Same ol', Same ol'

I have a friend vacationing in Hawaii right now.  I have a friend vacationing in Greece right now.  I have a friend vacationing in Germany right now.  And yet another friend is vacationing in Italy.

Sigh.
Italy.

Oh, right, back to MY boring life in Washington.

Our days of vacationing are behind us. We did a lot of traveling before Alexander arrived so we are happy (only slightly jealous) spending most of our summer at home. 

We do just about the same thing every day. 
Alexander wakes up between 7 and 7:30, with his "I go pee!  I go poo!" announcement. 
I drag myself downstairs to clean him up, turn on his TV shows, and start my coffee.
We go to swim lessons, followed by daily errands that vary from grocery shopping, going to the library, or any other random event that is necessary.
If the weather is bad, we come home and I clean house while the boys work on a puzzle or play with toys.  I also go work out, which is great for my alone time.
If the weather is good, we all head outside to work on the yard with a roaring fire, burning everything we cut down.

Why all this yard work?  Well, our house is the site of the D family reunion.  That's Mom's side of the family.  And the reunion is in two weeks.  ACK!  There is SO MUCH to do to get the yard in party mode.  Granted, we kinda thought we'd have an addition on the house by now so we let a few weeds flower beds grow out of control.  I've spent the past week or so, tackling those areas, while Eric plays with fire.  Oh, and Alexander?  Well, he digs.  And digs.  And digs.  Duh.

My awesome family says they don't care a lick how the house or yard looks.  But I care.  And Eric cares.  So we work. 

Today's big project was moving the maple tree we planted a few years ago.  It kinda grew out of control (like everything else) and we wanted to move it.   It was blocking the view from my kitchen window and I was tired of it.

See what I mean?  The big purple tree is out of control!

So, Eric rolled up the Land Cruiser and pulled that sucka right outta the ground.

We were going to transplant it but decided, no matter where it went, it was going to be too big.

And WAY too much work to dig it up.

Once the area was cleared out, we moved a little rhody into its place.

This little rhody was initially planted the spring we moved in, right after we found out we were having a baby.

It's my favorite.

All we have remaining in this area is to put down bark and edge it a bit.

One project done.

About a zillion to go!