Oh What a Glorious Weekend!

Here is our weekend review in pictures.

I am a blessed woman!

First of all, I'm 28 weeks!  And whilst I may be feeling quite large and in charge already (and I whilst I may have recently had a moderate to severe emotional meltdown in the middle of a Maternity store over prices and fit and color choices) I really am very blessed.  My pregnancy is uneventful.  I am healthy, fit and feeling great!

On Friday my hubby took the day off to do this with a good friend.  It is good for his soul.  The fishing, and the fellowship.  It makes me happy to see him so happy!  And then he took me on a lovely date with delicious food at a sweet little Inn with a lovely walk along the ocean to boot!

On Saturday we hiked this lovely little mountain.  It was GLORIOUS!  Our little hiker packed her pockets full of treasure, found sticks to tap together as she marched and sang along the trail, gathered firewood at the top, and ran and ran until she was plum tuckered out! 

When we got to the bottom we discovered that, even though Jason had diligently remembered to put the keys in his pocket before he locked the van, the keys he put in his pocket were the ones to the car.  Joy.  We had a fun little time coming up with creative ways to pass the 1/2 hour at the trail head whilst we waited for Grandma to come rescue us with my set of keys.  A HUGE thank-you to her!

BUT, on our way home from the hike we picked up this gem off the side of the road for free!  SCORE!  It will be great for indoors during winter, especially for little Josiah!

And later Ella helped daddy measure, cut, nail and build.  I think this is THE sweetest thing.  She LOVES it!

And it's not just humoring her, she really is quite a handy little lady.  While daddy was busy, she started pounding nails into this boar all on her own accord and actually did a few by herself!  (Don't worry, I was supervising from afar but letting her feel independent and all grown up.)

 Then a quick but wonderful visit from Auntie Jen and Uncle Greg.  She got to stay up late to show them her trike riding skills and get an extra story from Auntie. 

Then we watched Jen and Greg run their first triathlon of the year. (My sister's in the green and blue, about to pass the guy in the front.)  Ella actually was into watching for them and clapping for them this time...as well as kicking her soccer ball, drawing with sidewalk chalk, riding her trike and collecting sticks.

AND on the way home from the tri we picked this up off the side of the road for free!  Double SCORE!  She's cruising on this already!

And on this glorious Sunday we spent LOTS of time outside and got lots done.  I love that we live where Ella can run free...soak herself with water and strip down to her undies and stompin' boots and have not a care in the world!

 I love that we have little wetholes that she likes to explore, slosh in, scoop water, frog hunt and find...

 some sweet frog eggs!  (I like to think that we're raising quite a catch as far as future wives go.  C'mon, she's beautiful, smart, creative, funny, loves the outdoors, hiking, fishing, camping, snakes, frogs, dirt, rocks, sticks, but her future hubby will still have a chance to feel like the manly protector because she does run like a streak of lightning, screaming at the top of her lungs, whenever she see's a spider...that may or may not have been some of my unintentional influence ;)

And even though our yard currently looks like this...

and this...I am breathing deeply and telling myself it's on it's way to beautiful.  Jason has been clearing and cutting and splitting and hauling to make way for a real yard.  And if all goes as planned we may just have someone coming to make that dream come true this summer.  Y'all can pray for that!

And even though the yard is in a shambles...I am thankful for this land.  I am thankful for this garden and the ability to weed and water it!

 I am thankful for this propogation box my hubby built me so that I can propigate me some loverly shrubs.

 I am thankful for these strawberry plants from a friend that I'm growing in a container because we're not planting a garden because we're hoping that our whole yard will be torn apart and made new again this season!

And I am thankful for this super fun big swing that my hubby made and my daughter loves!

Hoping you all have enjoyed the weekend as much as we did!