One of the things we love the most about where we live is our backyard. We have a lot of woods and have been blessed with visits from all kinds of wildlife. The woods area, though, wasn't too friendly to yours truly as it had a lot of over growth, which included its share of poison ivy. We decided to hire someone to come and clean a lot of it out, including some dead trees. We figured it would expand the usability of our backyard, eliminate some bugs, dangerous dead trees, and the dreaded poison ivy. Here is a "before" picture:
Here is a video of a 40-50 foot tree (dead) being taken down. It survived Hurricane Ike and plenty of pretty bad storms, but it was no match for this small backhoe.
We also found a new friend when we were checking out the final product. He was about 3-4 feet long and we think it might be a black rat snake (not yet an adult). If you know it is something else, let us know:
Here is the "after" picture (much nicer and more noticeable in person). Now we need to plant some grass seed.
Livvi started swim lessons about two years ago. She took Level 1 three times, though I could argue the first go around was a waste of time from a teaching perspective. We were so proud of her for sticking with it and passing it this past fall. We enrolled her in Level 2 this spring and after watching her the first two classes (there were six in all, one per week), there was little doubt in my mind she would not pass. However, the last three classes, Liv turned it on. She really started doing really well and I thought there might be a chance she could pass. Well, on Tuesday evening, Livvi passed Level 2! We are so proud of her for listening to her teacher and working on her skills (we actually practiced a little while at Great Wolf Lodge..."ironically" about three weeks ago). Bring on Level 3!
We like to start 'em young 'round here!
By the way, that one foot by one foot area was REALLY clean when she was done.
All afternoon, Joie kept saying "Happy Muvers Day". We went to Red Lobster for dinner and tried to record her saying it while we waited for our food (poor video quality as we were using a cell phone). Here is what resulted:
We regrouped and tried it again:
Happy Muvers Day, Heather! We love you!!
Overheard in the car this morning:
Liv: Knock Knock
Jo: Who's there?
Liv: Orange
Jo: Orange who?
Liv: Orange you glad I didn't say banana?
Jo: Banana who?
What a week we had! We decided to do Spring Break last week and had something planned for nearly every day. Here is how the week unfolded:
Saturday: I cut down three trees and tilled a new garden for the girls. Livvi and Heather went to see the Hannah Montana movieSunday: After church and a Mexican Fiesta, we went to Kings Island for my company's Associate Appreciation Day. Got quite wet, but had fun!
Monday: Livvi got her "black" belt, then went to her American Heritage Girls meeting
Tuesday: We visited the Creation Museum and Livvi had swim lessons that evening
Wednesday: We went to the Cincinnati Zoo. Great weather!
Thursday: We went to Great Wolf Lodge to swim and spend the night. My lifeguard training (now expired by almost 25 years) was seemingly needed within the first hour of us being there. More on that later.
Friday: Livvi and I swam some more while Heather took Joie to an area to do crafts, etc. We then left for home shortly after lunch
Saturday: We celebrated Livvi's black belt at Panera Bread. I cut down three more trees while the girls planted flowers in their new garden.
As for the lifeguard incident, Liv and I were in the wave pool and I was wading in. I had lost sight of her for just a few seconds, when I saw the lifeguard point in the direction of the opposite corner of the pool in the deeper section by the wave machine. She then jumped in. I tried to locate Livvi and did so immediately. I couldn't see what the lifeguard saw, yet, but I started running towards that corner, then swimming when the water was too deep to run in. I stopped to take a look at what was in the corner and saw what I thought was a toddler face down in the pool. My heart was racing beyond belief, now. I kept swimming until I saw a Great Wolf Lodge associate standing on the side of the pool over where the "child" was. He was telling me to hold up. The lifeguard was about there when I stood up and noticed the "child" was a dummy, possibly used for training. I'm not sure if this was some training session or if they were just messing with the lifeguard on duty. Nevertheless, it freaked me out. For the record, though, I'd like to think I would have been able to save that kid!
We had a great time as a family! I hope we get to do a lot of stuff together for many, many years to come! I included a few photos below, but if you want to see the nearly 200 pictures from our fun month of April, click here.
