Adrienne's Birthday!!!

Adrienne's birthday was today. She spent most of the afternoon with Danielle (our old neighbor who has a birthday about the same time) hiking, swimming, and basically having a blast. Before she took off with Danielle, we headed up to Camp Koholowo with Kevin and David to check out the site of our Youth Conference in August. Basically we just wanted to get an idea of the facilities and space that was available.
We borrowed some 4-Wheelers from a friend so that it would be easier to get around. Here is a shot of Ade and I riding on one of the 4-Wheelers. It is beautiful up there.
If you look very closely you can see the deer we found on the way back. We named him Stewart. ;-)
This is from the Utah Lake overlook on the Nebo Loop. We stopped on the way back to take some photos. The Nebo Loop is one of our favorite places to explore. It seems like there is beauty at every turn.

While Ade was going around hiking, playing, swimming, etc. I searched out a source for flagstone to use as pavers around our garden and also bought a "Burning Bush". Just another shrub to add to our landscaping. This one has leaves that turn bright red in the fall, hence the name.

Yard Pictures

And then there was more yardwork...

It's actually been fun getting the yard done. We finished up filling the garden boxes and even planted some herbs and vegetables. Memorial Day was mostly spent moving rock. We put decorative rock inside all of the curbing to cover the ground and weed fabric. I really need to take some pictures, but I've been busy trying to get it all done.

Yesterday a bunch of us got together to lay sod for my backyard neighbor. It's amazing the difference an hour of work can make on a yard (especially when that hour is spent covering bare earth with grass). Seth has been working just about everyday for a month to get the ground ready. He couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Well, I'll try to take some photos tonight and post them soon. We just have a few more projects to get done this year and we'll be set.

Garden boxes and our friends adopt

We haven't heard much on the adoption front the last couple of weeks, but there are still some birth moms interested as far as we know. Some friends of ours down the street adopted a little boy last Wednesday. We are very excited for them. Ben and Britney are great parents and this child will have a wonderful home and family to grow up in. This is their third adoption (all boys). The birth parents decided it was important to them to have the boy raised in a family with other kids.

We've been working outside in our yard quite a bit. Between weeding, moving dirt, roto-tilling, hiring someone to put in curbing, planting, building garden boxes and everything else...we've been a little busy. We are getting close.

I thought everyone might like to take a peek at our 2 garden boxes. We built them out of 2" x 6" x 10' lengths of common redwood. Then we treated them with boiled linseed oil to add a little additional weather protection. This picture shows 1 box finished and 1 box before the boiled linseed oil. They are sitting on weed fabric so that the dirt and soil above the ground won't get anything creeping up from below.

We are in the process of filling them with some dirt and garden soil. Dirt we have in abundance. Our neighbor is helping us obtain some garden soil. He has a friend that mixes all the good stuff together and sells it by the yard (cubic yard that is). We should get it all put in by this weekend and plant all the little vegetable and herb plants on Saturday.

SF Volleyball and Yard

This week we had another volleyball tournament. Our Spanish Fork team competed in the middle bracket and took 3rd place. This might be the last year that we do both Spanish Fork and Payson at the same time. It takes quite a bit of time and hopefully we'll have adopted by then. ;-)

Friday was Liberty's 1st birthday party (our niece). She didn't quite know what to do with the presents, but with a little help she started to get the hang of it. She also had a ball with the cake and ice cream. Check out this great shot I took with my phone.

Saturday was spent in the yard. We weeded the area that we are going to put a planter. Weeded all the garden beds around the house. Moved all the excess dirt from the planter area (about 10 wheel barrow loads worth). Planted our peach tree. Transplanted the maple from the front yard to the side yard. Planted 3 bushes and 2 Hosta plants. We even put down weed barrier fabric everywhere that we cleared.

I still haven't painted the shelves in our closet, but I'll try to get that done tonight. Then, tomorrow, we are having our curbing put in our yard. I'll try to get some before and after photos to share with everyone. I wish I would have taken the time Saturday so that everyone could see just how much was done.

Volleyball and weekend

Our Payson volleyball league had the end of season tournament. We ended up losing in the final so we took 2nd place. It was disappointing but it was a ton of fun playing with friends from our old neighborhood. This week we'll have our Spanish Fork tournament with friends from our current neighborhood. We can hardly wait.

Saturday we had several activities. First, Heidi and Trevor came over to watch a movie. We then caulked the new shelves in the master closet to prep them for paint. Finally, we bought a peach tree from Costco. We've been wanting to get our garden going, but it seems to rain each Saturday, but we figured we could at least buy a tree. We didn't get home in time to plant it Saturday, but we'll get it done tonight as part of Family Home Evening.