Day 108

Any time Matt cooks, the dogs are at the ready. The Sasquatch Cookies lasted all the way through the weekend! Tracy and Matt blood-typed all the adults and Fina today. Not sure what spurred that, but it was fascinating. And only hurt a smidge. Lexi continues to be the baby's favorite entertainment; he belly laughs the whole time. We took the 5-8pm pool shift, and had dinner there despite some rain. Nana and Papa watched an interesting movie last night: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams). There actually is a Eurovision Song Contest which has been held since 1956. Each country performs an original song. The movie felt pretty hokey at first, but we actually got into it. There was just something about it... And who knew Ferrell could sing?

Jonny's meticulous pool-side set up.

Tinker Crates are ready to try.

A favorite evening location.

Day 107

Saturday 10am PDT can mean but one thing these days... Jamie has a Parlor Car Chat (an online gathering program Jamie concocted for the SLO Railroad Museum during COVID). Today's topic is the Pacific Harbor Line and the ports in L.A. Recordings of completed Chats are available at the linked page above. MOD Pizza for lunch. Matt ordered he and Jamie a fabulous, meaty, spicy, cauliflower-crust pizza that was yummy. Then it was AJ's first baseball game of the season. Their team is The Tsunamis. Turns out only Papa, Matt, and Lexi went for our 5-8pm pool time. Fina and Papa stayed up for a couple extra episodes of NUMB3RS.

From the Parlor Car Chat. That's the old Sea Launch in the Port of Long Beach.
Launch platform on the left, command ship on the right.

Tinker Crates

No, I did work on the puzzle today. See, this is my 5th piece!

There was a weekend 20%-Off coupon for Sasquatch Cookies.

Great evening for reading on the deck.

AJ does love baseball. More photos here.

Lexi's workshop.

Day 106

The dogs barked.
Lexi baked, and painted.
The baby recovered.
The kids played.
Colorado Ballet taught.
Fina danced.
Tracy nursed.
Matt talked.
Nana nannied.
Jamie drove.
Prager wrote.
Chang cooked.
NUMB3RS revealed.
The skies hailed.
Two buildings grew.
Travelers returned.

Papa's been hanging on to this for some time.

Lexi made biscuits (with Nana).

Flying Horse senior center just down the road.

From Jonny's teachers when we returned the Summer Reading materials.

In-n-Out has two levels now.

Off to the park.

About an hour after the park trip.
Tornado Alert and all.

No yellow caution tape saying Keep Off.

Day 105

Exactly 6 months to Christmas. The baby did not get released today, so they'll be up in Denver until tomorrow (at least). Tinker Crates arrived today, so that kept the twins busy this afternoon, along with the older two boys to some degree. The HVAC guys were here for four hours and we're now all set for summer. And it was smooth as silk. They've been here enough now that they knew where everything was, what the system areas were, brought enough of the right air filters, etc. Pool time was 9-noon but some of the kids were slow to rise so that got delayed. Nana did pool duty while Jamie took Matteo home (got sick on the way over) and made the second round trip to get Jonny to his final Summer Reading session (online). Tomorrow we turn in the materials. Jamie watched some of This Means War. Kind of a blustery afternoon, too bad we didn't get much rain out of it. Matt spent a couple hours on the phone this evening with his aunt. Jamie spent three hours on a zoom table reading of a play called "How to Build an Ark." First Company Theater recently chose an excerpt from this larger play as a winner in their 1-Acts Contest. It was an interesting approach in this day and age to pull people together this way, do a reading, and provide feedback to the playwright who is still "tuning" the play. Matt made a run to their accountant folks this afternoon, but alas, Tracy's signature was needed. The trip wasn't in vain, however, as Matt was pleased with some business advice and services offered.

Day 104

Today's big news is that the surgery went well in Denver. It was a pretty busy day for the kids here, too, and therefor their adults. Ballet, Summer Reading, first day of AJ baseball (he was so excited), pool, puppy grooming, oh, and we're supposed to feed them all once in a while. AJ was the last to leave the ball field, shocking. He waits till everyone has left, no one else to talk to, and then starts packing up. And for a catcher, that's a lot of packing. AJ and Nana got pizza on the way home and the rest ate at the pool. No movies tonight, but Lynn and Jamie did catch an episode of Hart of Dixie before sleep.

In-n-Out is out of the ground!
Seen on the run to ballet for Fina.

The puppies got a professional grooming.

Not much progress when Tracy is out of town. It's been like this since she left.

At the pond on Flying Horse Ranch. It's volunteer day for Jamie.
A Blue-eyed Darner, I think, but there are a surprisingly
large number (~20) of other similar-looking dragonflies.

We had the 5-8pm shift. 

Fina was quite excited about this purchase.

Matt and Jamie had quite the conversation on the deck after pool time.
It's been a while since they've done that.

That's a marshmallow. Only healthy snacks around here.

Day 103

Wow, only two photos today. It was pretty quiet, not by design but just how it turned out. The pool was the best example... First time back in over a week because of the surgery quarantine. We were quite excited. Never got in the water due to lightning. We hung around, had lunch, twiddled our thumbs, all quite patiently and quietly, then bailed when it was clear the pool was not going to re-open during our 1-4pm time slot. I'm sure the kids were thinking they'd rather be playing video games than sitting doing nothing at the pool. There were a few goings on, like Fina's ballet and Jonny's online reading, but mostly it was pretty quiet. Hot dogs for dinner. And we watched a couple more episodes of NUMB3RS.

The baby loved having Lexi's artwork at the hospital.

Day 102

Final stringent lockdown day for most of the family. The baby goes off for his procedure tomorrow. The kids got some play in this morning with wheeled devices. Good thing as it rained and thundered off and on the rest of the day. Fina gets back to the actual Colorado Ballet Society studios for a class tonight! Smashburger for dinner. Tonight's adult entertainment was to continue with NUMB3RS.

Jamie has really gotten into this book.
He's using it to update an online course for the AG Methodist Church. 

Lexi continues twirling to the baby's delight.

At home now from Fina's Ballet.

Evening snack.

More little squares are done...