Family, fun and concrete

The last weekend in March, my two out-of-town sisters came into town.  Summer is home from Afghanistan and had some leave, so she brought her boys for a fun Spring Break.  Shaye and her kids miraculously had Spring Break the same week, so we decided to make the most of it!  

We managed to get all 27 of us to a photographer so that we could document all of us being together.  Hooray for an updated picture!  (I think I'm more excited about this than my sisters because I was pregnant with little sister for the last one and very swollen.)  We had planned to watch the Women's Conference broadcast at my place afterward, but picking out pictures and all that took quite a while.  So we ladies ended up just having a late dinner at my place.  

On Sunday, we all went to Grandma's house and recreated our New Years Eve feast, since Summer and Sunny weren't there.  We had the chocolate fountain, of course, and lots of other appetizer things for dinner.  Yum!  No pics, too busy eating chocolate.

Monday started our concrete project. Most of our land is on the side of the house.  The previous owners set the fence pretty far back.  So a good chunk of our yard was on the side and in the front and totally useless. The grass was hard to keep alive and we hated the gravel.  Mainly because our kids LOVE to throw the rocks at the windows, each other, and into the garden.  We've been dreaming of moving the fence and putting down concrete for a while now.  Brodie needed a good excuse to spend the week in Utah with his family.  So we helped each other out!  Monday evening, we had Thanksgiving dinner.  Y'know, since Summer was in Afghanistan for the real one.  And since I had a turkey in my freezer.  And our motto when we get together is to "Eat 'till we die!"  I did manage to get a picture of most everyone:

Everyone minus Cedie, who was working.  And plus Dan, Kylie's friend who is a boy.  He is 6'6", so the guys loved having him around for a basketball game afterward.  I should mention for the record:  Not to toot my own horn, but I make some seriously delicious homemade rolls.  The record # eaten at one sitting was 4.  Dan has now upped that to 5.  Impressive!

Tuesday was rainy and yucky, and we just kind of hung out a bit.  No concrete work, it was just too wet.  Clam chowder was on the menu for dinner, and my nieces requested more rolls since we had no leftovers.  We eat 'till we die!

Wednesday we needed to go shopping.  Shaye needed to get clothes for Cedie's wedding.  We left the teenagers in charge of the little kiddos.  Props to them since outside was off limits because:

Concrete was happening!  Yay!  This was the first pour of several.  We ended up with around 2500 square feet of concrete.  My Uncle Paul showed up the first day with my Dad.  The poor man had just needed a ride and a place to hang out for a few hours.  Dad told him we were doing concrete, so he came and did concrete!  That is just how my family rolls.  Shopping was fun, and we had yummy Zupa's for lunch.  Wednesday night, we ditched the kids again and all went to the Desert Star.  The play was fun, as usual.  We had put Summer's name on their program, and when they announced that she was back from her 3rd tour in Afghanistan, she received a very fitting standing ovation.  I may or may not have gotten misty eyed.  We are so very proud of our favorite soldier!  Brodie and Shaye recently celebrated 20 years of marriage, so that was announced also.  They got to dance while everyone sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."  My sisters were very embarrassed.  Better them than me!

Thursday was the zoo for those of us whose kids were on Spring Break.  Sunny's kiddos and mine were still in school, so we didn't join them.  I understand they had fun. I stayed home and cleaned the house a bit.  I also made a huge batch of cinnamon rolls.  Brodie and my Dad had a marathon day of concrete, and with all the extra guests I figured they'd get eaten.  I figured correctly!  Brodie and Shaye spent the evening with Brodie's brother and sister, so once I got the kids to bed I took a minute to enjoy the quiet.  

Friday was a crazy day.  Brodie, my Dad and Husband poured another pad of concrete.  Shaye and the older girls went to Utah State to tour the college.  I went down to BYU to pick up Kylie.  Afterward, I dropped the boys off with Husband's mom for the night.  Then the 8 remaining members of our party piled in the van to drive up to Logan for Cedie's wedding!  (Long story short - it was planned by me, then postponed, then back on a few days before.  There was some scrambling to get us all there, but I'm glad we were able to be there!)  Cedie and Court were married Friday evening, and she was a beautiful bride!  I took some pictures before the ceremony, and let the man with the nicer camera take picture afterward!

Beautiful Bride

Loves her Daddy!

They love each other, they really do!

I'm kind of a short Auntie...

The girls LOVED seeing Cedie in her pretty dress!

Shaye's family

She loves her mommy, too!

Saturday was the big finish day for the concrete.  With so much going on during the week, especially the surprise of the wedding, we had to add an extra day to Shaye and Brodie's stay so that Brodie could finish the concrete.  The men (Husband, Brodie, my Dad and Jon) were outside ALL DAY.  We fed them some yummy buttermilk pancakes around 6:30am, and they came back in around 11am for some French Dip sandwiches.  Then back out again.  They didn't come back in until almost 6pm.  That's a long day, folks!  They sort of managed to stay awake while watching the priesthood session of General Conference on my couch.  (So glad they broadcast that now.  Seriously.)  We had everyone over for dinner again at 5.  Marinated chicken, pesto cream sauce with pasta, and fruit salad.  Plus a yummy apple pie and ridiculous amounts of cheesecake.  Nobody went hungry this week, that's for sure!  

Sunday was when everyone had to leave for home.  My house was instantly quieter when they all left, but I sure miss them all!  It was wonderful to be all together for a week!

And now, pics of the concrete all finished. I meant to take a picture before they put the fence up. But I didn't.  So here's the backyard with the pretty new fence.  The kids are LOVING the space to ride bikes!  I am loving that the gravel is gone.  This space was basically unusable before, and now it's so much better!

The front part.  Everything in the picture is the new concrete, poured alongside the driveway.  We ripped out about 8 bushes on the property line, and removed all the grass that was impossible to keep alive through the summer.  Husband's favorite part, aside from the no-more-rock-throwing, is that he won't have to spray for weeds in the gravel this year!  Yay!  Huge thanks to Brodie for taking on our ridiculous job and for the rest of the family for pitching in!  Couldn't have done it without all of you!

Speaking of rocks.  My new project, now that the gravel is gone, is to remove all the rocks/gravel from our garden.  I found this picture from when we first put in the garden:

 

 Look at that beautiful soil!  The previous owners had gravel in that part, also.  We spent an entire weekend with a homemade dirt sifter, shovels and a wheelbarrow, removing all the gravel we could.  We knew that with tilling it every year, more rocks would surface.  Helped by little kids throwing extra rocks into the garden.  Anyway.  Our beautiful dirt is not so beautiful anymore.  So I am going through it again with all those same tools.  I think we'll mix in some manure once we're done de-rocking.  That could be a while.  I've spent a few hours the last couple days and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the garden.  It does look so much better, though!

 

Before - yucky dirt/weeds, After - so much better!