Summer Project: Getting Grass

Once summer comes, we have a list of projects that we start working on.  It is a little sad because I have actually started dreading summer a little because we are so busy...TOO busy!  I am hoping that since we have a few of the major ones completed finally that next summer things will start to slow down.  I have always had the mantra, "Reprioritize and Simplify," so that our life doesn't get so busy but it seems like the the last couple of years it doesn't matter what we do, we can't seem to slow down.  I am open to suggestions. :) 

This summer, I knew we would be finishing the backyard.  My husband, being who he is, means there is  A LOT of planning that goes into everything we do.  I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with that.  Everything we do seems to take twice as long as what it takes everyone else because he is so meticulous.  But I have come to realize that in the long run it does save us time, money and heartache. 

So, just like all of our other projects, planning the backyard took us several weeks.  We looked at things from every angel and what future situations/problems could arise so that we don't want to end up changing something again or wishing we would have done it differently.  We probably (NO! we DO) think about things too much but it IS what we do. :)

This is the home of our future raised garden beds...already plumbed for watering.  SEE...what good planners we are. ;)

We have this wall in our yard and because I am so short it is a pain to just walk up.  So Chris built me these cute little stairs.  YAY!  They are my favorite now.  Also, we cleaned up our window-wells.  I don't have pictures but we painted the inside and put cute little rocks in them so that the kids don't feel like they are in a gross dungeon when they look out the windows of the basement.

The first year we bought plants for the yard, they all died.  I decided that I cannot rely on myself to water them so once we got the drip system in we attempted planting a few more.  Now that they have survived a year, we figured we could go ahead and buy a few more.  We bought this tree, 2 smaller bushes, 1 large tree-bush thingy, 4 peonies bushes and a couple more lilies.  Cross our fingers they last (and are low maintenance).

Asher thinks he is going on 13 instead of 3 and wants to do everything anyone else does. He jumps right into helping whenever he can.  I am not complaining. :)

I am kinda brain-dead so I never got pictures of the whole lawn done.  My camera doesn't work so the only one we have right now is on Chris's iphone and he never around when I remember that I need to take pictures so you will have to use your imagination. :)

Summer Project: Remodeling Office

My office is the catch-all for everything in the house.  Kids school work, homework, books, scouts, bills, computer stuff, work stuff, craft stuff etc., etc., etc.  If I don't know where to put it - it goes in the office.  If I am working on it - it goes in the office.  We had two desks, a large folding table, a book shelf and two filing cabinets but it still seemed like we had no space.  Both desks and the table were always covered in stuff.  If I cleaned it all up, by that night it seemed like it was in chaos again.  It was just always a mess!  Sooo...I started planning.  We are really good at planning.  :)  I thought that if I just had bigger file cabinets that were right next to me than that would help me out a lot.  Than it developed into a built in desk that would go around the entire room so there was more space for the kids to do homework.  But if you have lower cabinets than you have to have upper cabinets, right? Right! So, we have been working on these plans for about a year.  Chris drew them up in auto-cad.  I figured we still had another year before we were going to actually make them become a reality but...not so much!  This looked like the year to make it happen so, happen it did.   

We sent the plans to his brother, Robert who was going to help him build them.  Once he got a hold of them, things evolved again.  It took them over two weeks of working on them from the time they got home from their day jobs until sometimes midnight or later and on Saturdays to build them.  Sometimes, I wanted to pull my hair out because my house was a mess from the construction, I never saw my husband and the cost kept going up and up and up.  I told Chris it felt like we were spending money like water.   A month later we are still trying to play catch up.  But in the end, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out.


Here they are building the lower drawers.

This is the lower section finished.  There are a total of four desks.

We really wanted to hire a counter top person to come and install the counter tops but they were at least a week out and we wanted them done by the next day (I told you this was a spur of the moment project)  so we saved money by doing them ourselves.  Yay for saving money!

Luckily, we have a cabinet builder in the family who let us use his cabinet building shop.  We are so grateful for his help because it would have been sooo much harder without it. They built all the upper cabinets there.  There were a total of 8 large upper cabinets built.

 We tore out the carpet in this room and put it downstairs in the boys new room (yes, another project...with pictures to come).

We put in this beautiful new floor which I love. 

We also took out the clothing rods and put in two more shelves on the left side of the closet for even more storage space.  

This is the finished East wall.  

 This is the finished South wall.  My favorite part of the room are the filing cabinet drawers in the middle.  We splurged and bought expensive drawer glides but it was worth it because they hold lots of weight and are sooo smooth!  I love having the filing cabinets right next to me. 

Here is the finished West side.  

Another view of the room.

Lake Mead Marina and Fish Hatchery

Once again I am WAYYY behind on posting anything.  We have had a CRAZY BUSY summer with home projects, family, callings, jobs, kid camps, etc., etc., etc.  I am finally getting around to going through some of  the pics and decided it was time to post again.

Back in May, we decided to visit my sister in Las Vegas, well, technically Henderson but whatever.  :)  We went to Lake Mead Marina which is a favorite of mine.  I have been doing it since I was a kid and it is fun to see my kids enjoy the same thing.  We also visited the Fish Hatchery for the first time.

Here are the kids looking into the Lake from the Fish Hatchery.  And Asher of course is climbing any chance he gets. :)  We also had to hold onto Asher at every turn because we never knew what the kid was going to do!  He scares us! :)

We went to Stacy's community pool but it was a little cold still which was unusual from them this time of year.  But the kids wanted to swim anyway.  The life guard there thought Asher was very cute and hilarious and let him play with his "noodle."  I am not sure what it  is actually called but he loved it.  

