June misc.

Being home from vacation was great because we really missed hanging out with our friends and family! We came back to some great weather, so it really felt like summer was here and we were geared up to get out & enjoy it!
Tuesday, June 8th~We walked to Oakway Park with my friends, Melissa and Sydney & their kids, where we met up with a few other friends (Kelly and Beth). We had a great time chatting and watching our kids play together. Most of them are at ages where they can play independently and they watch our for each other, so it makes for a much more enjoyable park outing for us moms.
Some of the boys gathering for a game of basketball--even little Eli (:
June 9th~My sister, Katrina, came over to our house with her two boys. I couldn't wait to get my hands on baby Cedar (just 5 weeks old)! He had changed so much in the short time we were away! (: He's such a sweetie and I loved getting to snuggle him!
Griffin loves holding Cedar, too!
Becca and her kids came over for a little while, too...so we really had to share Cedar. (: Thankfully he didn't mind being passed around.
June 10th~I watched Sadie and Cohen while Becca worked that day because my parents were on vacation in California. We went to our neighborhood park to play and eat lunch...
Griffin and Cohen are becoming such good buddies (:

Sadie and Ronan being silly

Back at home Griffin kept asking me to take pictures of him so that he could see himself on the camera...
in the basketball hoop

riding the trike

June 15th~It was a sunny, beautiful day and my friend Kelly invited us over to play. Our boys play well together, especially when there's plenty of room to run around and be active. (: Their yard is so great for kids and I always love going there to see their garden and newest additions: chickens and bees! I didn't get pictures of the chickens this time, but they are getting so big & they're so fun to watch. (:

Home From Vacation

We had a very sweet homecoming with our boys after being away for ten days! Griffin snuggled into my shoulder and didn't want me to put him down for the longest time. (: That was fine with me! I missed that so much when we were gone. Both boys were so happy to have us home-it felt so nice to be together again. (:

Present Time!

Griffin with his iguana

I love this one-- checking each other out with their eye patches on. (:

our little pirates

Ronan was excited to have Daddy back home so they could play together!

Vacation to St. Thomas!

To celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary, Josh and I went on a tropical, romantic vacation to the Virgin Islands! It was such an amazing trip! We had really been looking forward to going away together, especially after spending the past year and a half+ in the craziness of house building! Throughout the construction process we paid for all of the big contracts with our miles Visa (then we'd pay it off using the construction loan), in hopes that at the end we would have enough miles saved up for free airline tickets. It worked out for us, and Josh did all the research to see which locations we could go to and how many miles points each would use. We decided on St. Thomas because we figured it was a place we might not ever get to go to again. It was far enough away while still being in the U.S. (:

We hadn't been on a big vacation (just the two of us) since our honeymoon, so we were really excited to get away and have time to reconnect as a couple. We were gone for ten days, which was by far the longest we had ever been away from our kids! The boys stayed for four nights with my parents and five nights with Josh's parents...they did well & had a lot of fun. We missed them a lot, but we also really enjoyed the time we got to spend away from them. I'm so thankful that it worked out to go because I know that it was good for us!

Here are just some of the highlights from our trip. I tried not to go crazy with pictures on this post, but if you would like to see all 200 pictures you can check out the album on the right. (:

View from our hotel room
Another view from our room

View from the water of our resort, the Wyndham at Sugar Bay.

Our beach
We bought an underwater case for our Canon SD750 and had so much fun trying it out while snorkeling! Josh took most of the pictures because he was much more comfortable diving deep into the water. (:

We went on a tour of Blackbeard's Castle

We took lots of pictures of the pirate statues for our boys--they love pirates. (:

Taken at the top of the tower

Laying by the pool at our resort

Eating lunch at Coki Beach

Snorkeling at Coki Beach-known for having some of the best snorkeling in the Virgin Islands. The fish were basically at our feet as we walked into the water. It was amazing!

Amazing Coral!

Dinner at one of the restaurants at the resort

We took a ferry to the island of St. John for a day and went to Trunk Bay- said to be the 3rd most beautiful beach in the world. The sand was so soft and powdery and the water was SO clear and warm...just amazing!

Our Front Yard

The process of landscaping our front yard began in the middle of April. We hired a friend to dig up the yard and level the ground, which had been predominantly weeds and piles of dirt leftover from the excavation of the street during construction.

Ronan loves to work with Josh, and he is really becoming a big help.

While Martin was running the tractor, Josh started working on forms for concrete so that we could put in a sidewalk.

In the next few days Josh ordered some gravel and then he rented a tamper to prepare the sidewalk area for concrete.
We had someone come and pour the concrete into the forms, and then Josh, my dad, and our friend, Paul, did all the finish work on the sidewalk. It happened to be the hottest day of the year so far (90 degrees!), so they had to work really fast. I ended up helping out, too, since everything was drying too quickly.

Finished product--not perfect, but we were pretty happy with it. (:

On to the underground sprinkler system...

Walkway from the new sidewalk up to our front door.

Josh also finished the tile work on the pillars and the front of the house, and finished framing the pillars.

Last time to play in the dirt before seeding.

First sign of baby grass!! And new shrubs along the front of the house and the fence line.

Still growing...

more shrubs & trees

We also decided to do a little bit of landscaping across the street from our house even though the neighbors are supposed to maintain it. It is usually overgrown with tall weeds, so this will be much nicer to look at! (: