Our Backyard Heaven

Now that summer is in full swing we are fully utilizing our backyard, which is awesome. The kids can go out by themselves and spend hours out there. It's safe, shady and cool, there are lovely smells and sounds, it's so relaxing. Here is a lunch picnic.Thanks to my dad's forward-thinking and despite my belly aching as a teenager who had to mow the lawn, we have a backyard full of beautiful trees, aspens, maples, and oaks. Thanks to my mom we have a lovely flower garden/ kitty graveyard and grape arbor perfect for having picnics under. Thanks to Jared we have silky, green grass. Thanks to me we have a wonderful garden with corn, pumpkins, zuchini, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, beans, peas, various herbs, and of course, tomatoes. For the kids we have enough cement to ride bikes in circles and a sand box. Our most recent addition took some serious hours and muscles from Stoney and I. It started out 20 years ago with a junky old playhouse and a cat litter sandbox. Over time it turned into a junk pit that was kind of a tiger pit. We cleaned out the junk and added some walls and rocks and we have a great fire pit that we LOVE! No one loves marshmellows than our family. Baths are required after having a fire so they get as sticky and filthy as they want.

Here's what it started out like, except more sharp sticks and rusty nails. Ya, we make our kids work for their food.

Cooking brauts over the fire.

We also got a hammock which is literally a grown up baby-swing, I get all sleepy when I'm in it. Me and both kids can lay in it and chat for hours. This picture Jared took from the kitchen window.

Thanks to our trees and Stoney's birdfeeders, we sit in the kitchen and watch the birds. We hung a hummingbird feeder right next to the window by the kitchen table and we get to see hummingbirds at every meal, which is fun but is incredibly distracting.

We love our backyard, you're invited.