Salt Lake City

Chris had a 2-day torture, I mean, test in Salt Lake City a couple of weeks ago (more on that to come) so the kids and I went with him.  It was a mini-vacation...at least for me and the kids.  We swam in the pool and went to see lots of free things.  Come to think of it...I don't think Chris has even seen these pictures yet. He was so stressed about the test...I don't think he remembers what I told him we were doing. ;)

We will start with Blinkenstaffs.
Blinkenstaffs is a Toy and Candy store in the Provo area (soon to be in SLC as well)  They have a lot of cool Novelty and Nostalgic candy and toys.  They also let you play with toys and games while you are in the store.   I thought it would be a fun little stop on our drive up.  Since we went in April, near Easter, they hid a golden egg in the store everyday and gave a little prize to whomever found it.  I told Uncle John that he had to find it and give it to the kids.  He did.  So obedient.  We love Uncle John!  The girls got to pick a treat.  It was fun.  Especially since it was free.  We did end up purchasing a game as well as some candy.  But I think the total still amounted to less than $25.  I thought they might be a little pricey but I think they were really reasonable especially since they mostly offer toys that aren't found anywhere else.

For some reason every time I look at this picture I can't help but look at my cute girls and think how quickly they are growing into young woman.  Allison, looks so old to me.  OK, OK!   I know she is only seven but those seven years have flown by. 

Next up...we went to the new City Creek Center Mall.  It was quite amazing! And huge!  And beautiful!  I didn't get a picture of this but I thought it was so cool that we could walk out of it right into Temple Square (which we didn't because we went there the last time we were in SLC and didn't have time this time around, but we could have).  Plus we were trying to make this a free stop which means we were limited to only an hour before we had to pay for parking.  :)

I took a picture of this door because I thought it was cool and wanted Chris to be able to see it (he was still taking his test). They are working on it.  I have a feeling that might be happening a lot.  This is a huge door that shuts to make the out door mall an indoor mall.  

Swimming
Honestly, Chris and I have thought on several occasions that we should just stay in a hotel and do nothing but swim because that is our kids favorite part.  They always ask to go swimming and if we are out doing something fun, they ask when they can go back to the hotel to go swimming.  Honestly, one day we may do just that.

The next day we went to the Clarke Planetarium.  This is a "mostly free" hands on science museum.  The kids enjoyed it.  I debated paying for a IMAX or Laser Show but decided that the kids were having enough fun without the extra cost so I decided against it.  Plus I didn't know if Asher would sit through the entire show anyway.  

 This is the kids on Mars.

This is the kids on the Moon.

 Chuck E Cheese was the last stop on our trip. This time Chris could be there. It wasn't free but it was fun.  And it's were a kid can be a kid, right?  And the adults too!

Poor Allison was soooo sick the last day of our trip.  She ended up getting a fever of 104 and it wouldn't ever drop below a 101.  She spent most of the night actually sleeping on the benches at the restaurant.  She was sick for the next 2 weeks...missing 5 days of school and being weak the others.  We found out it was the flu and then turned into an ear infection.  Poor girl.  But even being super sick she is always trying to be happy!

The kids deciding on which toys they can get with their tickets...my favorite part of the night. ;) 

  

Eating!!!

Now, I couldn't call myself a real foodie if I wasn't obsessed with the places we ate while in SLC.  I found several restaurants that had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and decided that we would start our search there.  I was looking for "kid-friendly" as well as "pocket-book-friendly"  and decided on Moochies Meatballs & More and Ruth's Diner.  Both their menu's are located online as well which is a bonus!  I kick myself because I didn't get any pictures of any of the food.  Oh well.

Moochies Meatballs & More:  We got a 12in. Philly and a 12in. Meatball sub to share between all of us which was plenty of food.  Although 99% of the time, I would always choose a Philly over a meatball sub, they are supposed to be known for their meatballs so we decided to try it.  I thought it tasted fantastic.  They use a blend of meats plus lots of seasonings and I think there is even a little bit of chocolate in there. A recipe  for awesomeness.  Even though their Philly was superb as well, the meatball sub was quite amazing.  

Ruth's Diner:  This place was packed...their was a huge wait from the time we got there until we left.  But after tasting the food, I can see why.  They were really good.  We started with dinner rolls which were perfect.  I couldn't decide what to order so we got three large dinner plates and shared them between all of us.  We got the macaroni & cheese with chicken.  Nom, Nom, Nom.  So good.  The best macaroni and cheese from a restaurant I have had. The perfect blend of crispy and creamy.  We also got the chicken fried steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and veggies.  Everything was cooked perfectly and I have never had restaurant veggies that I wanted the recipe for.   And the third plate we ordered as a Caprese Sandwich with Chicken....fresh mozzarella, caramelized-balsamic red onions, pesto, oven-roasted tomatoes, and basil...those 5 ingredients are like the best 5 ingredients in the cooking world so how can this sandwich not be perfect!  It was and the only thing that I was disappointed in was the fact that I couldn't eat it all (and that I don't have a camera good enough to capture the amazingness of it!).

We also tried Bear's Country Cookies in the Gateway Mall and tried 7 of their cookies.  No, didn't eat all seven cookies by myself. :)  I cut them up into quarters so everyone got to try them.  We all loved the Orange Chocolate chip.  I also loved the Lemon and the Berry Drizzle Sugar Cookie.  But the snickerdoodle was really good too.  They were all yummy. 

I would definitely recommend all three of these eateries if you happen to find yourself looking for some good-eats in the SLC area!