Wrapping it up

Our family has been incredibly busy the last month....hence a incredibly long blog. Thankfully, a few of our busier projects/activities all came to an end on the same day. Yesterday (Saturday) we had a very busy day! First, Corrine officially received her black belt. We had the offical belt ceremony at a park in Draper. For the last couple of months she was attending as many Tae Kwon Do classes as she could.  Things were very hectic for her. But, it was all worth it! Here is Corrine with Master Kim right before the ceremony.

Kate and Hayden enjoyed playing on the playground. They did not appreciate the significance of their sister reaching a major goal.

The next thing I want to get for our personal playground is some kind of rock wall.  Hummm...

Sariah just enjoyed visiting with her cousin Isabelle.  They live 2 miles away from each other and don't see each other nearly enough.

Corrine getting her black belt from her uncle.

This is the group of kids that got their black belts this time.

Corrine and her giant trophy.

Corrine wanted me to make special note that the person on top of the trophy is female.

After Tae Kwon Do, we ran to the dress rehersal for Jakobs play.  Jakob is playing 3 different parts in a play for Stake (technically 2 stakes) youth conference next week.  Jakob has been so busy with work and play practice. It will be good to get the play done! In this scene he is playing Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smiths brother. This is where they are playing stick pull.

Here, Jakob is taking care of young Joseph after Jospeh had his leg operated on.

In this scene he was playing Oliver Cowdery.

Here he is as one of the 3 witnesses.

In this scene he is one of the 3 witnesses and they have characters out of the Book of Mormon with them. I really liked this part.

Keith and I have been thinking about finishing the playground area for 4 years now. We had a vision but no money.  Then, we had a vision and no time. Sometimes we had a vision with no money and no time. We realized that its already been 4 years of talking.  We also realized that the kids are not getting any younger and if we want them to enjoy the playground, we had better finish it before they think they are too big for it.  We needed lots of playground bark to make this vision a reality. We shoveled a lot of bark.  22 yards of it to be exact. Keith decided with such a job we needed "a load handler".  I will admit I was a bit skeptic about it all. I'll admit, it was pretty cool.

Kate was REALLY impressed.

It got most of the bark unloaded. We still had to do a lot of shoveling.... but it did help a lot. The kids all helped with the playground. It took a few weeks to get this project done. For the first part, Corrine was sick.  For the last part, Jakob was either at work or play practice. But, we all pitched in where we could.  Im proud of Hayden and Sariah. They worked hard and didn't miss any time due to illness or work!

Everyone did work really hard. Finally, we could relax a bit and enjoy!

We decided to eat dinner in the "picnic table area" the first night it was done. It was such a pleasant evening, we decided to eat most of our summer dinners outside.

Here are some "Before" pictures.

Imagine the smell of dog poop and moldy hay.

The dogs and snakes have been banished from this icky place. Now, we have the perfect playground/picnic area! And "After" pictures.....

It is such a good feeling to look outside and see one small corner of the yard finally looking nice.  Drive off into the sunset my farmers... you have worked hard.