Slugs

I flipped on the bathroom light last night and very nearly shrieked when I saw this:



Before my eyes adjusted to the bright light, I initially thought it was a snake (hence the almost-shrieking part). But the truth is unsettling, nonetheless. How does that even happen? If a slug can make it's way into my bathroom, I'm no longer surprised about all of the prehistorically huge spiders we find.
I called Doug from the other room for reinforcement, but he refused to touch it with his bare hands and was planning to kill it, so I had to rescue him by my lonesome. Long-gone are the days when I was flighty enough to lick one.

And now for something completely different... My adorable baby girl. If I don't keep a close eye on her, she still falls asleep curled up in odd places during the course of the afternoon/ early evening and then stays up until all hours of the night. But I love her little pouty lips and the baby freckles trailing across her little nose... And the fact that she still loves her Bun-Bun as much as when she really was still my baby girl.

Chehalis

This weekend's adventure was our annual family camp-out which was at Thousand Trails Chehalis campground this year. I've never seen such a posh camping experience! I'm used to rustic sites with vault-toilets (if you're lucky) and trying to locate water somewhere nearby. This place was crazy. We swam in the heated pool everyday. The kids were in heaven!


Hylton tried to swim too. He looked like a tiny dolphin the way he undulated his back while trying to kick legs and arms.


Evie practiced what she's learned as well. After 6 weeks of swim lessons this summer, it's so very comforting to see this... (Sarcasm alert.) My poor, uncoordinated baby... I have the utmost sympathy knowing that coordination is not my strong suit either... She will get it eventually.



(This little one opted out early every time.)


We played Air Hockey and Pool.




There were ice cream socials and family movies playing at night in the family lodge (Twilight, of all things!), slip n' slide events, and Evie loved the puzzles set up in the upper lodge.


We hiked on trails and played mini-golf and rode our bikes.










Hylton got rather good at operating and steering this little rig.


Unrelated to the campground amenities, we ate


and ate


and ate,


(Uncle Jeremy and Sterling roast the biggest marshmallows EVER)


played games,


watched a little TV,


got a little silly,


and just enjoyed eachother.






There's never a dull moment when my family convenes! Sometimes I think there must be an unspoken competition to see who can bring the humor downhill the fastest, but we always have a good time together!

And now back home to reality:
A messy house, a garden that is crop-heavy, and a broken garage door (which broke--bad-- the moment we were leaving for camping, but that's a story for another time). Meanwhile, there were some nice welcomes like my very first crop of ripe lavender to dry, scenting my kitchen. This fills me with a pleasing contentment that has been somewhat scarce in our fixer-upper of late.

Transitions and Little Bit of History

Rachel, Kristy (& baby Kelston), Julie, Michelle, Lisa, me

Tuesday was the day of no return. The day I left the Never Neverland of blissful 20-somethings and entered the world of the mid-life crises, acknowledged parenthood, wrinkles, and aches of the 30-somethings. Those older among you will scoff at my "drama" as you nervously shift your walking stick and those younger among you might have a general sense of impending doom, but are still innocently reveling in your 20's (or, heaven forbid, your teens!). But, truly, it was a harrowing transition.

Husbands can rarely be relied upon to ease the pain of such an event. Men are "fixers" and "doers" and somehow the "fixing" and "doing" are just never quite right, are they? Doug's apparent solution was a Happy Birthday phone call and an afterthought call to make sure I would iron a shirt and vacuum the car for his meeting later that night. Hmph.

This is why women need women friends. Good ones. And lots of them. Ones you trust. Ones you can expose your soul to and who do the same with no hypocrisy. Ones who will be silly with you until the wee hours of the morning playing Rock Band and Just Dance and eating and talking and laughing. Julie even made me perfect little chocolate mousse cups with whipped cream and chocolate shavings... Truly this night was therapeutic to my soul.



Today is Hylton's birthday, but because family was going to be gone this weekend, we had him blow out his candles on my cake last weekend. Doug and I racked our brains for something he would really like and decided that we already have everything he could possibly want, so he got gum. Yep, gum. Happy Birthday, Hylton... Seriously, though, I think it made his day!


Let me tell you about my little Turkey.
Thus far, he has been the quietest of all my chillin's. He just goes with the flow. Doug and I always remarked (before he could talk) how alert he was, just silently taking it all in. Suddenly, he has become the most talkative and I think we may have hit the "terrible two's." He is by far more communicative, earlier, than the other two were at this age. He still often sits quietly watching, but is certain to make his opinion known (and loudly) when he comes across something he doesn't like.
He is always making me laugh with his mobile expressions. Has been doing so, in fact, for as long as he could smile. I believe that children are all born with certain "gifts" and from the day he was born I've known that Hylton's gift is the power to engage people. Even when he was a baby, others would remark how they felt drawn in by him; how he had "wise" eyes that seemed to watch them. As he grew older, this developed into a humorous ability to make people laugh. He is an acknowledged flirt. Just let him peep at you under his lashes and flash those dimples and you're done for. I'm just as much a sucker as anyone else. He'll talk back to me and then, when he sees I'm upset, he'll give me his flirty look and all disciplining goes out the window.
More than anything, he just seems comfortable in his own skin. Often, when I leave at night (if he's still awake) he'll watch me leave from the front window with his elbow propped on the back of the couch and his head in his hand, coolly watching me go, and then pick up his other tiny hand and wave a baby goodbye. No tears, no tantrums, no drama.
He is nothing if not endearing, my little man.



My sister and her family moved last week to Arizona for optometry rotations and they wanted one last family trip, so we all drove to Seaside. We played in the sand and kids got completely filthy and wet. It was cloudy and it drizzled a couple times, but personally, I think the beach is a good time in any weather.










Later we cleaned the kids up and took them into town. The boys thought it would be a good idea to take them on the Tilt-a-Whirl and, while my niece and nephew had a blast, my little kiddos thought their world had come crashing down.



We took the kids to the county fair at the end of July. They were too afraid to go on most rides, but this one they were able to control the height of, so they were okay with that.


Doug spoiled them with cotton candy and sno-cones.


Sterling was determined to do the water-gun racing. He went up against Daddy and won a little plush doggie.


Our garden (about two weeks ago)


Peek-a-boo!


Another ugly project has reared its head and postponed the laying of sod. Doug put the hose down the two East gutter drains and found that they didn't drain to the street.


He began excavation to see where the problem lay and found that several feet of pipe had an inch or two of 30-year-old ash (from the Mt. St. Helens eruption), which had collected other things like vines and leaves to create a fairly effective blockage. So far, he has removed 2 gallons of ash from the gutter drain.