Harry Potter at 12:09am

Yesterday we joined Ashley for the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was the first time I'd been to see Harry Potter at midnight and, more importantly or as a result of, it was the first time I'd been in "the club." I'm a convert to "the club". People of "the club" have read all the books, know exactly what's going to happen (and sometimes complain when it doesn't), and simply go to watch because they love Harry. or Ron. or Hermione. maybe even Dudley.

Josh took me to see the first Harry Potter when we were in high school. We thought it was a very good kids movie. But then he read the books and converted instantly. I wasn't converted until I married Josh. A month after we got married the seventh and final Harry Potter book came out. We went to the midnight release at the BYU bookstore. We waited in line for hours, got sorted by the sorting hat (Josh into Grifindoor, of course, and I into Slytherin--the hat was running low on magic, I think), and bolted with everyone else to grab the book and plop down on the nearest piece of anything to indulge ourselves for the next 24 hours. Actually, I'd say that a good 30 hours of the next two days were spent reading the seventh book out loud. Reading the book to Josh was my way of showing that I loved him and accepted his fanaticism. But I had no qualms about reading the end of the book and teasing him with bits of information. It was maddening to him but very enjoyable for me.

All that to say, this was an important stepping stone in our relationship together with Harry Potter. We joined the snaking line outside of the Riverwoods movie theater, enjoying our doughnuts and playing fun games. Ashley--Josh's sister and convert catalyst, Josh, and I played UNO but with a Haycock sibling twist. Whenever someone called out UNO on someone else, they had to have a wizard duel by casting spells at each other. I got smoked. Once, Josh and Ashley threw spells at each other for a good five minutes. I only knew three spells. I think there were some made up spells, though, like "Bladdercus Explodicus" and Josh's infamous "Abada Cadabra".
Once 11:30pm hit everyone started standing up, getting anxious to rush the theater for the best seat. The three of us continued to kill time by challenging each other in the bubblewrap popping game and bowling on Josh's iTouch.
We were able to find great seats in our small theater. And our group of Harry Potter fans were wonderful. The movie was fabulous and beautiful and funny and (shh..) sad. But we had a great time sharing it within our Haycock club!

Josh talks in his sleep quite often...

Last night I was having a hard time falling asleep. I was quite awake when Josh rolled over, pointed his finger down and said, "See, I do have my feet under the covers." I was stumped because it had never really been a question before. "Did I ask you if your feet were under the covers?" He said yes. So, I figured, while we're at it, let's see what else we can get out of sleepy Josh.
"Josh, did you know that I'm pregnant?" (This is not true.)

"Yes."

Ha!

"Well, what do you want to name the baby?"

"Awesome."

Only if they turn out to be as cool as you, Josh.

Our Fourth of July

In my opinion, this has been the best 4th of July EVER! I think it was as American as you can get.

The night before, the Cousins had a s'mores roast in Whitney and Stetson's new backyard of their very own new house. We had the proud homeowners, me and Josh, Darcy and Tim, and Tim's sister Stephanie. It was a really fun night.

Saturday morning Josh and I went over to the fields behind Provo High School to watch the hot air balloons. We were too late to see them take off and too early to watch them land but it was neat to see them float all over the city. Later we met Whitney on University Avenue and 3rd North for the grand Provo Freedom Days Parade. We swung by the fabulous Provo Bakery and picked up the best glazed doughnuts I've ever had. Between the three of us (no one else would get out of bed for the parade) we indulged in quite a bit of sugar--which made up for the fact that no one would throw candy at us. The parade was as spectacular as ever--marching bands, pipe bands, good lookin' floats, college rivalry, and giant floating characters.

After the parade we met up with all the sleepyheads at the Robinson's place for a barbecue. We were lucky to have Tim there with his outstanding grill to fix up some fancy hamburgers, hotdogs, and Jamaican jerk chicken wings. This time we had a full count with Darcy and Tim, Jarom and Ashley, Whitney and Stetson, and the entertaining Lindsey Jordan. We all laughed, danced, listened to music, and told stories in the waning strip of shade in the backyard. Someone had the great idea of going to the pool at Lindsey's apartment complex so we cleaned up and took off.

Darcy and Tim couldn't join us at the Raintree complex but we had a blast. The seven of us had pool jumping contests . I, personally, thought that the High School Musical jump that Ashley and I did was the best. But Josh's bellyflop comes in a close second.
Once our toes were wrinkly, our faces were freckly, and our shoulders were sunburned we joined Darcy at Jarom's house to watch the greatest summer movie of all time: THE SANDLOT. It was especially fun to watch since it was filmed in Utah. I think it's the second most quoted movie in the Cousin crew, just behind That Thing You Do.

After the movie we split. Some people went to fight for a space outside the BYU stadium where SheDaisy and the Jonas Brothers were putting on a concert. Darcy, Josh, and I climbed up on the roof of the neighboring Apollo apartment complex to play games and watch the fireworks. We joined our friends from the ward, Cliff and Nicole Bergmann and Jill and Grant Ensign. The fireworks were only a couple of miles away and, from our view, they were right at eye level. It was beautiful! It would have been beautiful and relaxing had there not been rather luminous clouds and lightning rolling towards us. But it was a very colorful and exciting show.

And that was how we ended our perfect Fourth of July.