Eighteen!

It's official. None of my boys are minors any more. :) Yup, Micah turned 18 yesterday. 

We had a fairly Micah sort of day. It started just after lunch when Asher gave Micah his gift...a bunch of melons and squashes Asher got for Micah to slice and stab and smash. Micah was delighted. We confined him to the driveway and watched him use his sword...with melons set on a box and then also with Asher tossing them to him "Fruit Ninja" style. In the end, we had quite the mess. Nathan used a snow shovel and the hose to clean it up...

...Micah's faces (and sound effects) were quite entertaining...

That was all followed by Micah challenging Nathan and Noah to arm wrestling...

...and, again, the faces and sounds were entertaining. :)

Then all the guys played a Jackbox game for awhile until we headed out to dinner. I managed a few pictures first...

Micah's favorite is the one on the left, but my favorite is the one below...

And then we enjoyed a delicious dinner at The Still Whiskey Steaks in Old Town before walking over to Walrus for some ice cream. 

The rest of the evening was fairly uneventful (some more Jackbox game...picking up a few things...some chores...etc).

I'm realizing now that I didn't do my traditional height comparison photos and feel like that's probably a thing of the past now. Let's just say that Nathan is the tallest, Noah is next, Asher and Micah are exactly the same height and I'm short. 

So. Happy, happy birthday to my baby! He's off to college next month and more than ready for it all. He's got a good head on his shoulders, knows who he is and who he wants to be, enjoys still being a kid, and so much more! Really looking forward to watching what comes next...

Thankful Thursday

Looks like it's been a bit since my last Thankful Thursday. :) Guess I'll do a little catching up...

1. Good friends! Last night we had a moms' night and actually remembered to take a picture this time. Miraculously, we managed to get nine of us together. So thankful for this group of women (and the ones who couldn't make it)! We've raised our kids together (we all met through our homeschool group) and still enjoy each other's company even now that our kids don't hang out together.  

Between the nine of us who made it last night, we've graduated 18 of our 26 kids. Woohoo! It was lovely hearing about what everyone's kids are doing these days and how life is beyond our homeschooling days.

2. Car discussions. Back when we road tripped to Montana altogether, I forgot to mention something. Thankful for car discussions with boys. Now that they all drive, we don't have as many opportunities for car discussions...where the boys are captive and thus actually talk, lol. Our road trip was a nice reminder of that. I additionally loved the randomness of the conversations...with things like debates over the correct orientation for eating Pringles and who each boy's favorite Pokemon was, lol.

3. YMCA. Not only is it a fun song, but it's a great organization, and I'm appreciative that they have such good programs here in northern Colorado. Asher worked at the YMCA after school program for the past school year and learned a lot. He decided to take a break for the summer but was recently approached. They needed more help and reached out to ask him to come help at summer camp on Fridays for the rest of the summer. He started a couple weeks ago...and is glad he didn't sign on for the entire summer but happy to have just some work for the end of the summer. 

4. Happy climbing. Yup, I continue to go climbing...usually a couple times a week. For Christmas, I got this awesome chalk bag. It makes me happy every time. :)

5. Boys who cook. Nathan's out of town right now. Those who know us know that Nathan's the one who does most of the cooking around here. While he's gone, then, I'm particularly thankful that I have boys who also cook. Micah was in charge of dinner tonight and Noah's on for tomorrow. Yay!

And that's some of what I'm thankful for today. :)

102!

My grandma turns 102 today.

Almost nine years ago, she had a health scare and we weren't sure how much longer she'd have. Everyone made it a point to visit with her that year. She liked that just fine and continued being her cat-loving self, and I've managed to see her again at least yearly since then. In January 2020 (just after I was there for my mom's birthday party), she broke her hip and had hip replacement surgery and recovered surprisingly well. Amazingly, she made it through the pandemic without ever testing positive for Covid. We had a fun party for her 100th and she enjoyed all the great-grandkids and eating her cake. I didn't make it to WA in 2022 but was there at the start of 2023 and had a nice visit with her. Less than two weeks ago, she fell and broke her ankle. She's at a skilled nursing facility now and doing pretty well. I'm pretty sure she's invincible. :) 

Here's a picture of the two of us back in January of this year...

And here's one from 1979ish, just because...

Since it's hard to shop for someone who's 102, I just sent her candy. She has quite the sweet tooth (and all her own teeth still!). Hoping she has a fabulous birthday!

Barbenheimer

Yesterday we joined the crowds, enjoyed the AC of the movie theater (and avoided the hot weather outside, lol), and experienced "Barbenheimer."

First we watched Oppenheimer...which was amazingly well done and thought provoking.

After that, we grabbed some lunch and people watched. :)

And then we headed back to the theater to watch Barbie...which was hilarious and highly entertaining (and not a show targeted at children like some might assume).

Micah (the instigator of this event for us) got into the spirit of things. He picked out his outfit ahead of time and painted his nails bright pink, with glitter on some. (Actually, after the first coat of nail polish, he let me finish (and clean up) the job, lol.) I found one of the only pink things in my closet and joined him... 

...and even wore pearls (because how often do I have occasion to wear pearls? lol). Asher actually also wore a pink tee, and Nathan dressed as "Curacao Ken" (wearing the Hawaiian print shirt he got in Curacao, lol)...but we didn't get a full group photo. (Noah wore all black to indicate his strong preference for the Oppenheimer movie, lol.) It was fun seeing so many people wearing pink yesterday. :)

Honestly, we'd seen the previews for both movies and would have watched both...but probably would have waited for them to come out on a streaming service. But the whole "Barbenheimer" thing sounded fun, and we really enjoyed the day and experiencing it all together.

College friends

About thirty years ago, I started college and made new friends. A group of five of us have been in each other's lives since then. The last time we all managed to get together was October 2019. This past week, four of us managed to get together to celebrate our 30 years. (Sadly, one of us couldn't make this reunion.) So very thankful for friends!!

We flew into Seattle. Melissa Lynn picked the rest of us up at the airport (she lives in Washington) and we drove to our lodging at The Camlin in downtown Seattle. It was lovely and we were able to park there securely and just walk the rest of the time. 

Overall, there was a lot of visiting, a lot of walking, a lot of yummy eats, and a lot of good times.

Along the way, we wandered down to Pike Place Market. I found this picture from the last time we were all there together in August 1999 and paired it with one from Tuesday...

...and here are other pictures from various moments at Pike Place and the waterfront...

(a bucket of mimosas, the disgustingly famous gum wall, getting pastries from Three Girls Bakery, down on the wharf, the beautiful flowers, and other pictures)

On Wednesday, we took the Underground Tour. None of us had done one before and our guide, Andie, was fabulous. We truly enjoyed it and learned a lot...

And here are some random photos from our time...

(on the monorail, at The Waterfall Garden Park (the birthplace of UPS), at the Seattle Center and at the airport)

While at the Seattle Center, we opted to bypass the Space Needle (we've done that before) and visited the Chihuly Glass Exhibit, which was very cool...

And then we all headed back to our lives and the rest of the summer...feeling incredibly blessed to have such good, lifelong friends.