Laborious Labor Day :)

The home of our dreams has left much to be desired in the way of a back yard but we have dreams and visions of it becoming a place where we love to host parties, watch Crew play and just hang out. Unfortunately, hosting much of anything has proved to be difficult since the home never had so much as a slab of concrete to house the beloved grill.

We were able to make the space work for Crew's blessing party, thanks to a tent rental, but I hardly doubt my husband will let me rent a tent every time we want company over.

So when we saw that a neighbor was extending his driveway, my excavating-skilled brother would be in town for a few weeks and we had a long weekend to dig... it lit the fire under our butts for getting started on a patio.

So here is a little "before" action for ya. We spent Saturday marking out what we wanted, moving all those rocks from underneath the stairs and rototilling a beatiful 13x13 section of our lawn.

Don't be fooled, people, the ground above looks all soft and ready for digging but you are wrong. Beneath the first 2 inches of dirt lay a hot mess of white clay. As an Oklahoma gal, I am used to working with this hard and stubborn stuff but what a surprise to find it here in Utah!

We opted to run a slow sprinkler over the ground on Sunday evening so that the ground would be ready for us first thing Monday morning.

And then we dug,


and dug,


and, seriously, dug some more.

By the end of Monday, we had a beautiful 8-inch deep hole in our back yard. Next we have to get the framing up and fill the first few inches with gravel. But first, we need a few days to regain feeling in our backs and shoulders. :)

My neighbors always question what we do with Crew while we are working. Have they met my kid? He took two amazing naps and chilled in his pack and play under a tree while he was awake. Love him!