August was up at 8:30. I think he initially went up to Cassie in the kitchen, as I heard him say “No, other mama.” He and Vivian then tried out the catapult and it works nicely. Retied the strings after awhile to make it fly further. They ate coffee cake and I went out with Colin for while and did the roller coaster. I then went in and took a shower.
August wanted to call Oma on the phone and they wanted to know when they were arriving, so Cassie and the kids called and left a voice message for her. August had the long curvy straw and Colin grabbed it and ran. He lay down on one of the stairs, sort of hiding. I took it from him and asked if he’d stolen it from August. He gave me a big grin and nodded his hair and said “uh-huh”.
All the kids were then up in Vivian’s room. She had her jewelry box out and was looking at all the stuff, but Colin and August couldn’t touch any of it. August says he wants music boxes and jewelery, specifically a charm necklace with a toothbrush. He and I talked about how we can get music boxes up at the one village in Israel.
We decided to head to Smithfield Beach National Recreation Area. We had thought about the pool, but it was a bit cool for that. Figured Smithfield would have rocks and paths and other things.
I drove the red car, and Carly and Cassie came with all the kids. I led. We got there, paid to park, then headed down. The water was high, so no beach, and the lifeguards weren’t even down there. He and Vivian ended up playing with the faucets and pouring water down a pipe that said ‘Water’. Vivian was jumping in the mud. I went for a walk to the west to check out the river access points. Nothing more beachy down that way. Went back and we all sat at a picnic table and had lunch. Colin walked around, declaring us all firetrucks and other things. We saw lifeguards head down to set up the swimming area and Vivian and Colin and Cassie went down to see. Carly went to the bathroom. August and I stayed at the table. He was acting rude and we almost went to the car for a timeout, but we did decide on the word ‘potential’ as the word of the day.
The lifeguards went down to the water. We all migrated over that way. Vivian went right it, and August changed into his swimsuit. When he waded in the water he said he was looking for something for the sharing bowl. The mud made it hard to see though. I picked rocks up with my feet for him. So at first it seemed disappointing, but they played for quite awhile. When they stopped most of the wading they came in and used the bench toys to make mud soup, all three of them. We were able to sit and read. Colin was tired, and hanging out with Cassie on the towels, and Vivian and August then started digging a stream, but turned it into their own rock-lined pool.
We decided to head to the Llama Ice Cream shop we had seen on the way. It was cheap. The sign said one scoop was $2.75. But when Cassie got her own, then later when I got ice cream for Colin, it was only $2.12. And it was really good ice cream. I had caramel cinnamon and Vivian and August both had bubble gum with sprinkles. Carly got dolce leche and hung out with Cassie outside by the car, as Colin was asleep, having fallen asleep right away. The shop had lots of flavors, including fruits like tamarind, mamey, lucina, and cherimoya. I tried the tamarind.
The woman’s daughters invited Vivian and August to watch TV, so they watched some talking baby movie while they ate. August asked Vivian “Have you had-ed lavender ice cream?…Well I have.”
We got to the Pocono Zoo at 3:15. A little pricey, for what it was. And busy at first. But the snakes were being fed, and August was serendipitously in front of a tank as they moved down the row, or he’d never have seen it. But he got to see a snake strike an already dead mouse. We were separated from Carly and Vivian. We went to the outside, hoping we could loop around through another door to find them. No luck. On our way back August was ahead of me. A man steered a stroller out of the door, backwards, while talking on the phone, and ran right into August, knocking him down and stepping on his foot.
We found Carly and he calmed down. Petted a bunny, then went outside. Carly went and purchased a bottle for feeding the goats and they shared that. And Cassie got some of the pellet food to feed them. Some more wandering around (Colin really liked the toys in the primate cages), then they wanted to feed the bear. Cassie got a cup of food for that.
On our way out, August played with the stuffed rattlesnakes. We headed back, but Carly called me and we had to pull over and switch August to the red car. He got upset and had thrown something in the car. He wasn’t happy bout being separated and lamented “See what you’re doing to me?” “I already got my foot stepped-ed on!”
Got to the house house about 5. The three kids climbed in the back of Jeff’s old pickup and climbed on the load of rocks in it. Then went to the swings for a minute.
Had stir fry for dinner. August was calling Vivian some nonsense name. She said, “Please stop! It’s driving me crazy!” When she did it back to him he said “It’s not funny to me!” Pretty funny. They were working on their recycling draw bridge, which they’ve been discussing doing on and off all day. A nice idea, but they got distracted. They ended up playing in the bathroom sink together. I heard him say “Do you dare me to eat bubbles?” Vivian taught him the “Do you dare me…” construction on this trip.
He mentioned seaweed treats to me. Apparently he had liked them at Stephanie’s/Ruby’s house. We are going to try to find them for the flight.
They went out to the toy kitchen outside and played with bubbles. I pushed Colin on the rollercoaster. Then, I heard August yelling. I started to run to him, then looked back to see that Colin and fallen, car and all, off the top of the rollercoaster ramp. I ran back to him and helped him up. Cassie brought August around the corner. He was upset, but with an actual scraped knee was handling it pretty well. He totally got over it when Vivian said “Do you want to see a bandaid I got at the store? You’ll probably want to wear it forever.” “Yeah.” They ran inside. He didn’t put on a bandaid, but at least he was open to the idea.
They were inside doing a “winning” game on the whiteboard, where August was the judge and he chose whether Carly or Vivian had the better picture. “I like being the judge.” They then went outside and were doing challenges, telling each other where to run and what to touch.
They went back outside and played with the bubbles. They had a bubble insect trap after one or two gnats got caught in the bubbles. I did a lot of running with Colin. Back inside they played the box game, with Colin inside. Big box with small holes in it that Jeff had cut in it as eye holes for them. But they ended up being used to drop nuts in to Colin and he would eat them.
Cassie and Carly did the baths for the kids. They spent a lot of time on baths and I think there was a lot of playing in the bath.
We started reading the first Captain Underpants book and Vivian came in and they said good night and she left. After a couple chapters she came back, looking for her toothbrush, then asked to read with us. But then August said he was hungry. They both went out and had toast. I took August back and we read to chapter 11 or so. Vivian slipped a picture of a heart under the door. Carly came in and I left them at 10:15. He was asleep after 5 minutes.