Creating a Natural Playscape

As most people who read this blog probably know by now, I found out I have breast cancer just before the new year. I wasn't so sure about sharing this news on the internet but in the end it became a burden to try to keep up with everyone who wanted updates on my condition on an individual basis so it seemed easier to make it public. Secondarily, it felt dishonest not talking about it on the blog since it is a major thing happening in my life right now.

Sine we knew I wouldn't be feeling well much of the time I go through my treatment my parents came up with the idea to clear out our wild back yard as a place for Echo to play. This would let me give her some much needed outside time without the hassle of getting everyone in the car and heading out to the park.

My mom and dad worked really hard cutting trails and clearing paths to make the backyard more usable. The results have been amazing! It's like having our own hiking trails in our back yard. We are lucky that all of our close neighbors have left their yards wild so it gives the illusion of us having a much bigger yard. Echo absolutely loves poking around back there and I don't have the constant worry of her running in to the street (it would take some doing for her to dash away from me, make it up the hill and all the way to the front of the house).

We've started making a few crud structures like a stick teepee and some large wooden block but we have plans to one day build more climbing structures, swings and activity stations.

This will also make our fire circle more usable since it will give her a little space to roam while we cook out. It's such a simple, wonderful idea I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. With Echo being such an outdoorsy type it is so worth it to have a good out door play area for her.

Seeing her learn to climb trees and her having the chance to explore a natural area is worth a million bucks and she is so happy when she has free time to play out side. I'm excited to see what else we can come up with to enrich the back yard play area.

Fire Circle Update

Last Weekend we finally got around to clearing our fire circle (which tends to get totally overgrown in the Summer) and we added some much needed improvements! This year Eric put down weed stopper gardening fabric and gravel around the pit, giving it a much more finished look and hopefully cutting down on the amount of clearing we have to do next year. Here are some pictures of the updated look.

Eric working on spreading gravel

Echo supervises the work

Finished and our first fire of the year!

After these pictures were taken we added more gravel and border bricks. It is already a much more pleasant place to hang out. We have plans to put in benches and fix the death trap of a staircase that leads down to the back yard at some point but that might have to wait until next year. In the mean time it's nice to have the back yard transformed in to a more usable space.

July Birthday Extravaganza!

Since Eric and I have birthdays that are 4 days apart we always get to have a big, long drawn out birthday week. It's awesome! This we we got some amazing gifts from my parents to spruce up our back deck. It was much needed and very much appreciated! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Snazzy new back deck stuff!

For Eric we got a gorgeous new gas grill. We had a charcoal grill before which was great except that it took forever to get going making grilling a huge production. The result was that we never used it. This grill is so easy, we can just turn it on and we're good to go! We made our first meal on it the other night which turned out amazing but I'll blog about that later.

For me we got an amazing new patio set from World Market. We moved all our old, junky metal stuff off and cleaned things up a bit and it looks so much more organized and pleasant! I love the natural wood of the tables and chairs and they are much more sturdy than what we had before. Willow likes them too :-)

I also got some cute citronella candles to help keep the bugs away :-)

What birthday would be complete without birthday waffles and some lovely flowers? I seriously had one of the best birthdays ever, everyone went out of their way to make my day special and amazing :-)

One more shot of Willow enjoying the new patio furniture,  just because she's cute. 

We can't wait to entertain on our new and improved back deck! it is seriously so lovely now! If only it would get a little less buggy and hot it would be perfect :-)

Leaves!

 The thing about having a beautiful yard full of trees is that you end up with a TON of leaves all over the place in the Fall. I'm not going to say this is a downside because I love our trees and I love watching them fall but it does make for a lot of work. I had a rare day off today (aside from a morning meeting with a bride who's wedding I am shooting next year) so I got a chance to get caught up on some much needed housework. I want the house to be looking it's best when we host Thanksgiving next week so in addition to (almost) finishing my Thanksgiving shopping, sweeping and mopping the living room, vacuuming and doing laundry today, I also swept the front and back porches and the front walk (WAY more work than it sounds). Here are some pictures, whee!

Leaves!

Believe it or not, Eric just swept and raked all this last weekend.

Much better

Much better

Fall Colors

October and November have been super busy for us. This is my absolute favorite time of year and I feel like it's going to be gone before I know it! I finally grabbed a few moments today to photograph some of the fall foliage in our yard. It reminded me yet again of how beautiful this part of the country is and how lucky Eric and I are to live in a house surrounded by trees. I made a little collage of some of the lovely scenery around our home and here it is :-)

Fire Pit!

Ever since we bought this house we thought it would be a great idea to to have a camp ground style fire pit in our woodsy back yard. Well at first we were preoccupied with flooring and painting and then Summer came and it was just too hot and buggy to work in the yard. Now that Fall is here and the weather is glorious Eric has been working on putting the fire pit together. It's far from finished but the basic structure of the fire pit is done and therefore it's usable. We didn't want to waste these any of these great chilly evenings so we started using it as soon as possible. Right now it's a dirt clearing with some logs to sit on and the pit toward one side, we plan to add some gravel and a brick border to the fire pit area but we want to leave it somewhat natural so that it won't stick out too much in our totally wooded backyard. To share in the fiery goodness we invited my family over for beer, popcorn and games followed by fire pit and s'more making. Here are some pictures of the fire pit's first use, I'm sure we will be spending many evenings to come in this way.

Fire pit in the daylight

Westley checks it out

evening coming on

fire!

Marshmallow toasting

s'more, it was heavenly

shot of the fire pit from our deck