Thanks Pops!!

We recently had a most excellent visitor for a week-long stay: Chuck's dad!

Pops came up to help Chuck with our backyard patio project. We (meaning my hard-working husband and various good friends and family members, NOT me) started our backyard renovations about a year ago, beginning with putting in a sprinkler system and fire pit and laying sod. We left a large area of dirt just off our existing patio with the intention of extending it out a bit at some point - and that point was last week!

The first job was to dig a whole bunch o' dirt out, which Chuck, Clyde, and Will readily took care of.

Isn't it hilarious how little boys idolize and imitate their dads? Clyde insisted on being out there with his little red shovel the whole time Chuck was working. Plus Clyde kept professing the most cheesy sentiments - "Wow Dad, we are working hard to get the job done!" "Let's go, Dad, we have a lot of digging to do . . . to get the job done!" Oh, thank you Disney Playhouse for instilling such an admirable work ethic in my child.

Pops arrived on the scene and the work progressed quickly.

Layer of . . . sand? Can you tell I mostly tried to stay out of the way and therefore know precious little about the whole process? There weren't any complaints, though, since I spent one afternoon making banana bread for the hungry laborers :).

Clyde and Will were a great help in shoveling the extra sand out of Grandpa's truck!

Clyde also went hands on when it was time to lay the tiles and pound them in with the mallet.

Will preferred to just walk around and double-check the work quality :).

After all the tile was laid, yay!

We're sooo excited to have all the extra space back there now.

All finished! Chuck and Pops did such a great job.

Thanks to their efficiency, Chuck and Pops had a couple free days at the end of Pops' visit, so they packed up Clyde and headed out for an all-day hunting trip. It turned out to be more of a nature drive/walk, but they still reported having a great time - Clyde especially!! We also fit in some Trivial Pursuit, a trip to Linder Farms, watching the BSU game, a temple trip for Chuck and myself while Pops baby-sat Clyde and Will, and some car repairs.

Thanks for visiting us and helping out so much while you were here Pops! Sorry if we tired you out a bit :).