for the party.  Our party preparation had to be compressed into a tiny window of time because I'd thought we'd get ready Saturday morning (Dode brought the info about the parade home with him from work) and Dode thought we'd get ready Friday night (I'd already told the kids we'd go out in the boat again).  Somehow, we got it all done, the playing and the working.

My brother came to pick up his truck that he's been storing here for a while and he even stayed for the party.  It was fun to see Matthew but I think he was a bit overwhelmed at the size of the crowd.  I'd warned him we were having a party but I don't think he was imagining that size of crowd!  At one point, he even asked me, "Do you know everyone here?"  I told him that I knew 95% of the folks, I just didn't know the friends of friends.  Gabe just jumped right in like he knew everyone and was instantly having a great time.  

Sunday

Dode said he realized the kids haven't seen him struggle to learn anything lately.  We think we should always be learning new things, for our own enrichment and so we can be an example for the kids.  There are so many hard things they have to learn to do, yet they look at us grown ups and think everything comes easy for us.  They don't see the hard work we put in years ago.  By learning new things and sharing the experience with the kids, they see that it's ok to make mistakes when you're learning to do something.  Dode learns things all the time, like the hundreds of hours he put into my co-op software but the kids don't notice that.  He thought he'd give the unicycle a try. 

Isaac and Dode's day of rest

Sucia Island

We made it back to Sucia Island.  This time we even stayed the night!  On Saturday, once I was done with produce in the morning and had the highly perishable items put away, we headed off on our grand adventure.  Anastaya complained that she was packing a brown bag lunch for the third day in a row.  I told her she should be happy to be packing another sack lunch because that means we're doing a lot of playing.  I don't know if she was convinced! 

Last time we launched from Anacortes but this time we tried the Bellingham launch.  Dode liked it much better because there were four lanes and the launch was a clean cement launch instead of cement covered in gravel (easier to pull the boat out with our two wheel drive van).  There was plenty of dock space next to the launch for me to stand and hold the boat while he parked and the kids used the bathroom.  In Anacortes, once you launch you need to head right out to the water.  I'm stuck circling in the boat around while waiting for Dode to get back from parking the van and then have to work my way in through the crowd of launching boats to pick him up.  Bellingham also had fresh water for spraying the boat off immediately after taking it out of the salt water, nice!  There was a free marine discovery center where the children got to explore the touch pool and even hold a fish. 

It felt a bit unreal to be leaving on the trip.  That morning, the phone had rung at 5:30 and I'd spent most of the next three hours involved with the produce co-op.  Here is was 10:30 and I was standing in the sunny harbor in Bellingham ready to head off to one of the San Juan Islands.  How lucky is that?!

The ride to the island was sunny skies and calm water.  Miriam loved the ride and spent most of it just like this.

her bird's eye view of the route

My view of the route!

Dode and I are quite unusual among adult boaters.  We always have our life jackets on.  If something goes wrong, we don't want to be worrying about keeping ourselves afloat while helping the kids. 

Elizabeth liked flying while riding

William chose to sit this way, looks comfortable doesn't it?

Our campsite. 

With it being a sunny weekend and not getting to Sucia until lunch time, we knew the docks would be full and we wouldn't be tying up to them.  We came prepared for mooring close to shore with our anchor and a few ski ropes.  Dode hooks them up so the boat can be pulled into shore and back out again.  That made it so the boat would be anchored in deep water and would not be grounded when the tide went.   We knew we did not have to have dock space, but what we didn't know is if we'd find a campsite.  The island does not have any reserved camping.  There were several left when we got there.  There is virtually no privacy for the campsites as they are all either on the edges of a small field or are right next to access trails.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach.  It was a really hot day and there wasn't a breath of wind.  I hadn't packed my swimsuit because it never gets very hot out on the Puget Sound and we were trying to pack lightly (and my granny suit just weighs a ton!).  I was regretting that decision big time.  They say you can get hypothermia in just 15 minutes in the Puget Sound but our kids spent hours happily playing in it.  I would have loved to join them!

The Swinomish Yacht Club was having a get together at the group camp site and they were so loud.  Bongo Drums, Singing, Whooping and Hollering.  It didn't make for a very restful night.  Even though I was short on sleep, I woke up early the next morning and saw this through the tent window.

When I first saw the sunrise, the pink went all the way to shore but by the time I fetched the camera from the boat, the colors were fading.  I was the only person in the campground wandering around and it was nice and quiet.  I was tempted to find a noisy instrument and walk around on the dock playing and hollering to give those noisy boaters a taste of their own medicine!  I walked along the shore line of the bay and got to see some of the sea shell fossils that give it its name (Fossil Bay).  I also got to watch three otters playing in the water near me.

