the husband and i celebrated our 14th anniversary yesterday. my gift is in this photo, but you can't really see it yet. it's going to be GRASS my friends. the only thing i wanted for my anniversary, and the husband made it happen. i am watering like crazy. let's hope the little guys grow up nice and green. our real gifts to each other are going to be clump river birch trees. hopefully they grow old with us.



this is the flagstone walk i took on last weekend. i went to the hardscapes outlet, filled the back of my poor explorer up with 1,000 pounds of flagstone and guess what? it had just the right amount of stone, right down to the very last one. the husband helped me get the path all level and we put down the first bit together. it's not quite done. once that sand settles, i am going to put in a few bags of stuff called gator dust that hardens up so weeds don't grow. but...kinda cool. it really only took a day. my kind of project :)



here is just another perspective, the walk connects that patio to the stairs in the wall...we are planting grass and will have rocks and bushes and stuff up here...those go in this coming weekend...



this is just the back view, with the wall the husband built and the deck the husband built and all the dirt he moved in that you can't see. it's slowwwwwww but things are starting to take shape. i am thinking pictures next year at this time will be in order!

anyway. happy anniversary to us!

this is for grandma. i said in my last post i'd get a picture of big j in his uniform and she just gently reminded me that she's been looking every day. :)

so big j is playing 5th grade tackle football this year and the husband is once again coaching. big j just barely squeaked into the lightweight division, him being 5 foot 4 and 90 pounds. a few more pounds and he would have been up with the big boys. i will take a picture and post it because he looks so grown up and cute in his uniform.

anyway, the husband has been telling me some funny stories about big j at practice. he says my shy, reserved kid has been downright jovial. here are a few lines from the first night.

they are doing a tackling drill against a tackling dummy, and coach tells them all to get mean. he says the kids are coming at the dummy grunting and growling and yelling, and big j gets up to the line, takes off running at the dummy and screams, "i'll kill you and your family too!"

a while later, coach is telling them they are going to work hard, have fun and...

big j pipes up "drink some beer!" (totally not a big j thing to say, the kid is all about rules)

coach says "what did you say?"

big j says "oh. right. not appropriate for this age group." (totally a big j thing to say)

anyway. it feels like football season out there today. gotta love it. i'll keep you posted on big j's adventures in tackle football.

15 days of vacation and this is it for photos. three shots. i even had to hike back down to the car and come back up in order to take the waterfall shots, but it needed to be done. i think ouray, colorado may be one of my favorite places. this is where all three shots were taken. the whole town is in a valley surrounded by mountains, with hiking trails all over the place. it's just gorgeous. there is also a hot springs swimming pool and even an outdoor hockey rink. i could live here.

wow. sure is quiet here this morning.

happy first day of school to the jboys. little j is in second, big j starts fifth. the hound is pathetically wandering from room to room, looking for her buddies.

sigh.

hello friends! popping by here on a sunday night to say we survived 8 days of vacation and it's not certain we'll survive just two days back at work until we take off again for a few days. i am pretty sure we were crazy when we planned this.

however. vacation was great. it seems like we were gone forever. we did end up taking crosby dog, who gave us the puppy dog eyes all morning when we were packing the car and finally got an invite. she loved being a farm dog at my mom's house, even after learning the hard truth about electric fences and mama cows.

there are so many highlights from this trip i don't even know where to begin. it was great spending time with family. sure does make me miss them all. we did all kinds of fun things, from a huge water park to hiking in the mountains to zipping around the ranch on four-wheelers to wakeboarding with my favorite cousin and her awesome family, my grandma (who hates boats and water) stoically tagging along for the loud and crazy ride.

the car ride i could so do without...my butt is still in the shape of a car seat. why oh why can't colorado be about 10 hours closer?