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