Memorial Weekend

We had a very busy Memorial weekend. The primary activity was on Saturday and then we did a lot of yard work in the afternoon and on Monday.
Andy got our garden all ready to plant and with Hunter's help we got it planted on Monday. While Andy worked on rototiling the garden I tried to find one of our many flower gardens. It is really a lost cause, but I tried. After this weekend it was decided that we needed to pay the extra $3 to get the larger yard debris can (gotta love Portland and its "green" attitude!) As just the little bit that I did in the yard filled the one we had, not including all the previous piles we have from when there wasn't room in the debris can. This week was our first week with the new can, it is AMAZING how much more stuff we can fit into it. For all the work we have to do in the yard I have a feeling we are going to like the larger can.
Here are pictures of all the work we did and our finished garden (which already has plants coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

So this is an almost before picture. I realized after I'd filled up the bucket that I forgot to take a picture of what the "flowerbed" looked before I started working. Now what I did was not quite this bad as the grass hadn't moved into that part of the flowerbed. (If you look closely you can see the brick edging, but you have to look closely.) However, after working on the pictured part I have decided I need a sod cutter to get through this. It is HARD work to rip up grass that has been there for at least 3 years! As a result, continued progress is slow and frustrating. This is what it looks like after I have pulled all the sick/dead plants and flowers and de-grassed it. Here is Andy tilling the garden. Hunter and Andy finishing the last few hills of the garden. The finished product!!

Christiana got a coupon at school for a discount at the roller skating rink, so she did that on Monday with her friend Jasmine. She was so scared at first, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to leave the two of them, I thought we'd just have to take them back home. I waited until she made it SLOWLY all the way around the rink. She never let go of the wall except when there was no wall and then she moved maybe an inch at a time. But she made it around, thankfully her friend hadn't been skating since she was 5 so was also moving slowly, though not as slowly as Christiana. They were both okay with me leaving and they had money to call if they wanted to come home early. I picked them both up after about 2 hrs. Christiana was doing MUCH better. She was actually letting go of the wall and rolling for a few feet. I think they both had fun, though I am VERY bummed that I forgot my camera to get pictures of them skating around.
After we had the garden all planted we had a nice bbq with Dan and Nancy who came up for the afternoon. All in all it was a wonderful weekend!