We left you in suspense mid-July with Dwayne’s itch only half scratched.  Well, it was fully scratched but the project was only half done.

July 20th-Sept. 1, we left the cabin like this:

Arriving yesterday, we had 24 hours to install the four 12’ 6×6 posts as the foundation of The Pergola.

The auger was pretty useful.

 

For posts, and boys!

This little guy came out to inspect us wearing what all dinos are coveting this year—a jet pack!

To celebrate our accomplishments this weekend, we went to Emily and Matt’s, because, well it’s Emily and Matt’s!

Wes and Daddy enjoyed swinging together.  Well, one of them enjoyed it.

Have to wait for the end of the month for the next installment of the Pergola Saga!

She woke up a dozen years old today! She is generally into experiences more than things, so she started the day with 3 Audible credits and Mama & Me pedicures.  Yeah, totally unselfish of me, I know.

We followed that with a trip to Haggen to, um, “make” her birthday cake.  It was lovely!

Grandma invited everyone over for dinner, and we all got to celebrate this beautiful girl.

But she’s not too grown up to wrestle Daddy with all the other kids!

Kyla, you are such a treasure in our family!  You are kind, affectionate, thoughtful, empathetic, intelligent, curious, compassionate, and introspective.  You’re not going to become a lovely person—you already are one!

Wearing an old dragon pillow cum costume, and dancing on the kitchen island with a watermelon, Wesley is just having a typical Wesley afternoon.

I’m giving myself full credit for this fix!  (Though I promise to own it if it breaks next week.) 

With 4 loads waiting in line, the washer yelled at me Wednesday night with lots of beeps and F-51 codes. The owner’s manual was no help, as it just said for any codes to call for repair.  That’s not good enough, Greedy Whirlpool!  (I also calculated that waiting 5-7 days for a $200 fix, plus going to the laundromat was worth the trouble of trying it myself.)

But on Thursday, I did a search and a competent-sounding guy on YouTube came up right away. He had the same code with the exact wash machine, and demonstrated step by step how he fixed it.  

Ideally, I would have had two non-interrupted  hours to work on it, but that’s not how motherhood works.  So 15 minutes here, 30 here, and trading kitchen and bedtime duty for tools, I took the appliance apart, found and cleaned the sensor, put it all together again (correctly, the second time, I admit), reattached the hoses incorrectly, and rinsed my first load in hot water.  But I trouble-shooted my own idiocy and today, did all my laundry!  And the kids sorted and put it all away, because goddesses with these skills don’t sort socks. 

[Insert mad dance moves.]

Hurray for the Internet!

Like I said, the goal this week is to play it to death.  Kyla wanted a day at Wild Waves with her BFF for her birthday. But  further circumstances meant we took BFF’s lil’ sister, and if you are going to have 5 kids, seriously, bring 6 for even numbers.  So we brought one of Wesley’s friends, so that Wesley wouldn’t be the only boy for once, and everyone had a ride buddy.

I hadn’t been to WW since it was still mostly Enchanted Village…when I was in high school!  It’s as changed as you think 25 years would do to a successful theme park. 

Here, the kids are pretending they are too small for the rides…

…and then how they felt being big enough to ride!

I’m totally patting myself on the back for a successful day, 11am-8pm, all kids well and happy.  We did a ton of rides, and the kids got as wet as they wanted. 

The cost is ridiculous, but bring your own food and use PTA or Prime Card discounts to get at least $20 off each ticket.  It doesn’t make a small dish of $5 ice cream seem less expensive, though!

We got 1 night at the cabin as we try to play out the last week of summer vacation.  Vivian and Elle made pancakes for the Super Six.  Emily made me eggs fresh from their chickens.

Breakfast was a very small part of their morning—it was a frog catching day!

[To the tune of Where Have All the Flowers Gone?]

Where do all the towels go?

Wet and dripping?

Where do all the towels go?

Every single day?

Where do all the towels go?

Hang them every time!

When we will we ever learn?

Today we’ll forever learn!

Look, I have two mini-me’s!  They are leveling and sorting books, just like Mama.

Wesley took on landscaping, and I never saw Dwayne, who was pressure washing the back walkway.

Fortunately, this time it was an itch to make a Brazilian feast, significantly less costly than his usual pyramid building.

From planning to chopping and cooking, it was an all day event. He made his favorite feijoada (beans with meat and sawdust) and mine, moqueca (a surprisingly delicious fish stew).  We managed to wrangle 7 children and 4 adults total, and still had plenty of leftovers.  Thanks, Babe, for the lovely dinner!

This was our explorations for the week—I really thought we ventured further into the middle! 

Last November, we tried visiting Hurricane Ridge but we arrived dead middle between first snow and first plow.  This time we made it to the top but the smoke kept view hidden.  So I took a few  pictures that will surely not show up on our Christmas  card.  Um, thanks, Wesley.

Our last stop before the ferry ride home was the Olympic Game Farm. 

We got a full show from an amorous peacock, whose choice peahen was not having any of it.  When this angle didn’t work…

…he truly showed off his tail feathers.

Then the bread feeding/eating frenzy started in earnest.

I had to wash off the bison drool from the minivan when we got home.

I have mixed feelings about this place, as it’s clearly not certified by an reputable zoo organization. But Piper loved it.

And possibly their favorite?

Sharing a chocolate milkshake!