Busy bees!!!

We've had a busy couple of weeks! Busy spending time with friends and family, busy at work (well I am at least), busy doing yard work, etc etc. Seems like we're always doing something. We have been working hard on the yard. We built a retaining wall in the back and finally got that filled in yesterday. Jered pulled out five stumps yesterday. Last week he pulled out the Oregon grapes that were in the backyard too. I've been scraping up all the old bark mulch, weeding and doing all the clean-up thats been needing done for a while now. We've cleaned out some of the gravel from the dog run (and recycled it by using it in the retaining wall!) and put down new gravel. Our friends have let us borrow their trailer so we have something to haul the yard debris in. And to bring back the tons of bark we need to cover up all the areas we're hauling it out of. We have tons of little projects in our minds that we'd like to get done, it just takes time and money unfortunately. Ashlyn has been very cooperative with us. She plays on the deck with the dogs or whatever she can find. She'll play in her pack-n-play for short periods of time when we need to be in the front. She doesn't really like to touch the grass. This kid of ours is very finicky about stuff that sticks to her hands! She also takes one very long nap, at least 2-3 hours and that lets us get A LOT done.

Jered and I went to the Astoria Seafood and Wine Fest a couple of weekends ago with some friends. We had so much fun! We'd never been and everyone kept telling us it's the best wine fest and now I totally agree. My mom and Eddie came up to stay with Ashlyn on Friday night because we were planning to leave early on Sat. We really appreciated them coming up, its hard to travel on a Friday evening after working all week. We left the house a little before 7am to have breakfast at our friends house before heading to Astoria. We got checked into our hotel and were waiting for the first bus at 10am to take us to the festival! We did lots of tasting, ate lots of food, listened to some music and by about 2pm we were ready for a nap. I don't nap, I've never been a napper. But, after a little wine, ok a lot of wine! I was able to nap for a couple of hours. We woke up so refreshed! We had an amazing dinner that night at Baked Alaska on the waterfront. So yummy! My steak was cooked perfectly and so tender, De-lish!

This last Wed. we headed down to Klamath Falls for two nights. I went to a two day conference at OIT and brought the whole family with me. Jered and Ashlyn and the dogs! Ashlyn had a blast in the hotel room. We had a little mini suite and there were tons of cupboards that she could climb into. She loved the closet doors too. They were mirrored and she was always checking herself out! She figured out how to close those too and was always hiding inside with the doors shut. It was a 12 hour day for me on Thurs so Jered just hung out, worked on some paperwork, visited his old track coach, drove around checking out the town, took a nap with Ashlyn. So much different from when we lived there 10 years ago. Its crazy to think its already been 10 years. I moved to Klamath in 1999. Weird! It was a half day on Friday, so after checking out of the hotel we went for lunch at our FAVORITE mexican restaurant in the entire world. Sergios, yum!!! Only problem was after lunch we were so tired, it was a rough drive home. We made multiple stops just to wake ourselves up. We tried stopping at Silver Creek Falls but the road was blocked, so we went to the rest stop part and let the dogs play an the snow. Ashlyn was funny, she kept reaching for the snow but didn't like how cold it was. She loved walking in it though. She did really great in the car, 5 hours down, 5 hours back home. It helped that we stopped and let her run around but after a while she did not want to go back into the seat.

This weekend we spent in the yard. My dad came up to visit yesterday! It had been a while since we'd seen him last so it was great to have him come up. He stayed most of the afternoon with us, helped Jered with one difficult stump. Ashlyn was being shy at first but after she got warmed up, she was her usual happy go lucky self. She liked being outside all day. She was running around, exploring the yard. She likes the deck better because its more stable and when she falls she doesn't have to touch the grass to stand up. She was definitely working her abs, not using her hands to stand up, whining the whole time. Usually Grandpa would feel sorry for her and help her up!

We still have a lot to do in the yard, its seems never ending! We'll be getting our hanging baskets soon from Grandpa Floyd and after we put down all the bark and plant some new plants it should be looking pretty good. Its a work in progress that's for sure! I'm working one double shift a week until we hire someone for the 3-11pm. Ashlyn is doing great, she got two more teeth on the top, finally. These ones were rough on mom and dad. They're the bigger teeth towards the back and they took a while to finally punch through the gums.

This weekend is Mother's Day so Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there! We don't have anything planned yet. Last year Jered and Ashlyn gave me a bougainvillea plant, but we think it might've died. So this year I'm asking for a lilac bush (hint hint, Jered). Our neighbors have them and they smell so good! Plus we have the perfect spot to put it now that Jered and Dad dug out that stump!!