Nine years later, I “graduated” from grade school! And, no, I don’t mean Wes. His completion of 5th grade just means I’ve completed my kids’ years there. I didn’t get to finish, really, as there is so much I would have wrapped up better if I knew that volunteers wouldn’t be allowed back in schools for about 2 years. However, I can still give a shout out to Wes for wrapping up the first half of his schooling. He has been attending our neighborhood elementary since he was two and old enough to suck his fingers while sitting in his sisters’ laps during my volunteer time in the library. He also did prekindergarten there and was biking up there on his own long before he was old enough to do so.
Ah, so many memories. (I didn’t claim they were all good.)
After our twelve-hour adventure Mother’s Day, I was ready to spend Sunday tearing apart the failed water feature and begin the 2.0 version. Enter sledgehammer…and really cute husband to help me move 300# rock.
Oh, I do have a thing for Dwayne in a button-down and rolled sleeves. <Swoon!>
Wes was still grumping from the long Saturday when he didn’t get to play any video games, and had to walk instead. And there was pretty much nothing on my plate he liked eating. But I thought it was perfect! Dwayne and Piper cooked dinner and then Piper made lava cakes for dessert.
I’m not nearly done yet but I’ve made some improvement. Project on!
I wanted to celebrate my mom by doing what I desired, which this year was to take my parents to Bainbridge Island for the day. Fortunately, my parents are spontaneous, adventurous and tolerant!
The goal was Bloedel Reserve, but first, we fortified ourselves at the creperie in Kingston.
We made it to the Reserve just with seconds to spare for our timed entry. My parents hadn’t been there before, and our only time was last November for my birthday. Oddly, the weather in mid-May was almost as nice as that weekend last November. Oh, Puget Sound, you amuse me.
I love this place! So many different ecosystems and plenty of wild flowers and formal gardens. The main house is still not open to visitors, but we did see a frog in the marsh, so there’s that.
The problem with Wes and my relationship is that the things I like best (stories, adventures, physical activity, and working outside) are the very things that make Wes most grumpy. Try to decipher this from his expression.
Piper usually just can’t expend enough energy to be grumpier than Whiney Wesley, so Happy Mother’s Day to Mom and Me!
This was not supposed to be the highlight, but after Bloedel, we drove to Poulsbo, and walked around the cute town just a bit before we got a table at The Loft, a restaurant that checks all the boxes for Dwayne. It was the first time we ate at a restaurant in a long time, but with three of the adults fully vaccinated, one mostly vaxed, and kids who are safe enough, we got to play cribbage over drinks, split appetizers and a bottle of wine, and get seven forks for three desserts (no blood was drawn, even over the cheesecake).
What a delightful day! I adore my parents and being a parent myself. Now, on to Father’s Day.
Oh, there’s is something special about working in the cabin garden. It’s small enough that I can manage it, and it gives a lot of enjoyment to guests and neighbors. This time, I had one big goal: to revert the dry creek bed so that it would go under the firepit (so the bark wouldn’t catch fire) and put pea gravel under the swing to protect kids from bark and large rocks.
Before:
After:
Next project, setting up a better irrigation system! [And eventually enjoy it myself.]
Wes and Catniss (a new third cat we adopted, who is on meds and can’t yet be left alone with the other cats) were my co-pilots as we began our Spring Break adventure…an hour north, just up to Burlington.
Dwayne joined us later that night, but first we had to play a bit.
Wes just bought himself dual lightsabers after watching all the Star Wars movies with Papa. It amused him to no end.
Our second night was camping at Thousand Trails outside of La Conner. Having Dwayne’s car meant we could go into town and enjoy our first restaurant person experience in a year! I used to carry playing cards in my purse so, with a phone app, we could play cribbage while waiting for our food. I am out of the practice but a very eclectic store next door had one deck of playing cards–50’s pin ups. I was amused, and the kids only slightly horrified.
Back at camp, Dwayne and I enjoyed the gorgeous beaches and views.
Once Dwayne headed home on Sunday, the kids and I enjoyed (okay, Piper and Wes may put “enjoyed” in quotation marks when remembering the walks and bike ride) the Bow-Edison area before moving east on Highway 20. Rockport State Park was a great place to stop for lunch and smallish hike before we headed to our final destination in Marblemont.
After a few too many midnights of Catniss caterwauling and frigid sleeping temperatures (Kyla might have left a window open), we decided to come home on Wednesday. But we came back to temperatures in the 70s, so we didn’t have any loss, especially when I got to paddleboard twice before school started again. Happy Spring Break–now just making it summer!
Needopedia 