Just the Weekend we Needed

The weekend we got back from our roadtrip we tried to get back into our schedules, get caught up and rest up, the next weekend I was sick and tried to rest up a bunch and this weekend I had lots of fun and helped Heath with a project she has been really excited about.

Friday I left work, headed home and got started on dinner. Heath and I did a little straitening and made a big pan of enchiladas and some sides. Then Ding, his wife and daughter came over for dinner, hanging out and playtime.

We snacked on some spinach dip and hung out in the kitchen while things cooked and the girls got to know each other. They had met before but were not really old enough to do anything.

Dinner turned out pretty good and afterwords we opened the gates of babyjail and just played.

We all had a really good time. At the end of the night we had some trifold (dessert with cake fruit and whip cream). I let Pumpkin have a tiny bite of my cake and she got really excited about it so I gave her more. Then the cake and most of her dinner came up on the carpet.

Our guests headed home and we cleaned up Pumpkin and got her to bed. Heath and I watched some tv and hung out for a while then headed to bed.

In the morning I messed around the house a bit and started planning a labor day adventure. Then the girls got up and we went for a run. We ran the trolley trail down to 79th street then took the street over to Jon and Amanda’s.  We talked about a plan for the day and took a little breather and borrowed some sunscreen for Pumpkin. They had a dumpster for trash in the front yard and inside it was a raccoon who had gone after some apples.

Then we ran back to the truck and drove home. We all had some breakfast, Pumpkin had milk and then went to sleep. Heath and I had breakfast nachos with eggs and enchilada leftovers on them. Then Heath headed to the basement for her project and I ran to the store for pork. I got 2 big chunks of pork. I cut one in half and got it cooking in the crock pot and froze the rest. I tossed all the old carpet and large trash I could find in the truck then helped out Heath in the shop. I’ll tell you more about her project in a bit.

When Pumpkin woke up we packed up her and the truck then headed over to Jon and Amanda’s. Jon, Alli, Derrick, Jake and Adam were on the porch hanging out and Amanda was taking a nap. Right after we got there KK and Chiaki showed up and we all had a few beers, sat on the porch, watched the babies and talked about the house project being done.

After a few beers the guys headed to the backyard and the girls headed inside. We ran a string down the middle of the yard and laid out more to form a court. Then cut down some branches in the tree and later on covered the window with a board and in no time we had an Pumpkinball court.

We barely left this little square for the next ~6 hours. We kicked/headed the ball, we kept score, we adjusted rules, we drank beers and we had a blast. Jake had to leave at some point and Stephen and Stooks joined us and the game went on. Occasionally there were brief breaks for bathroom, beer and food but otherwise we played game after game after game.

The girls looked at magazines and played with babies and did whatever girls do when guys are not around.

It got too dark to play and then we played one more game before calling it quits and heading back to the porch. We were all pretty exhausted but we spread out all over the porch and screwed around. Tony and Felicia joined us and we hung out till we were too tired to hang out anymore. We headed home and KK and Chiaki followed us. We all went right to bed.

In the morning I drank a bunch of water and got the pork cooking again. Everyone got up and KK and Chiaki headed home and I got working on lunch. I shredded the pork, cooked up some baked beans, corn on the cob and cut up some watermelon. We took showers and straitened the house a bit then Heath’s uncle Larry and his wife came over for lunch.

We had stayed with them in California just before the Redwood forest so they came by for a visit while in town. We had a great lunch that I didn’t take any pictures of but the pulled pork sandwiches and everything were great.

Then we looked at a bunch of Road trip pictures. Our guest left and Pumpkin laid down for a nap. Stephen and I headed to Home Depot and Heath got back after her project. Stephen and I got a few things then I came back to help out Heath.

Heath is building a shelf to go here in babyjail.

It’a a fairly unique floating shelf. Basically she built this support frame.

She cut all the wood and drilled the holes and glued/screwed them all together. This part will be screwed into the wall, securely into a few studs. She also built a box slightly bigger then the frame.

This box will slide over the frame once it’s on the wall and make it look pretty and be good at holding stuff.

The stuff we have in mind is Peanut’s art stuff that needs to be high enough so babies can’t reach it.

Here is a really good picture of how the finished product works.

Heath has been really excited about this project ever since we found the plans online. I really like this Ana White, Knock Off Wood website. (Here are the floating shelf plans http://ana-white.com/2010/04/plans-youngsters-floating-shelves-have.html we adjusted the plans to make ours small enough to fit on the wall we wanted) This lady is a pretty awesome housewife. She builds stuff and lives in Alaska and raises kids and stuff and shares it all on her site.

Heath is pretty awesome too so she built her boxes and sanded and smoothed them up.

Then primer for the outside one.

Then some of this bright red paint we got on clearance for $5

and a second coat this morning.

Before all the painting stuff Pumpkin woke up and we decided it was too hot not to get in the water. We grabbed a cooler and our swimsuits and headed to the Little Blue River.

We found a great spot with plenty of sun or shade available, shallow and deep spots and nice gravel bars. We had a drink, cooled off and swam around. We tried out Pumpkin’s raft and she loved it. After a while Jon, Alli and Amanda showed up with some buck doubles. We all had a burger and let the girls play then headed back into the water.

Both the girls really liked playing in the water. The conversation drifted to all the fun summer activities that we were running out of time for as the leaves fell around us. The fish started nibbling on our ankles and we decided to call it a night and head home. We headed to the Home Depot in Belton for dim-able energy efficient light bulbs and primer for Heath’s shelf. Once home we ate leftovers, replaced light bulbs and put Iz in bed. Then Heath painted and I got started on another project.

We have a wine rack in the new dining room that we hate because it is not baby or wine friendly and we have had this big cabinet with big glass doors in the garage for a long time. It’s old and needs some fixing up but would be a great replacement for the wine rack we don’t like. So I took all the hardware off then started sanding the stain off.

Once Heath finished painting, she started sanding too and we sanded away till our arms were tired and our heads were sleepy.