We're Just Wild About HARRY!

Tonight was the Barnes & Noble Harry Potter Party to mark the release of the 7th and final book in the series. Tyler & Ryan love Harry Potter but they're in California and missed the party this time. Since I'm a huge fan too, I made Justin and Todd go with me. This morning, we got up early to stand in line for wristbands that determined our place in line to buy the book. We heard people talking about there being so many people that there would be huge lines of people outside the store waiting to get in, so we went right at 7pm. There were some fun activities for kids - Justin did really well at Harry Potter Scene-It. We also tried the coffee shop's concoctions called Wizard's Sangria, Butterbeer, and Skelegro. Justin also bought some Every Flavor Beans and kept feeding them to Todd. Todd kept eating them! Gross.

So, after 5 hours of waiting around, we finally got in line! It was pretty exciting! Todd got separated from Justin and me but we found each other again just before checking out. Justin had also just hit his limit - he was so tired! They are so good to humor me!

Tyler is giving me fits about this book - he insists that we read it together the first time because that's how we read all the others. I think that's nice, but I want to read it now! But I won't. I promised the boys that I would wait until they come home from California and we'd read it together. Todd can't understand why we spent the whole night standing around with a bunch of weird people we don't know, buying a book 15 minutes after it goes on sale, if we're not even going to read it for another 10 days! I know, I'm nuts. But I love Harry Potter! I'm sad that this is the last book, but tonight was a fun reminder of all stuff I like about the books.
Hope you all have fun reading it too - JUST DON'T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS!!!

I did it! I did it!

Hey! I did it! After spending hours last night trying to get this thing going and not having any success, I tried a different tack this morning and it seems to be working. I'll need to learn more about how this works but today I will start easy. This is my first blog ever. I needed Tammy's and Amy's needling and wheedling to push me into this new era of Internet communication. I just hope it won't replace our phone calls and emails. (I thought I was high tech with that!) So, this is for you girls!

Yesterday was a bummer. We took Tyler and Ryan to the airport along with Amy's family and Tammy and Cody. They all went back to California. The boys will be gone for 2 whole weeks! We had everyone out here for the 4th of July and Justin's 8th Birthday and Baptism. There were 19 people here at some point so now that it's just me and Justin here now is kind of weird. The house is very quiet and we don't have anything scheduled for today. We are just going to relax and enjoy the calm.

We had a really great time with everyone here and we really appreicate all the effort it took for you all to come. All I can say is "THANKS!!". I had been looking forward to our getting together for months and months and now it seems unreal that it's actually over! I am so blessed to have a family that likes being together and gets along so well. (Living in 1 house together for 2 weeks and wishing you could stay longer is proof of that!) Tammy and Amy have blogged some of the highlights of their Kansas time, so I'll just say that I think Brooke's idea of coming back for her 8th birthday is a great one - but you all don't have to wait that long! You can come back anytime!

Justin is sad that he didn't get to go to California like Tyler and Ryan. I'm just not ready to send him off on his own yet. He thinks it's so unfair!We talked to the boys last night and they sounded tired from traveling all day, but happy. Tyler spent 2 weeks with Cody last summer so I know he will be OK, but this is new for Ryan and I'm pretty sure he's going to get a little homesick. Tammy will take care of them so I'll try not to worry about it too much.