Flat Isaac and his Isaac

It's not every day that you get reunited with your creator after traveling wide and far on the European continent. Indeed, Flat Isaac may have a book in the works (okay, it might be a book created on Shutterfly, but still!). 

We learned our lesson with Flat Michael (he spent a brief period of time in a Ziploc bag to protect him from the elements), so Flat Isaac was laminated. However, his extensive traveling has taken its toll and he may need to go into retirement or see if his lamination can be redone. In the meantime, it's been a couple of years since he and Isaac have seen each other in person so we got a few pictures of the reunion.

First Day 2023

Academic year 2023-24 is off and running. It has been a rough start. Skyward was down for the summer. The kids got an email stating it would be available that day. This was a lie. The parent accounts went active eventually (but most of the tabs weren't populated) and the student accounts were another week away. Michael's requested course changes didn't happen until the night before school started and his schedule listed two classes for 6th period (the original one and the updated one). We assumed this would sort itself out, but we got a notification Friday telling us he had been marked absent for 6th period all week. Unexcused absences and school sports don't mix. We received no notifications about the bus before the school year started. On the second day of school we received a bus text saying the bus would be late for an indefinite amount of time - students should just wait until it comes. 

Hopefully things improve. None of the issues are huge problems, but combined the frustration level is mounting.

I will put up with all the issues as long as these lovely human beings are in school and safe. I think they are going to rock this!

Doug and Cody

Ding dong bells are ringing. Wedding bells! 

Ok, maybe not really. We aren't that ostentatious at the district court. Bells or not, a wedding is always a happy occasion. With plans for a larger wedding celebration planned for the spring, today's event was low key but still moving. 

We celebrated with Jason and the boys at their house afterwards with a ridiculous amount of delicious apply desserts. Congrats Doug and Cody! And, welcome to the crazy, Cody!

August on FB

Isaac is supposed to read for 20 minutes a day during the summer. For the first 5-10 minutes today he followed me around (as I tried to eat my lunch) presumably so I could listen to him comment on and argue with the book. Luckily his sense of self preservation then kicked in and I managed to escape to another room until he is done.

Why is summer so long?? 

When one writes a paper with a requirement of 2000-2500 words for a graduate-level class and reaches 1997 words, is it acceptable to finish the whole thing off with "The End. Love, Me"?

Asking for a friend 😉

Let the punishment fit the crime:

Isaac stayed up waaaay past his bedtime last night reading the first Harry Potter book in 3 hours--

So tonight he gets to watch the first movie 😆

Alrighty folks with lots of kids - hit me up with what type of washing machine you have IF it works well. There are six of us and we chose POORLY with our last machine (hint: don't get a Samsung). I will spare you the details, but the pictures are pretty gnarly.

What is your preferred method of cheating on the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle (or any others)?

A)Asking friends and family for specific information

B)Casually looking at your globe or books in your house that are related to the clue

C)Using Autocheck

D)Google search

E)None of the above - I ROCK crossword puzzles

Should I start waking the boys up earlier to help them prepare for the upcoming school year schedule? Absolutely.

Am I willing to give up my quiet mornings yet? Absolutely not.

I feel seen

M has recently started driving. He tells me he can drive in the bike lane because he has "the expansion pack". I am both horrified and terribly amused. 😆😆

(just as an FYI in case you are concerned: he is totally joking)

Tubal Cain

Because she is awesome, Alison invited Ben to go on a backpacking trip with her and Myles. Well, she is awesome, but she also claimed that Ben was going to be their cougar-bait. There was a cougar attack in the general area a few weeks ago. Of course, Ben runs faster than Alison so that plan may not have worked out for her if there was a cougar. But, spoiler, they saw no cougars.

It's been almost a year, but with some digging around in the house we managed to pull together his gear. The pack was pretty heavy, but Michael offered to give Ben and his pack a ride.

I was super sad not to be going, but glad he could go.

Photo cred to Alison for the rest of the pics. Their campsite was near an abandoned mine and the site of a plane crash (not recent).

Pretty dang cool. And Ben said there was the added benefit that the mosquitoes seemed to prefer  Alison and Myles over him.

July on FB

Proof that this child will watch anything if it is on the TV: he joined me this morning while I watched YouTube videos about metadata  

Summer sky at the beach in Washington State in July.

This morning's Lego challenge: build the tallest tower.

We've been adopted!

Just kidding. Shortly after this we all went inside, washed our hands, and changed out of any clothes that the cat had touched

Another unscientific poll: do you wear shoes inside at your house or go barefoot?

Two steps forward, one step back. 

Someone needs to talk me out of eating chocolate frosting out of the tub.

Spending some quality time watching the trailers of the Batman movies with the boys. We ultimately decided the best Batman is Lego Batman. 🦇

Legos and art activity

Kalaloch, or A Comedy of Errors

Kalaloch has been on our list for years, but it is a pretty popular spot so this year was the first time we got reservations. Unfortunately, I got the reservations on January 5th.

So much has happened since January 5th.

Not only did we not foresee the foot drama that would shortly ensue, but we also didn't know at the time when Jason's DC trip would be. In hindsight, we chose poorly. My foot is still in early days of recovery and Jason's DC trip turned out to be too close to the camping dates for him to come.

Oh, and Josh and Michael ended up taking summer school classes.

By the time July 5th came around, it was just me and the two younger boys going on the trip. Which definitely makes the packing situation much easier, but made some things harder. Luckily, no burn bans in the park, so we were to make as many FIRES as we wanted. 

Our trip dates had been selected to coincide with the lowest tides of July. Low tides = tidepool fun! This being the PNW, it meant cloudy tidepool fun but that still worked for us.

Shortly after I took the picture above I was walking up the beach when the sand liquified under my heal and I wrenched my ankle. And by my ankle I mean the one encased in a brace with all sorts of muscles weakened by atrophy. It was not excellent. So we took a break on some driftwood and ate gummies. As one does.

Ben decided to bring out his inner Frankenstein and created a hideous gummy bear hybrid.

Isaac worked on his optical illusions.

And then it was back to the campground for more fire. Between my long covid pain from campfire smoke and my wrenched ankle, I made the tough decision to end our trip early. The boys were a bit disappointed but I promised them one last fire after we packed up our gear. We were trying out a new kind of marshmallow this year and decided to make the last fire a memorable one by using up the whole bag.

Our first experimenter was disappointed that the chocolate in the middle did not get melty even as the outside started to burn.

Subsequent attempts lead to slightly disturbing outcomes.

And this is when I decided that these marshmallows do not count as "food". The outside would blacken and enlarge and then start shedding from the main marshmallow not unlike a snake shedding its skin.

It was a gross but amusing end to our trip.

My brain must have been disconnected on this trip. We have been camping for years and I always do the prep and planning. And yet, we found ourselves at Kalaloch without flashlights, blankets (to go under my sleeping back on the cot), and a pot to boil water for our last dinner. Oh, and I managed to leave my glasses in the tent as we rolled it up and packed it away. 

For. The. Win.