Various Goings On

Hola, amigos, I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. These past couple of months Rob and I have been alternating trips out of town, trying to work on the backyard, and generally just trying to have fun with our two crazy little boys. Last weekend I went up Rochester for the first time in 3 years (!) to visit family and friends. I had a great time, especially getting to see my friend Mary's little boys, who are the same age as Beck and Bay. They are both super cute and very, umm, spirited. We had a blast!

Here is Gavin, he is just a few weeks younger than Beck. They've never met, but I hope they become good friends some day.

This is Logan, he's 2 and a half. Here he is trying to attack me with a toy chainsaw.

Here's Logan and my sister snuggling on the porch. He's a very sweet little guy.

Here's Peg and Mary and I. When we were in high school, Mary and I were so tight they called us the "Mary sisters." I also got to go out with some high school friends and good times were had.

 It was so great to be back home, I definitely need to go back more often!

Rob and I decided that the next big project for the house should be the deck and the back yard. The deck was in desperate need of a new coat of stain. I picked out the stain and let Rob do the rest. I think it turned out pretty good, a definite improvement.

Before:

After:

We also went ahead and tore down all the hedges that were around the deck. They were too tall and mismatched and they blocked us from being able to see out into the yard. Slowly but surely we are making the yard into what we envisioned when we bought the place.

I guess we could have just hired some guys to come and spend one day tearing down and pulling up stuff, instead of the days and weeks we've put into chopping, sawing and digging, but that would be too easy.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that even more plants that I thought were weeds and almost cut down, bloomed into gorgeous hydrangeas.

This backyard is just so random. I also discovered that the bush/tree on the right side of our house has some sort of reddish orange flowers growing off of it.

I still haven't figured out what this one is, so any help is appreciated.

Yesterday it was crazy hot, so we opened Baylor's birthday gift from his friend Aleksey- a sprinkler ball shaped like a giant globe.

Motivated by the fact that Beck's pre-school class is having a bike rodeo this week, we decided that it was time for him to have a real bike. We picked this beauty up at Target, it only took an hour of time and three arguments to put together.

Ironically, the name of this bike is "Major Damage". Why would you write that on a little kid's bike? I don't know, but it feels foreboding.