Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2021

What actually happened: he came up to our room in the middle of the night, and we were in such a deep sleep and he was talking so quietly that it took me forever to figure out what he was even saying. I think it was about helping with his Nintendo DS Pokémon game. I finally told him in was the middle of the night and he couldn’t play his game, and he needed to go back to bed. Then I rolled over and went back to sleep.

I probably should have made sure he made it safely back to bed, but I was so tired it didn’t even occur to me.

Arthur is obsessed with Walruses. Wants to be a walrus for Halloween, calls everything a walrus and says the word Walrus allllll the time.

These are notes I made about Arthur four months ago. Still true. All walrus, all the time.

Except. Sienna has been working with a speech therapist to overcome her pronunciation of the “sh” sound - it comes out “s.” So she was singing “Love Sac” over and over and I couldn’t stop laughing. Honestly, I don’t even hear her mispronunciations, but that one was loud and clear.

I sat down alone
And sifted through sand and sea
Then rose with new wealth.

Me: Did you do a flip?
Arthur: No, I did a roll with jumping.

Also on the way to school she said, “is that a wolf?” Luckily, it was a coyote. Unluckily, we had Wally with us, but soon enough some people on bikes came and verified it had run off.

Isn’t your pool heated? It will be very nice. I love swimming in the rain. I'm so jealous. I'd give quite a lot to be going swimming right now. I dream about it a lot. It will be worth it. Going swimming with your child will give you the mental health benefits of exercise which is the most important part.

But occasionally he also throws in the elephant tongue. He must have learned at school that elephant tongues are big. Now he sometimes says things like “it’s as cold as an elephant tongue” or “I’m as tired as an elephant tongue.” So silly.

I also had a dream that some guy who worked for me came in and demanded I tell him about the church, so I took him in Dalton’s room and started talking about the Articles of Faith. Coincidentally, I’m supposed to be preparing a talk on the Articles of Faith...

Arthur: There are dogs bigger than me.
Sienna: There are otters bigger than you.

Dad to Arthur (who keeps getting off his bed to sleep on the floor: is the cabin floor comfy?
Arthur: Yes! It’s made of wood!

Maggie’s x ray showed minor scoliosis, but the visible concern is postural. We will need to make physical therapy visits. And do yoga.

We noticed a while ago that all of Dalton’s fingers on one hand were the same length. The middle finger is now shorter than the other two. X ray confirmed that some of his metacarpals (hand bones) are growing more slowly. It’s nothing to worry about, and also can’t be fixed. It’s related to the same thing I have, with the short third joint on the thumb, but his hand bones are the ones affected. So eventually it will be even more obvious that he has a hand difference. But hopefully it won’t affect much and he doesn’t seem embarrassed about it.

I think he means meters, which is somewhat closer to being correct. Also, Arthur is pretty fast.

Arthur is handling it pretty well. Only complains of pain if he twists it, which he doesn’t do because he doesn’t move or us that arm. Which is kind of funny because he is left handed. But he went back to school once the cast was on, and has a good attitude about it. Now if only he’d sleep later, and in his own bed.

John: You always say that, but there are never waffles on the table.

The only downsides was the food options were very limited, including being entirely out of churros, and they closed some of the lines at 45 minutes, so it took us several tries to get on Splash Mountain.

Day 2.
Drove to Lake Cushman, Washington, with a stop at Walmart for provisions. So glad to meet the Prestons, just minutes after we arrived. They are staying at a cabin down the road. We walked down to the lake and watched the summer solstice sun set at 9pm.

Day 3.
We slept until 8am and then headed down to Cushman Lake with the kayaks. We all took a turn, including Wally. On Dalton’s second turn, he went out into the main lake all by himself, he was so confident, and I was so proud. This is one of the reasons we take our kids to do stuff like this - so they’ll feel confident doing stuff!

Kids jumped off the dock, played at the playground and wore themselves out. In the afternoon, John and I hiked Upper Big Creek Loop, which was close to five miles, and exhausting. Then we went to the Prestons cabin for hamburgers and to play in their big open yard.

Day 4.
First, we drove to North Beach in Port Townsend to look for sea glass. I loved this part. All the kids had fun digging on the rocks and collected lots of glass. Then, we went to the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park in Port Angeles for a picnic and a short hike. The hike gave us a fantastic view of Olympic NP and even to Canada. We stopped in Hoodsport for ice cream on our way back. I had a delicious lemon cheesecake raspberry swirl.

