070518 Bought a lot of groceries. Some stuff she told me to bring she had already bought. Why do we need two jars of garlic. Megan got super carsick. Stopped at Sam a. Snack. Hot. Awkward. Went down to creek with Ben, Libby, cel, while others went to unlock cabin and unpack. Saw a baby snake. Copperhead? Ben likes pointing out species. Heard a bird he said it was definitely a duck. It was a crow. It said, “uh-uh. Uh-uh” and swooped in under the picnic shelter. Anne came back. Littles got in van with her. I had to look three times; had this weird fear we were leaving them behind. County roads. Past Beulah Baptist Church. Gravel. Steep downhill. Past two gates and a couple houses over a creek. There’s a half buried garage/shed with mossy steps up to the corrugated metal roof. There’s a smaller shed. Half hidden falling apart barn with ladders. Big tree and cool lumpy boulders by the ice cold spring. Creek with cress runs to little pond. Lib and cel got the loft like they wanted. 😊 Anne’s sharing a bed with Ben (when she announces that, it’s the most gentle reassurance that there’s nothing going on.) I get a fucking pad on the floor but it’s ok. Went to river. Canoe!! Took turns paddling over to the gravel bar. River wide green/brown and cool and slow here. Missouri float river map told me there’s rough water a couple miles up and down from here though. Not fully a family friendly “float river.” Paddling. Floaties. Water guns. Swim practice. Anne shows cel some breast stroke tips. I show bigs the J stroke. Sun. Shade. Sycamores. Birds. Frogs. Fish. Cel thinks big fish splash is crocodile. Anne’s right arm hurts. meg and mil paddle with Matthew sitting in the middle upstream a ways. Come back; meg excitedly reports, he watches anime! Anne and boys go back first for showers. Me and girls swim a while then beach canoe and follow. Old power line (phone line?) cord on a pole. Spaghetti. Wine. Garlic bread. Awkwardness all but dissipated. Anne and I go scope out the other pond cuz I didn’t get all the way to it before even though I jogged in me huaraches. Still hot AF. pond is up high. Berries. Redbud. Seed pods. Butterflies. Anne says they eat poop. I tell her about yellowfin that eat puke and that gets a laugh so that’s nice. Watermelon by the picnic table. Confetti poppers. Obligatory spring pool pic. Fireflies. My clothes I hung outside are still EXACTLY as wet as before because it’s humid AF. oh yeah, the shower is just an open stall with a shoulder-high glass block partition in front. Megan borrowed my razor. Everyone seems to be in a good mood. Everyone except me and meg watched part of National Treasure. She drew. I looked at the map a while and then typed this. I need to invent a symbol or incantation or epigram that means, “I’m leaving out many of the most important parts, but if I and the ideas that represent the parts survive until morning, then I may try again tomorrow.”