Whitehall Beach

Thanks to Grandma Fernie's generosity, we were able to purchase sod and sand for the backyard. It felt like Christmas again as we got the pallets of sod delivered!

We were lucky to have some great friends come over last minute to help lay the sod. (thanks Rob and Chad) I was a little off on my sod ordering estimation, and we ended up with almost an entire extra pallet of sod. What was going to be a small, kidney shape of grass is now almost a full yard of the green loveliness! We are still planning on extending the patio area, but for now it will be great to not have dirt right up to the porch. (If any of you were wondering why the curbing is shaped that way)

The sod laying went pretty quickly, but digging out the sandbox area did not. It took about 9 hours to dig down enough to make room for the 8 tons of sand I ordered...oops! It's hard to tell in this photo, but I think we dug down about 6 inches or so. Thank goodness Grandma Dorothy was here to help! I did lots of digging, but there was no way I was going to try and wheelbarrow the dirt around!

The pile of sand looked huge right after it got delivered, but after 4 days straight of rain, I was worried that I didn't order enough! No worries...we had plenty!

Here is the finished playground just waiting for some kids to come play and dig! I can totally picture Patrick and his new brother sitting and digging together someday soon. I've been trying to keep the kids off the grass, but this weekend I'm sure the new playground will get lots of use.

Jake talked me into sitting on our 'beach' with him to watch the stars the other night, so I bundled up in a blanket and went out back with him. If you put your toes in and only looked at the sky it almost even felt like the beach...

Now I just need to get out all of the pesky weeds that were kind enough to grow while we have been so busy!