Progress and Progress

This last Saturday had awesome weather! It was delightfully sunny and warm in the mid 60's. So, trying to capitalize on the weather my bother Zaron and his family went on a hike with us. (Ryan was working). We ended up going off on a little side trail that turned out quite steep. My kids did AWESOME!! Parts of this trail were really steep and even Xander with his 12 inch legs did the whole thing on his own smiling!! I am psyched! I have this goal of brain washing my kids to love high adventure activities and be real hardy in the outdoors. I now know they are old enough to let the brain washing to begin.

Here is a pic with the cousins. Corbin is a year older then Soren but 3 years older in maturity. This is not to dogg Soren but to say Corbin is quite mature for his age. Soren was way out in front of the pack the whole time and I assigned Corbin to hang out with him because even though he is 5 I knew he would keep Soren on the right path and not let him get lost too bad or let us know asap if Soren was not doing something unconventional. He was awesome. I want one.

There was this log we crossed to get over the stream and on the way back Soren and Corbin were out in front and I thought, "Hmmm, I better hustle because I am not sure if Soren will wait for me." I turn the bend and see this.
Nope, didn't wait for me. He had no qualms at doing this by himself with no adults around. It is this sort of confidence and attitude that doesn't allow me to stay in bed while my kids are awake at 5:30am.
Soren's confidence boosted my nephews who are naturally much more cautions. Surprisingly everyone ended up dry!! I didn't let Xander do this although he was already to go.

Ahhhh, a successful day trip.

So, I finally got to build my porch!! It was so fun and I am so pleased with it. The sewer and water enter the house under where the porch now is so I had to wait for all that to get inspected and pass and then fill in the ditches. Can I just tell you how much I hate moving dirt. It takes way too long. Anyway, after a day of preping an putting up my ledger boards on the house and getting the 4 x 12 x 16 beams up - a trick due to the weight - I was able to start the fun framing and putting up my decking. Wanting to capitalize on the last day Ryan was home before he went back to work, I started at 7am and didn't end until 12:30am. I am getting better at estimating how much time it will take me to do things. I first decide how long I think it will take. Then I times it by 4. Then I times that by 6. I choose strand woven bamboo. This is a fairly new product as decking and I am in love with it. I am going to put about 600 sq ft of this in the inside of my house (it is not the exterior decking but ment for interior.) I went to work one day with samples and told all my co-workers about why it is so great and they all agreed I should sell this stuff because I am such a believer. Here's hoping it will preform and withstand the Harris'.

I still need to build the stairs.

Isn't it pretty? It is suppose to be very low maintenance like composite decking.

It has been difficult for the older male neighbors around me (which is most of my neighbors), to understand why Ryan isn't the one doing this sort of work. They would say, "oh he must be working?" or "is he sick?" or my favorite, "I am sure he would like to be out here but someone has to watch the kids." I keep telling them that I am the one who likes to do these things more then Ryan but they just seem to look at me confused. It is now only after 5 years that one finally said, "Wow, Ryan is a lucky man." - okay so that was a female old neighbor, but her husband was with her so maybe she can explain it to him that it is okay.