Day 5
I spent most of this day sick at home with Arthur’s cold, and Jodi and the little kids. We did take them into town for ice cream, and down to the lake with floaties for an hour. Meanwhile, John and Franco took Maggie, Dalton, and Franco in a fishing excursion. They all got to catch salmon to bring home to eat, and had a great time on the boat with amazing views.

Day 6
Today we drove 4 hours to Hoh rainforest, where we took turns watching Wally/doing the Hall of Mosses hike. It was so green! Then we went to Ruby beach, which was covered in rocks and driftwood. Arthur and Sienna hopped in in their clothes and had a blast splashing with cousins. We also stacked a lot of rock piles.

Day 7
One of the coolest parts of our Washington trip was visiting High Steel Bridge. It was a 45 minute drive from our cabin, including a few miles of dirt road. The bridge is 365 feet above the gorge, beautiful view of the river and a waterfall, Franco took some fun pictures with his drone.

We had lunch together, then went down to the lake for some mega floatie, kayaking fun. The Saturday vibe at the lake was very different but we still had fun. Dalton and John kayaked all the way across the lake!

Day 8
Drove a million hours to Utah. Sigh. Ok, it was just 14.

We are going to the Lehi pool with family in the morning, before driving home.

Dalton crashed his bike on the way to school on th first day, but otherwise had a good day.

Sienna’s brand new backpack zipper got stuck and she couldn’t get her lunch box out. Luckily, all California students get free lunch this year!

Arthur walked into kindergarten like no big deal. He is perfectly happy to be back in school, and I am very glad it’s 3 1/2 hours this year. In fact, other than the kids have to wear masks indoors, there aren’t many changes from a regular school year.

Wednesday: went on a tour to the Active volcano - Fagradalsfjall. We did not see lava spewing out, which was disappointing but it was still a great excursion. Lava fields were so cool. Fresh, smooth-ish black lava, still steaming. Fog drifted in an out, so we got some cool views, even being up in the clouds. People we met invited us to drinks after. It was fun to make friends.

Thursday inside the volcano tour of Thrihnukagigur. We descended 400 feet into the Extinct volcano bd got to climb around inside for half an hour. It poured rain for 20 minutes shortly after we got back out. But the best part was the 2 mile walk (each way) to the volcano, across 4000 year old lava fields covered in moss. It was like trolls from Frozen. We also got to climb down into some lava tubes. Friday: Blue Lagoon. We did a short hike at the Blue Lagoon, which confused people. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere (being literally a pile off waste water from a nearby geothermal energy plant, that was dumped into a lava field). We tried three face masks and explored the entire lagoon. Then we had lunch in the restaurant - John had celeriac, and I had steak and potatoes that might have been one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Saturday: Landmannalauger hike in the colored hills. This place had so many different terrains. The hike itself was about what John and I would do on a typical weekend, but as a group, we went much slower. This time, John and I were by far the oldest people in our group. At the end of the hike, we got to swim in the hot spring, which was so cool. The perfect way to end a long hike.

Maggie also finished physical therapy this week.

That same week I read The Book of Longings, which was fabulous. By the time I got it from the library I had seen it recommended from five or six different sources. Toward the end of the book, the main character (Jesus’ wife, whose main longing is to have a voice in this world) writes a hymn to Sophia, the Greek incarnation of the feminine divine. I was spellbound by the bits of poetry she sings. And then I read the author’s note and learned they were from an actual poem found buried, presumably written by a woman. So I looked up the poem and read the entire thing. Thunder, Perfect Mind. The resonating of the poem in my heart was shocking. It describes opposites in everything and So Much Power. The novel, and that poem, have imprinted on me.

The YW learned an after school snack recipe and Dalton said he’d have much rather done that. I know, buddy.

Last week, I went out with a bunch of friends for tacos. It’s been a long time since I went to a birthday dinner friend group dessert party thing. It was nice to be doing that again. After tacos, we walked half a mile in the dark in search of a dessert place. I love that I have friends who are up for such things.

Yesterday I took Sienna and Arthur to Downtown Disney to do a pumpkin scavenger hunt and get some treats. Sienna loved the scavenger hunt, but Arthur got bored and grumpy after an hour there. He was way more fun and cheerful at the beach today.

This afternoon, he was thinking of an activity to do and asked to play with butter. “You know, you make food with it, and it’s really soft”. Turns out he meant flour, and spent a happy hour playing with tsum tsum toys, dominoes, and a half cup of flour.

Arthur is a ball of silliness. He wakes up way too early and complains that he’s bored a lot, and is a terrible eater, but he also loves to read stories (non fiction animal books are his favorite), is a great snuggler, and enjoys walking to school every morning. He loves school and his friends.

