Picture Overload

As promised, here is what we've been up to! I woke up Tuesday morning and found this note on the table. :) He was already out in the backyard working away and in the meantime found this heart shaped rock!

This might be the only picture I have of the backyard before any of the pavers went in so as of now, lets use this as the BEFORE picture (even though Spence had already worked out there for hours and hours in the weeks before tilling, finding probably hundreds of nails from when our home was built, and flattening out the yard).

After he tilled the entire yard, it was time to set up a sprinkler system. Thanks to his good friend Vaughn and BIL Ben's tool-man supplies, it was set up in no time, timer and all.

He spent quite a few hours leveling the yard at this point and drawing out the plan of how he wanted the yard to look. After figuring out the exact dimensions, choosing pavers and a pattern, etc. it was time to order those puppies!

A huge delivery truck pulled up to our house Wednesday morning around 9:15 am and delivered seven pallets of pavers... most of which he was able to fit in the garage. AWESOME!

This picture is totally in the wrong place, but this is the before picture of our patio... a nice big slab of concrete accompanied by a yard full of AZ dirt. :) Don't mind me in the reflection of the sliding door... I should have thought that one through a little better.

By about 2 pm, Spence had already built the retention walls where we will eventually plant some vines that will climb and cover some of the ugly cinderblock wall that we have been looking at for almost a year.

Thanks to Spencer's Dad, he was able to create a mechanism to level out the sand that would lie underneath the pavers.

Spencer had tons of help from his good buddies that he has made at school this year. Dave helped Spence with the retention wall and laying the sand in just a few hours Wednesday night.

Thursday morning Matt and Keegan pulled up bright and early and put down the majority of the pavers... I couldn't believe how fast they were going! They seriously were sweating bullets out there and working SO hard.

By 10:30, it looked like this:

Keegan was a trooper and stayed a few hours more.

From the sliding door looking out...

Then I woke up this morning and found that he had finished even more! He used extra pavers to create a trail leading to where our planter boxes will go and to the back gate. I love it!

I am so proud of Spencer and am SOOOOO excited about our backyard! It looks better than I ever thought it could! There is still some work to be done, but the majority of it is already behind us. Summer BBQ's here we come! :)