Milly came in screaming at 4:00 this morning. She’s having a lot of nightmares lately. This one either had something to do with people not being friends or pants with nobody inside them. Or both. I’m not sure. Either way, we let her get into bed with us. I’m either a heavier sleeper than Amanda or Milly just digs her feet into Amanda a lot more, but I generally have no problems sleeping when Milly’s in bed with us.

At some point during the 6:00 hour she decided to go back to her room then came in again later wanting to wake Graelyn up. We convinced her not to do that.

I was the last person out of bed. We all ate, Dotseys and Lambeths, and went to the Aquarium, where we met up with the Warkentiens. Amy, Eli and Ada had just gotten back from Michigan yesterday. We also bumped into Matt Davis with Penelope and Adeline. It was the most crowded I’d ever seen the Aquarium.

We were going to eat a pre-packed lunch on the beach of Fort Fisher, but decided to do it at the playground instead. We went home after that. All the kids and dads took naps while the moms went shopping. Jessica didn’t have any shirts because they were on hangers and had been left back in Winston-Salem.

Later on, I tried to get Milly’s inflatable water slide working, but I found out it had two small holes in it. Fortunately it came with some patching stickers, so while the kids were waiting on that to adhere they played in a sprinkler. Well, Milly and Graelyn did. Daniel didn’t have any desire to run through it.

I finished repairing the slide and hooked a hose up to it for the sprinkler part, but it started filling up the inside of it, which got too heavy and slumped over, so I tried letting the sprinkler wet it down, which also wasn’t working well because I was having trouble setting the directional restrictions on the sprinkler. Anyway, by the time I about had it, dinner was ready.

We had turkey burgers and cauliflower & cheese (similar to mac & cheese). The Warkentiens came over as we were finishing up and had some steak. Tristen came over too, but I think she’d already had dinner. The kids all kept themselves pretty entertained, though Daniel wanted help putting on a princess dress. Ben wasn’t keen on that.

Eli wanted to play with the Stomp Rocket and that spread. I went outside after being told one of the rockets had been stuck in a tree, which I eventually got out with Harvey’s ball. Ben got another one stuck really high up later on. Nick and I tried with the ball a good bit, but my accuracy suffered with the distance and Nick hit the branch several times without success. The ball ended up in a bush after one of my throws, so I got a broom to get it out. For the heck of it, I tossed the broom up, which turned into a bit of a game for me and Nick. Nick got the rocket down. He’s my hero.

Milly and Graelyn had baths while the broom episode was going on, as did Daniel by himself. They all went to bed a little before 9:00. Milly wanted me to read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for a bedtime story, but it was odd reading such a nonsensical part as where she and I had stopped with no context for anyone else, so we switched to Go Dog Go, which I think Graelyn had left here at some point.

The Warkentiens took off and the rest of us: Ben, Jessica, Tristen, Amanda and I, sat around the table chatting. We had to go upstairs for Milly and Graelyn a few times. The ladies and I watched an episode of Portlandia as Ben fell asleep placating Graelyn. Jessica got him up after the show then Tristen took off. The rest of us watched Cabin in the Woods, which I enjoyed and thought was a clever take on the horror genre.

Zach Dotsey