I spent Thanksgiving with Arthur and Sienna. Our main project was switching their room with Maggie’s. I also put together an IKEA desk for Maggie’s room. We also went to the beach for a sunset sea glass hunt, and celebrating Arthur’s birthday with some fun at the Spectrum.

For actual Thanksgiving, I drove out to stay with my cousin Shannon. We had pizza on Wednesday, and thanksgiving food Thursday. We did an early morning sea glass hunt at Scooner’s Cove, and took a long walk after the meal. Sienna and Arthur had a great time with their cousin Jack. The kids and I stopped at Ostrichland on the way up, and Pea Soup Andersen’s and the Natural History Museum on the way down. But mainly, Sienna and Arthur played with Shannon’s dogs. Obsessed.

John got home in time to celebrate Arthur’s birthday today, and we’re ready for a relaxing Sunday of Christmas decorating and birthday toy playing, before Monday.

Sunday afternoon was the kids Christmas piano recital. They took turns practicing all day and it was so fun to hear. They all did great in the recital. Maggie played Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire and Do You Hear What I Hear. Dalton played Where Are You Christmas? Sienna played Silent Night and Deck the Halls. She had gotten excited memorizing Deck the Halls and playing it too fast and then her fingers wouldn’t do it at regular speed. But other than that, it was all great. We know nearly all the other students, so it’s always fun to see them play as well.

12/17: left an hour late from LaX, missed our connection. Stayed in a seedy hotel the airline paid for, after a two hour line, be a vending machine dinner.

12/18 flew to Tampa and drove to Orlando. Not in the plan, but we made it work. Had a great time at Epcot, even though we only had four hours. We did the four rides we wanted to hit, plus two others, and had yummy food for dinner. Got the trip back on track. It feels very Chadwick to have made that evening happen.

12/19: Animal Kingdom. Waited 3 hours for Pandora. Then really enjoyed using fast passes to other rides. Everyone loved Expedition Everest.

In bed this night, pillow talk with the big kids about favorite things of the day, and things Maggie remembered from our last visit.

12/20: so happy to get on the Disney Dream! Everyone vaccinated, tested immediately before boarding. Masks required and limited capacity, enforced social distancing. It was so nice to feel so safe and do something so fun. We enjoyed the water slide in the rain and several ice cream cones, before everyone was on board.

12/21 Bahamas - Atlantis, lazy River we kept getting stuck in. John and the older 3 kids swam in the ocean. Arthur had to wear a cast cover at the beach, so he preferred the pool. The area was reserved for just our excursion, so keep cruise people from mixing with others. Dinner with Crush the turtle, who called Arthur Marshall.

12/22 bonus sea day. Supposed to go to castaway cay. Instead we ate brunch at Remy (yummy food, fun water menu), watched Encanto, and after dinner, went on the water slide a bunch of times in a row with no line. It was only cold the first time. I love my fun family. Dalton won a hat in a Smash Bros tournament in the tween club.

12/23 finally made it to castaway cay and we did all the things. John and Dalton ran the 5k, then John took Dalton and Maggie swimming and did the water slide. Meanwhile, I floated on inner tubes with the littles, and took them to the splash pad. Arthur whined about his cast cover and just wanted to hide on my lap on the floatie. After lunch, we snorkeled with sting rays. Sienna was terrified of the fish in the water and Arthur wasn’t able to reach deep enough to pet any, which was a bummer. But everyone else had a blast. John then took the older kids out snorkeling in the open water, while the rest of us did more tubing. Finally, we got a bike rental and went for our first ever family bike ride, with Arthur in the baby seat on the back of John’s bike. It was so fun! 12/24: Kennedy Space Center. Tried freeze dried ice cream and a launch simulator. Fun play place, saw real space shuttles, touched a moon rock, learned a lot. And finally made it home! Direct flight is the way to go.

Making up for a bad start to the trip by managing Epcot like the Disney pros we are.
Talking in bed with Maggie and dalton about our fun day at Animal Kingdom
Crush mishearing Arthur’s name as Marshall
Running to the water slide after dinner and riding over and over again in the dark. We got to our room at 7:25 after dinner, changed, and some of us managed to ride 7 times before it closed at 8. It was a fantastically fun family experience and everyone loved it.
Our first family bike ride, on Castaway Cay. After the bike ride, the place had basically cleared out even though there was an hour until e had to be back on board. We closed the place out, and got a golf cart ride back to the ship.