I finished reading In the Skin of a Lion in the morning. August slept until 8:40. Colin spent much of the morning chanting my name. Derek made tons of crepes for breakfast, which were a big hit, especially with cinnamon and sugar. And August had one with chocolate syrup (his idea).
We were all getting ready to go on a morning walk. He was worried about not being ready on time. But we were. He’s continued on a line of his odd humor: “Penis, defender of the penisverse…nursings, defender of the nursingverse.” Which all started with “Zinniebot, defender of the multiverse.” He sled me to go on the walk without brushing my teeth. He jumped on the couch and said “recharge me, please.” He talked to Carly and she recharged him.
We got walking, most everyone, about 10:15. We walked south on the eastern trail. He did fine at first. They were doing red light, green light down the road. Andrea said “Let’s see who can stop the fastest” and when she said “Green light” he took a step, then froze.
As we walked along the trail though he had more of a mixed bag. We saw some deer and looked at things along the way. Did some leading with Thatcher, but was getting upset that Vivian and Thatcher were leading and ahead of him.
On the way back, he was doing math with Andrea. She asked something like 20+20 and he said “I think we need a calculator!” He was getting upset about being slower again and someone said they were older than him. He said, “I’m19,000 years old.” But then he complained ‘I can’t actually change myself.”
We were back at 11:20. He had a small rock and wanted to take it down to the vice. Sounded like a game he’d played before down there. We got permission from Andrea and went in. He banged the rock on the vice and it would cast magic: “Everyone in the world is a rabbit… Chair… Water… Sock…” He continued it upstairs.
I lay down for a bit to let allergies pass. Not too bad, but the most I’ve felt since being here. When I came out Cherie was giving the kids the splat balls that look like poop. They ended up playing in the bathroom with the door closed, which was fine by us as it kept the noise down: “I pooped on the wall!” “Poop on you!”
Glecy arrived right at 12. People had lunch and there was a lot of craziness, then they all went to the beach at 2 and I stayed and worked. Derek came back to start dinner and said he thought they were staying longer. I walked down, but met them in the parking lot by the beach. August had dragged the floaty thing all the way from the beach, and refused help the entire way, even pulling it over a log. Glecy said he had spent about 70% of his time on the beach digging and making paths for the water. Carly tried the paddle board again, and Kayla floated on the floaty.
I carried him back and he noticed my new wireless headphones. He listened to them and was excited. He liked New Order’s “Shake It Up”: “So good!” And he was excited about wireless headphones. He then sang a “wireless headphones, wireless headphones” song.
He tried playing Chutes and Ladders with Cherie, Thatcher, and Vivian but got upset when he was losing, so I took him for a break. He went back with Cherie when they were done and he was rolling the dice for her while she moved. Carly and I then played with him and we did a couple hands of cribbage, then he got out the Sequence box and wanted us to try and play it. There was no board though, which he would have gotten upset about, but dinner was ready so he got distracted.
Derek had cooked the geoducks they had caught. He breaded parts of them, and did the rest in pancake things. Cherie had made lasagna.
August told me he needed attention and I agreed to play Magnus Kingdom with him. He got some chips and said “This is my snack when I pay Magnus Kingdom, okay?” He was then with a bunch of the kids and Derek, who was doing magic with a ball. August and Vivian were then sitting on the back of the couch, and she was flopping backwards onto the couch. Colin copied her and bounced on the couch and did a flip off it, backwards. Which might have been okay, but then his head hit the coffee table. Glecy jumped up and grabbed him.
Andrea had made a berry pie, so we all had some pie and ice cream. I was going to wait, but since August was having some I decided to have some as well. By the time I was finished scooping mine up, he was done. So I let him share some of mine as well. Colin then wanted some attention and we played with the poop ball together.
We were all going down to the spit to do s’mores. Andrea’s parents had brought wood and her dad, Kim, had a fire going. We got walking, with Vivian, and then realized that none of us had told Cassie and Jeff that we were taking Vivian, so I ran back and told them.
At the beach, everyone realized we didn’t have any marshmallow sticks. I messaged Levi and Sarah and it turned out they had three, but by then Kim had come back with long sticks. Which were necessary as he’d built a huge fire that would have taken a long time to burn down to coals.
While we waited, we had sat on a log and thrown rocks in the water. August leaned on Cassie for quite awhile. I pointed out Mt. Rainier and suggested we go there next year. He said he wanted to climb to the top.
Someone roasted a marshmallow for August and he had a s’more. I roasted one marshmallow, people freaked out about burnt marshmallows being unhealthy, and I made it through a family photo before leaving to head back to the house at 7:45.
I read in the bedroom and heard deer out the window. Two young bucks. Glecy had been asleep when I got back but was now up, and I pointed them out to her. Everyone got back at 8:35. Not sure what they did after I left.
August requested playing on her tablet with Cherie. He argued “It’s my last chance…” He was then driving her crazy by repeatedly asking “Why?”
I took him in for his shower. Let him play for a few minutes (he made a barrier of things along the edge of the tub) then I washed his hair. I started drying his hair with the hair dryer, then Carly moved him to the bedroom and finished it.
He did lots of good nights to people, but especially Cherie. I left them at 9:40 but he wasn’t ready for sleep. I went in and read 3 chapters of Two Dogs in a Trenchcoat, which I hadn’t read any of before. We came out t 10:05. Vivian and Colin were still out so he got to stay out while Carly finished getting ready for bed. He ws asleep at 10:20.