Friday, March 23, 2012

Salty Dog Boys

Noah and Isaac got a kick out of wearing the same shirts last week.  In case you can't imagine Isaac's happy voice when you look at the picture, just imagine him saying "ta da!"

Sunday, March 11, 2012

The Most Exciting Day Ever

Thursday turned out to be the most exciting day ever, but we didn't know that when we woke up.  I usually try to plan an adventure for Thursdays since Noah doesn't have school, but we didn't have anything planned.  Matt had asked our friend Billy to come over and give some advice about how to repair our decks and how to best fill in our pool.

The guys looked at the various projects around the house and then started to demolish the pool.  As they were working, Billy said he can drive a "skid steer," so why don't they just rent one and he can get started filling in the pool right away.  Well, that sounded good to us.  We weren't planning on filling in the pool that day, but we were planning on doing it soon.

About an hour later, this little guy arrived.  We just call it a bulldozer because that's more fun to say than skid steer.

Within minutes, our pool started to get demolished!  It was awesome!

The boys were plastered to the windows all day.  It was so interesting to watch!

The bulldozer smashed up all the concrete around the pool, then buried them in the middle of where the pool used to be.

This is what Isaac looked like all day

And this is what Noah looked like all day

Most of the concrete is cracked and buried, and a large bowl of dirt is all that remains

Yep, still glued to the window

Just when it seemed like the day couldn't get more interesting, this dump truck showed up and dumped fill dirt on our front yard.

This is Isaac's reaction to the dump truck.  I love this look on his face!

Progress is looking messy right now

Isaac surveys the backyard

Matt surveys the backyard


Fast forward a few hours of watching the bulldozer bring loads of dirt from the front yard to the back yard...and...drumroll please... here's our new super flat and super huge backyard!!!

Here's the new view of our backyard from the back door.  There used to be a large staircase going up to the pool, but the stairs are gone now, and you can just walk out onto our new super flat backyard!

Our front yard also needed to be re-leveled after our sewer repair from last year, so here is our new and improved front yard.

Noah had a great time learning how to raise and lower the bulldozer scoop, and Isaac had fun sitting on Matt's lap.

Well, the pool is gone and we have a backyard now.  It's so exciting!  Of course, this also brings the need for grass seed, landscaping, a new garden area for Noah to grow his pickling cucumbers, a possible retaining wall, a possible play set for the boys, and the list goes on and on...  But it's so fun to think about!