[day 199 ... july 18]

Last night I had the best time! My friend Kim - a good friend of mine in college and, of late, an Amazon retiree - invited a group of us to see the new Harry Potter movie at a local dinner and movie house. Not just any movie house, but a place for grownups with appetizers and drinks, followed by dinner in cushy, fully-reclining chairs (blankets and pillows available on request!) in a cozy theatre for just 40 of us. It was unbelievably great.

I met a couple of Kim's friends, Susan and Peter, and we hit it off so I enjoyed getting to know them a bit while we nibbled crab cakes and sipped sparkling water and wine. Then we leaned back, snuggled up in our own posh recliners with blankets and pillows, and watched mesmerized as the latest HP saga unfolded on screen. It was a 2 and 1/2 hour movie, but it went by very quickly - at least for me. I loved it - can't wait to see it again with Tynor and Niall, when we can grab a chance to sneak off without Cory (maybe Kellen will graciously volunteer an afternoon - you never know :-).

A kid-free, worry-free night out, great company, delicious food, luxurious surroundings. Like I said, unbelievably great. Thanks, Kim!

[day 198 ... july 17]

Cory and Niall have morning sports camp over in Bothell this week. I took lots of photos one day so thought I'd share a collage for each.

Niall struggles a bit with the "unfair" rules of soccer but is doing ok overall. He definitely prefers basketball, but Skyhawks doesn't offer many basketball camps in our corner of the world, unfortunately. One nice surprise was that the lead coach for this camp was Coach Jake from basketball.

Cory enjoyed practicing the skills he learned in his first Skyhawks MiniHawks camp a few weeks ago. His coaches even asked him to explain some of the techniques to kids who were new to sports camp - very cute. He was quite pleased to share his new expertise. :-)

[day 197 ... july 16]

Hen or rooster? I posted that question to my Facebook page with a photo of all the birds, and friends thought at least one of chickens is a rooster. I'm suspicious of all but one, as I said before, but this one in particular. Look at that comb. Dang!

[day 196 ... july 15]

Niall loves to play Scrabble. I wish Grandma Frances was still with us so they could play together. Though she'd need to take it a little easy on him or have a 100 point handicap or something. This is a photo of our game for special playtime this evening - saved in progress to continue tomorrow night.

[day 195 ... july 14]

There are previous few pictures of me in this 365 series (because I'm the one behind the camera, of course). But Cory took this one the other day so I thought I'd post it.

Actually, he took quite a few photos on our trip and since he was in the backseat, he caught some of me driving. Since I spent a LARGE portion of our trip behind the wheel, I should post that to commemorate my experience. Maybe I will. :-)

[day 194 ... july 13]

First eggs arrived while we were gone! I just had a hunch they would. :-) Ominously, only one bird seems to be laying and the others have much bigger combs. Not. Good. Haven't heard any crowing yet, and it's always possible that they will just start laying at different times. And three roosters out of four sexed chicks? What are the odds?? We'll see.

[day 193 ... july 12]

Rolly's half-birthday party was today, at a park in Lynnwood that I've never been to before. I brought the boys' bikes and they loved riding around the park while Tynor and I visited with family. There's a cool water/fountain area there too, so we should go back when the weather is warmer. It was so hot when we got back last night; felt just like Eastern Washington! But overnight the temperature dropped way down and it was actually chilly today with a breeze.