When I got back to the tent, I saw that Miriam was working her way right out of the tent in her sleep.

Bug bites (30+) and sunburn, must be having a lot of fun!

The island is covered with beautiful red barked Madrona trees

Once I ate a quick breakfast, I hopped on my bike and set off to explore the island. I made it to the end of the road used by the ranger to get around between campgrounds and walked the 2.1 miles to Ewing Cove. (You can see the roads and trail in the map on the top of the post.)  I was gone from camp for two hours and it felt like such a vacation to be exploring on my own without having to answer questions every 30 seconds or keep a smile on my face and enthusiasm in my step constantly.  I was grateful Dode encouraged me to get out and explore.  Bringing my bike along was a bit of a headache for him to pack and I really enjoyed it on the island.  I thought the beach at Ewing Cove was beautiful and set off back to camp to convince Dode to spend the day there. He didn't need much convincing and we were soon packed up and headed over.

While I was gone, Dode made a pancake breakfast for the kids.  After they ate, they headed back into the water.  The girls found this long bull kelp and had a fun time playing with it.    They even towed it behind them when we motored over to Ewing Cove.

Where we spent our day.  It was a gorgeous beach ringed with small islands.  We just had to visit some of the smaller ones!

Remember when I said I didn't have my swimsuit?

Each of those channels were about 5 feet deep. 

Ready to cross

We've all got our life jackets in case it's a bit more than we bargained for.

My shirt dried quickly but those jeans were wet when I took them off hours later.

Almost there.  I had to carry Miriam because she refused to wear her sandals and the barnacles were hurting her feet.

There are lots of weathered rock on Sucia.

This one guarded the harbor where we spent the day

Perfect attire for walking in the woods

The return trip was a lot more bumpy because the winds had picked up.  As we were approaching Bellingham, I was so thankful to live where we do.  Earlier this week I had taken the kids for a day hike into a mountain lake.  Here we were a couple of days later going on a boat to spend a  few days enjoying the San Juan Islands and Puget Sound.  There aren't many places in the U.S. where the mountains and the sea are so close together. 

Once we had the boat safely out of the water, Dode could finally breathe a sigh of relief that the boat had gotten the family safely there and back.  He'd done everything he could to make sure we'd have a safe trip.  He'd borrowed an outboard motor from his dad.  It's a two cycle engine so it runs gas from a self contained can in case our gas supply was contaminated with water.  He'd packed our trolling motor in case the inboard and outboard motors failed.  He'd looked up the phone number of a towing company for boats.  He had our boat GPS, his cell phone GPS, nautical maps, and a compass for navigating.  He'd packed an air mattress in case we started sinking and needed a life raft.  He'd packed a hand pump and some buckets in case the bilge failed and we were taking on water.  The one thing he didn't have a back up for was the battery and that really bothered him.  Even with all that preparation, he still worried something would go wrong. 

 It seems that there's always a little something that needs to be done with the boat.  Dode still needs to re-wire the switch that makes the engine go up and down.  We are also taking on water again.  Dode had finally fixed that last year and we'd been watertight for a while.  Apparently the boat is allergic to salt water because we were able to bilge (pump water out) the boat a few times on this trip.  Dode thinks if the boat is going to leak, it could at least do it in fresh water, not salt water which causes corrosion.

We drove home and happily found that Jacob had dinner ready for us.  Unfortunately, the produce fairy hadn't come and put away my 8 baskets of produce!

8/14-8/21

Wednesday
Wednesday it was back to the ENT doctor for Isaac's long running ear infection in his left ear.  The doctor cleaned his ear out and gave him another prescription for antibiotic drops.  He told us that sometimes these outer ear infections can be difficult to heal because so much debris builds up inside the ear that the medication can't get where it needs to go.  Our fingers are crossed that this time it will work.

Wednesday evening we took the boat out to Lake Stevens again.  When we got there, it was an absolute zoo.  There were boats and jet skis everywhere: launching, retrieving, picking up new passengers, and playing on the lake.  The lake was really rough and we could tell right away it would not be a day for knee boarding.  We launched the boat and found out the engine would not go down.  Dode was able to "hot wire" it and we were in business.  The kids had a lot of fun being pulled around on the tube behind the boat.  Part way through the evening, we noticed a larger boat with smoke coming from the engine.  We motored up and asked if everything was OK.  It turned out that they'd overheated their engine.  After quickly dropping some of us on shore, Dode went back and towed them in to the dock.  I'd wished I'd had my camera with me because it was a cute to see our little boat towing in their larger boat.  Elizabeth was so proud of her dad for being the hero.

Allie Bigger, Anastaya, and Elizabeth on the tube

Yes, Allie has a bloody nose.  We like to rough the visiting kids up a bit before sending them home.

