We are finally getting to the point where we can envision the new yard.

Our back yard was a claustrophobic runway of grass, with huge overgrown junipers totally obstructing the view, some ugly railroad ties and a rotting deck.

The junipers are gone and a new rock retaining wall is in their place, which probably gives us about 50% more grass area, but it feels 300% bigger with those bushes out. There is also a sunken fire pit in the new wall (if we are lucky we may get to use it this year!). And the new deck is going to be cement and metal rails which should be maintenance free and shelter the lower deck. And the tractors are like babysitters for Liam, very expensive babysitters - he'll stay at the windows just staring.

If it looks this good now (hahaha!), just wait till it is done!

Posted by Pam at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Megan finished up the end of swimming class in grand fashion, finally letting Daddy stay out of the pool and doing the class by herself. So Sunday we took a trip to Enchanted Forest to celebrate (and because we had prominsed her since she missed the last day of school trip). Megan's friend Maddy came along which was a BIG EVENT: It was the first time we had one of Megan's friends without the parents! This was also a first for Maddy and it took her a bit to warm up to the idea, but once she did, she was on fire, running us all over the park!

Enchanted Forest was a pleasant surprise - cutesy fairy tale scenes, several good slides and rides for the kids. It is perfect for the 3-9 year old crowd. Right here in Salem - I'm shocked.

Posted by Pam at 10:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are the highlights of our trip:

Lots of time on the plane after a detour to Grand Junction and a night in Denver due to tornadoes.

We meet our new cousin Luke. Liam can't get enough. Megan is bored after about three second with him; she'd rather play with all the new toys and books.

The kids finally took a bath at the end of the week.

We did our best to keep from melting in the East Coast humidity. We weren't always so successful.

We spent a day at the National Aquarium. Yay - we found Nemo!

Megan takes one turn holding Luke and announces"I'm done" before we even get the cameras out (we make her stay)

Liam is in heaven holding Luke. He was so cute petting Luke's head!

There was general silliness.

Not too much sitting still. Brooke couldn't even make it a quarter block before she was climbing out.

Lots of cousin fun - too bad they are so far away now!

Posted by Pam at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every night Megan deliberates over which pajamas to wear. And every night we go through a ritual of meticulously layering and spreading her three blankies (on top of the normal bed blanket). As the weather has gotten warmer, though, Megan has gotten into the habit of shedding her PJ's before falling asleep.

Last night megan explained to me,"I am not going to wear my pajamas to bed because I get to hot when I sleep."

"Maybe you shouldn't sleep with all of these blankets," I offer.

"Well," she says in a matter-of-fact way, "I need all these blankets to keep me toasty warm because I am not wearing any pajamas."

Posted by Pam at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My ideal is to have an empty calendar with nothing to do, but whenever that happens, we see that we have nothing scheduled and then pack the time full of activities!

The kids are done with school and music, but we are still keeping busy!

After a week a my parents we were back for a week and then it was off to Virginia to meet 8 week old cousin Luke and visit with the rest of his family (my sister, hubby Bryan and cousin Brooke). Tornados in Denver added a day of extra travel time, but the kids handled it like champs! We were in 5 states, plus DC in two days (OR, CO, TX, MD, DC and VA - although my mom always says it doesn't count as visiting a state or country if you are only in the airport!) We were right outside of DC, but didn't do any of the DC things. We did head off to the national aquarium in Baltimore one Day. Still it was nice to see my sister's family again and hang out with the cousins. We miss them living so close!

With my family checked off the list, we then moved on to quality time with Mac's family: his mom, sister, sister's fiancee and son were all here for most of the week. Lots of fun to see them too, especially since Jared is right about Megan's age.

We have plenty else lined up for the summer, too: swim lessons, a weekend at the beach, camping at Timothy Lake, a trip to Iowa and then two weeks in Southern California for Kendall's wedding/family catch-up. Plus, we have a landscaping project going on and we are spending lots of time in the garden. Meanwhile, my quads somehow just stopped working (don't ask, I have no idea) so I am doing some rehab related stuff... a nice quiet summer- HA! I suspect only a fraction of it will make it to blog-land (for example - the photo above is Meg's last day of school, only about a month late!). Hope you are taking advantage of the warm weather and empty calendar, too! :)

Posted by Pam at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)