The vision starts to take shape.

Alright, I know I have been saying I have been working on the back yard for some time now, and I have been. In fact I have spent the majority of my days off working on it or another part of the house. Finally, I can say it is starting to really take shape now. There is a lot more left but I believe I will be taking a break from it for awhile now. I first saw the back yard, it is small, but most yards are here, and I wondered what I could do to make it better, maybe a little more inviting and peaceful. I thought that I would like to have some grass but can't do the whole thing that way. So some gravel and grass, yet I wanted a more unique way of separating the two than some pavers or blocks. So I figured we could put in a dry creek that would work as a divider between the two, and would also help funnel water during the 2 months of monsoon season where it rains everyday. After 30 seconds of trying to dig I realized I was in for quite a chore. The ground is almost a hard clay with so many rocks that you have to use a pick axe. So after days of picking and digging I had the beginning of the creek. Long story short, it took 5 tons of river rock to make it, 3 tons of gravel to fill in the far side, 3 tons of tri mix dirt to prep for sod, and a lot of trips with the wheelbarrow to get it all back there. Today I finally got to put the sod down. I will let you judge if it was worth it.

Tribute to Annalise and her birthday month.

Ok, so in case some of you didn't know, didn't remember, or whatever the case. Annalise had her birthday this month, the 8th to be exact. And no I didn't forget, I just haven't had much time to blog about it, or anything else for that matter. They blocked my access to this site at work. I have been very busy working on other things, will get to that later. Anyways, the love of my life just completed 27 years of life on this planet. And to celebrate we went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant. I got her a brand new bike for her to cruise around on, we have only had time for a couple rides but she loves it. Enjoy the pics, Happy Birthday love.

The USN and the Somali Pirates

Family Visit

We had a few visitors this past weekend! My sister Karyn, her husband and kids, and even my mom, made the 13 hour drive from SLC to Sierra Vista, AZ. We had a blast! They made it down here on Saturday afternoon and just left this morning. The house is really really quiet without the six other people and we miss them already.

Saturday we colored Easter eggs and relaxed. It has been like 15 years since I've colored eggs but the kids were pros! Andrew's Halloween Jack-o-Lantern egg was the best, in my opinion.

Sunday Andrew began his new shift (days) and wasn't able to go with us to Bisbee. We also took a detour to the border so that the fam could see the border fence themselves. I think they were a little nervous about it, so we didn't spend too much time there. But we did take a tour through one of the museums in Bisbee and they definitely liked that! We got to learn a little bit more of the history of Bisbee (it was actually a really big city back in the day, it had a huge copper mine) and tried to go visit the haunted Copper Queen Hotel. I had gotten the kids all excited about seeing some ghosts there but we weren't able to take a look. Felt a little bad about that. :) The rest of Sunday we spent relaxing at home, playing games and hanging out.

Monday we decided to head out to Tombstone. What a cool little town! They have tried really hard to keep the old western town feeling alive and if there weren't 15 gift shops to every one historical marker, I'd almost believe I was there! We watched the gunfight at the O.K. Corral (or Coral as Lara called it) and even got a little bit of a sunburn. It was pretty cool to see the Old West come to life a little bit.

Anyways, we had a great time with the Gustafson clan and Mom. Hope that they will come back soon! Love you guys lots!

P.S. Everyone has an open invitation. Just let us know when you are coming! :)