When your husband spends hours and hours of the very few days a year he gets at the cabin weeding and even incinerating sections of the gravel driveway, only to have them regrow by the next time you get to the next section, it is time to do something different.

Pave the damn driveway and get my husband back so he can go play with me now!

And doesn’t the garden look delightful in early summer? It will only get better as the flowers bloom.

(And then two weeks later, it looked like this!)

Esther graduated from Cal-Tech, SLO the day after our last full day of school, so we hopped on a plane and headed down to California to spend a long weekend with family. Piper was almost cheerful the entire time because we rented The Turtle House, a wonderful, large house that fit the 12 of us and had two resident tortoises in a pen in the back.

I really enjoyed the entire area. Downtown San Luis Obispo is charming, the different beaches are great for exploring, and we had some fun exploring the inland parks, zoo, and waterpark.

But mostly, we were there for the family. I love getting updated pictures of the cousins! These are some of my favorite people in the world.

We did get some family shots–the first is the direct Need line. “Not a drop do I have, but the name,” probably said Shakspeare, or maybe just a bunch of monkeys with typewriters.

Grandpa and Grandma with the youngest six of their eight grandchildren.

And the whole fam-dam-ily, at least the Dan and Dwayne branches, from ages 13 to 80.

School’s almost out, and luckily, Rochelle and I made camping reservations back at Christmas time for Leavenworth now!

My youngers are wise to my ways, so they did not join us on the bike trip that everyone else volunteered for. I really enjoy the Icicle Irrigation path and for a path along an elevated ledge, there are very few places you feel like you might die. Mabel may have disagreed and I think she had new empathy for my younger children.

I hope we made up for it in snacks and games later.

PS She’s 15.

Price Sculpture Garden outside of Coupeville on Whidbey Island is exactly the adventure I love and that Wes would hate…so Dwayne and I did not take him or his sisters.

It was the perfect blend of outdoor art and nature paths and as a bonus, had wi-fi connection to enjoy the virtual art through your smart phone. That was harder to take a picture of, but so enjoyable! I can’t wait to explore again.

Spring is making my tipsy. Look at the green of our backyard!

A friend whose spouse was also out of town that weekend suggested a paddle around the Arboretum. I’ve gone back three times since, but have never seen as much wildlife (or have been so warm) as this first May paddle. Fish were throwing themselves against the shores, turtles all the way down, raccoons were doing reconnaissance on a beaver dam, and we survived a Montlake boating day as we spied on Seattle houseboats. It was a perfect way to enjoy our lovely area and keep me from finding chores and work to do instead.

Art Gecko had been passed on to a new tween girl a year and a half ago and Piper had been making eyes and kissy faces at the bearded dragons at the pet store. I said no, quite firmly, several times. Then Dwayne left to help out his parents for ten days and Piper and her BF *really* got to work.

A slide show was created. They got through most of the presentation before I stopped them and had Piper videocall her father because I was having a really hard time holding the “no” line.

And look how cute the accessories are! Truly, if I hadn’t already caved, this would have done it.

The girls picked out their new child together, and all were happy.

It took a little while to decide on a name, and in spite of our terrible experience of naming small pets after food, I introduce to you (and Timmy)… Nugget. And he will henceforth be called Nugs or Nuggie. Happy Mother’s Day to me.

I love these kids, and it’s fun to have a housefull of tweens and teens. In the morning, C challenged the boys to a cookie-making contest. Neither boy had really baked before, so merriment and mess was had, and everyone was a chocolate chip winner. At least, that’s how I choose to recall it.