Swimming Pool, 4th of July, and Homemade Ice Cream!!

 

Saturday was the big day!  We were able to get the pool set up, and even landscape.  The girls actually braved the frigid water on the first day. Ah- to be young again; it was too cold for Dave and me!  It's great to see the girls taking ownership of the pool...from the landscaping right down to the chemicals.  Lesley has been researching and taking care of keeping the pool water balanced on her own.  Ashley researched plants that would do well in the environment by the pool, then did the majority of the placement and planting on her own.

We're hoping to add more plants over the years.  We like to watch for perennials that don't need much care after planting that are on sale! Ashley found some ornamental grass called Big Twister Rush.  She loved it when she first spotted it, but I wasn't convinced initially.  Now that it is planted, I love it too. It's so unique. The waviness mimics the water, it should do well with the conditions around the pool, and it's deer resistant.  The other plant we used was the tried and true day lily.  A Pardon Me Day Lily to be exact.  Day lilies always do well in this climate.  We have a lot of yellow ones in our landscaping, so it's fun to have some variety with color now.   

We were fortunate to be able to spend some time with family over the holiday weekend.  A few shared meals together helped us to get caught up on each others lives.

 
Little nephews in the pool and playing with the sprinkler, everyone relaxing, visiting, and homemade ice cream...what a nice weekend!

Projects, projects...

We're feeling incredibly blessed these days.  It is so nice to have all of the appliances in the kitchen, to be able to cook, bake, and wash dishes in the dishwasher.  Over the course of the next few days,we'll have a few minor things we need to finish up before the kitchen is totally finished.  We're so thankful for our friend Shauna and all of her help.

Since "Projects" seems to be the theme of this summer at our house, I'll tell you about our latest project. In a word, it's a swimming pool. (Oops that's two words.) The girls have always wanted a pool, and they finally saved up enough money to purchase one.   It arrived weeks ago and was torture to look at inside the box on the few hot days we had in June.  Why not set it up right away you ask?  Well, because there isn't a single flat spot in our backyard.  Initially, we thought we could dig out a nice flat spot by ourselves...I have no doubt we could have done it, but we wanted to swim in the pool THIS summer!  So, a nice gentleman with a bobcat, affectionately known as "The Digger Guy" at our house, helped us out with dirt removal. 

 Before we knew it, we had a nice level spot.  Two feet was the deepest amount that had to be dug.  A lovely dirt circle that was 23 feet across, but we were left with a semi circle dirt wall that tapered down to the level ground from it's highest point of 2 feet.  Time to build a retaining wall!  I've never built a retaining wall or even entertained the idea, but I can now say that I have done it!  Of course I had a lot of help.  Dave brought the majority of the cement blocks from the drive way around to the back yard (not an easy job with a yard on an incline) and the girls and I worked and worked until we had it built.  Lesley had to go to work in the afternoons, so much of the wall was accomplished by Ashley and me.  I have some hard working girls.