Thursday

"B" marks the spot!

Thursday I took the kids hiking to Boardman Lake.  It's one of my favorite hikes with kids because it's a one mile, 300 foot elevation gain trail.  The trail is really nice and winds through a very pretty forest.  The lake is a great one for kids to play at with rocky/sandy beaches for wading.  We hiked in to the lake in about 30 minutes. 

my crew of hikers

On the trail

Our first stop at the lake was the back country toilet.  It was much worse than most toilets because the solid matter was merely 8-10 inches below the seat.  There were flies everywhere and it was impossible to sit down without them bumping up against you trying to get out.  Sound like fun?  I got to make two trips there.  First with Miriam as soon as we arrived.  Once we were done and walking back to the lake shore (they put the toilet well beyond the minimum distance to water) I found Elizabeth at the backpacks we'd left on the trail.  She was frantic and in tears.  Isaac had sent her to the bathroom with the instructions to "just keep turning left".  She'd gotten lost and had run around in circles for a while.  She could holler to Isaac and hear his voice but not what he was saying and didn't know how to find him.  She found our backpacks in the trail and decided to stay there.  Good choice Elizabeth! 
 
I thought the trip was going to be a bust because the kids were all complaining about the bugs at the lake.  They put on bug spray (I think Isaac used 1/2 a bottle!) but it didn't cause the tiny gnats to leave.  Once we'd been there about 10 minutes (with 10 minutes of moaning and groaning) the winds picked up enough to chase away the bugs and the kids started having a great time.  We spent 2 1/2 hours at the lake, enjoying our picnic lunches, playing with the rocks at the shore, and trying to catch salamanders. 

Isaac trying to convince the girls to cliff jump.

They didn't.

Isaac is a pro at suggesting things for others to try that he isn't willing to do himself.  He'll build a jump on the water slide and try to get someone to go over it, "Come on, it'll be fun!"  But will he do it?  No way!

At least with the cast on his arm, he has an excuse for sitting out on the "fun".

Isaac got his first horse fly bite on the way back down to the car.  He suddenly exclaimed, "Hey!  That fly landed on me, and bit me!"  I told him that yes, in the mountains some of the flies bite.  Bite, not sting.

view from our picnic spot

The Isaac                                                       The thinker

I'd felt like I should be a bit prepared with my "10 essentials" when I was packing in the morning so I stuck an emergency blanket, first aid kit, and flashlight in my backpack.  When Isaac asked what I was doing and I told him, he let me know that he didn't want to be involved in any kind of emergency which would necessitate the use of that flashlight!  The first aid kit came in handy on the way back.  Miriam was rushing down the trail, trying to stay in the front, when she tripped over a rock and sliced her finger open.  Instantly she started screaming at the top of her lungs and running down the trail to find me (running in the opposite direction of where I was!).  I applied a few band aids and she was instantly feeling much better. 

Jacob hadn't wanted to go with us because he feels like he's been to Boardman too many times (he'd rather stay home and sleep).  I negotiated with him that if he stayed home, he'd make dinner for us.  We drove home just a few minutes before dinner time and walked into an empty house.  No Jacob, no dinner, no note of explanation.  Tired and hungry family.  I quickly pulled together a dinner and we were able to eat on time.  Jacob showed up an hour later and it took a lot of patience from Dode and myself to calmly explain why were were frustrated and disappointed in him.  One of these times it's got to have some effect, doesn't it?!

Friday:  Woodland Park Zoo
Friday we met my mom and headed to the Zoo.  Our first stop (after the bathrooms) was the dinosaur exhibit they have right now.

The kids loved having this dinosaur "spit" on them.

I thought the exhibit was over priced ($3/person) and I hated the ending.  We had to zig zag through the gift shop to leave the exhibit.  What parent wants to take their kids through a gift shop saying "no" repeatedly?  Why can't it be enough that you took your kids to the zoo?  But, the zoo seems intent on making me the bad guy.  "No, nothing from the gift shop.", "No, no cotton candy-ice cream-popcorn.", "No, no photo from the booth", "No, you can't make a bracelet in the African village." "No, you can't feed the giraffe/elephant.", "No carousal ride today"  When we emerged from the zoo and played for a few minutes at the playground I got to say no again, "No nothing from the ice cream man."  So instead of remembering a great day at the zoo, they remember all the things they could have done/had if mom had only been nicer.

I'm not very good at taking photos of the animals at the zoo.  Here's the one I took.

I'd rather take photos of the kids!

taking a rest in the African village house

that's Gabriel, my nephew, in the center on the Komodo dragon

There isn't a very big playground next to the zoo but it was nice to sit and rest my feet for a few minutes before tackling the traffic to get home.  It took us an hour and a half to make the one hour drive.