He slept all the way until 8:35. Derek and I were in the play room watching the Women’s World Cup match. He came and climbed on my lap and started talking about the game. And he talked about how he had kicked a soccer ball and it had bounced between the sides of the field ten times before launching into space.
Carly came and gave him a hug, then at half time he went and was talking to Andrea and Thather and Colin. For the second half the kids and Andrea were in there much of the time, then disappeared. Right after the game finished (with the US winning 2-0), August came next told me“Dada. We’re packing up for cousin camp. You should not be watching TV right now.”
He and Kayla and Thatcher had been doing lots of playing. Thatcher gave him a green marble, which he called a magic marble. They were playing in Thatcher’s room and August came out with a cockroach. He told Carly “It’s real. But it’s not alive.” It was fake, but they kept bringing out more to “freak out” Carly. Thatcher claimed he had “752” insects. Yesterday, August had said “You say that a lot” to Thatcher, as he uses the number 750 or thereabouts a lot. Thatcher found a glow stick that we got going. They started to argue about whose turn it was and Thatcher said to Kayla “You’re arguing.” To which Kayla responded, “Oh, I’m sorry.” As they went downstairs August said “Turn that glow stick off so it doesn’t waste chemical reaction gasses.”
They came back up after a while. Thatcher was poking a snake out of through his door, which amused Kayla but not August so much. Then August got upset when Thatcher got something else out said he wasn’t going to share it. Carly took him in the bedroom and got him calmed down with math.
We got all packed up and left at 11:40. Before we drove off Carly went back for his magic marble. He reminded us to lock our doors, something he does every time now.
Carly drove and he watched Craig of the Creek. We got to an SCCA House near REI (south of where my parents stayed) and Carly met Brenda there. She’ll be having a procedure done on a spot on her face. They walked over to a restaurant and had Thai food and visited.
I drove August and myself over to the Seattle Center, parking in the north lot. We walked across the bridge to the Seattle Center and I started reminiscing about all the concerts and events I’ve seen there. We saw the fountain by the opera hall, then the real fountain. He wanted food, so we went to the Armory née Center House. We went to Mod Pizza. He climbed on a railing while I waited in line. We got a Hawaiian pizza with pineapple on half. I gave them the name ‘August’ for when the pizza was ready and told August he had to listen for his name. When they called it and I went up to get it, the guy said to me “Enjoy your pizza, August.” Felt odd.
August didn’t eat much at all, and I folded up the last 3/8ths of the pizza in a paper plate and took it with us. We then went over to the middle of the floor where there were some plexiglass cage things. It was a big battle bot thing going on, and we saw the end of a match of small robots in the small one, then two battles in the large one, then another small battle. They were pretty exciting, with robots being shoved in pits and sparks and parts flying everywhere.
He needed to use the bathroom, so we went and did that (where we took kids all the time to use the bathroom when we had Boys and Girls Club field trips to the center). We then went looking for the new playground. We went over towards the science center and found the little animal sculpture garden, including a little pig with wings. I told him about volunteering at the Pacific Arts Center. Didn’t point out the science center, as we didn’t have time to go today. We then walked up and found the new playground where the amusement rides used to be. He wasn’t too excited about it, but we played with some musical sculptures for a few minutes.
From there we walked past the center fountain again and I took a photo of him in front of that. From there we walked up to the KEXP building. Not much to do there when you only have a few minutes, and it is a little disappointing: the Prince wall was impressive, and there is a nice coffee shop, but the little vinyl store wasn’t something I cared about, and they only had a little KEXP merchandise to buy. Probably much cooler if you take a tour, of if you see a live performance. But we were two days early for that.
As we walked out and headed to the car we saw through the windows where you can see their massive collection of vinyl and CDs. We then stopped at the August Wilson tribute thing, which had been designed by Mindy Cameron. I took a photo of August in it. We were in a hurry though, so I didn’t tell him about who it was until later in the day when Carly said something about it.
We got back to the car and headed back to pick up Carly. Brenda chatted with us at the car for a few minutes and we got August to tell her a few things about what we had done.
Carly drove, and we headed south. Stopped to get gas, then stopped at the Safeway in Gig Harbor, like last year. I got the beers and some tea. As we were walking August said “Why make up stuff if life is so interesting?” Which I think is from Craig of the Creek. As we walked around he read out price tags in cents. As in 2099 cents for something that was $20.99.
We kept going. August basically watched Craig of the Creek the whole way, repeating over and over the episode where they worship a dog for awhile. It rather blatantly satirizes religious belief. I studied a lot of Arabic.
When we got to the island it took quite awhile to get into the community through the gate. Levi wasn’t answering, then Cherie was driving down to let us in, but then when she didn’t see our car she drove back. We were still sitting their, waiting. August started the big ‘Hartstene Pointe’ sign. He read “For safety…only one vehicle at a time.” He and I got out to stretch our feet while we waited, and then walked through the gate when Cherie came back and then hopped back in the car.
We got to the house and unpacked. We saw the new stairs that had been installed to link the downstairs room to the rest of the house. A nice idea, but they cut a window in the side of the stairs going down and also didn’t put a door at the end of the hallway, meaning that Derek and Andrea’s room is open to the rest of the house, which is kind of odd. The kids all played foosball with Chuck, then everyone else went on a walk. August did not want to leave the house. August found the ball maze thing and we played with that a little.
Cherie had made pull-pork sandwiches and corn soup. August loved the corn soup and ate a bunch of it. Everyone got back from the walk. I had a headache and lay down for awhile. I tried watching the new season of Stranger Things, but the internet is really slow. I got through the season 2 recap, then August got upset about something downstairs. Carly brought him in. Thatcher was doing reading time now, and August wanted to go back down. I never heard the details. He calmed down though eventually and they did more playing time.
At 8:30 everyone headed to bed time. He played with the xbox remote and we did a little Brother and Bar game time, where the remote controlled interstellar drones that would get destroyed (or not) in stars and black holes. He asked if a rocket could go to another universe, and I talked about how that is impossible traveling in three dimensions. So we talked about using black holes as portals and also talked about wormholes. ‘Wormholes’ was a word of the day. Carly and I rearranged the furniture and beds, and he was asleep sometime after 9:30.
Playing in Thatcher’s room:
Glow stick:
Battle bots 1:
Battle bots 2:
Musical sculpture:
Running through Seattle Center:
Foosball:
