Basement Makeover - Afternoon Day 1

The afternoon of day 1 has been underway and is moving...not super fast...but moving! While the men have been working and making noise below, I have been able to clean out my cupboards in the kitchen and have been working on my pictures. Later tonight I am going to tackle Grady's room as it is time to shuffle through his clothes and take out what he has outgrown. What a perfect time to do this since he is at Grandpa/ma Moseley's house for the night.

As I said, the men have been hard at work. They have only needed to make one quick run to the local hardware store and only had to call their dad for tools once. Always a good sign! Below is a picture that I took while I was standing in the "doorway" of the new room and looking SW towards the stairs that lead upstairs. We have construction materials and stuff everywhere! The paneling on the wall is what we took off in the other room.

This is a view from the stairs looking into the basement. The yellow sheet in the right hand corner has been or makeshift "door" into the east side of our basement. As you can see we have the furnace right in the front room...so it's not a very pretty site.

Jon and Darren are building the first wall. This wall will separate the two rooms.
More building...see all of the dust that is in the air right now. Goodness!

Our wall is at least in the upright position. It is not in place yet as they are working on the other wall and need some extra space. They also built this wall with such precision that they needed some type of big hammer to knock it into place - so they called their dad.

Steve to the rescue! He brought over the tools they needed! I teased Steve that he came right over because Grady was driving him crazy - but he said I was wrong. He said that Grady has been a very good boy and is at his house building with blocks.

They have been trying to measure for the next wall and the floor is not even and is giving them problems...the solution for the three men...drinks!

Family Vacation Part 2- The Moseley's

On Sunday we parted company with the Grady clan (they went to a Brewer's game) and we headed back west to hook up with Jon's side of the family. Every year they, and some friends, get together at this resort up on a lake in Northern MN. It is about 15 minutes north of Park Rapids, MN and about 1.5 or so hours East of Fargo. Anyway, this was about an 8 or 9 hour drive so we split it up in two days. At the end of Sunday we stayed at Jon's brother's house (they were already gone). Monday morning we left and drove the other four hours north. It was quite a ride. Grady is at that age where he does not sleep in the car a lot and he wants you to entertain him, yet he isn't sure what he wants to entertain him with. Can be frustrating to say the least. But we made it. We were there from Monday - Friday.

This was the first time that Grady got to meet his sweet adorable and always smiling cousin Cora from Oregon. She was sure a cutie and has beautiful eyes! Here are the two together and then one of just Grandma and Cora. They are only about 6 months apart.This is just an assortment of pictures from the trip. Jenni and Jeremy, Grady peeking out of a window in one and in another Grady's cousin Lindsey is peeking back at him. Grady also like climbing in and out of things, as you can see he was getting into the cupboards and having fun!

More pictures of Grady and Cora, Grady being read to by his daddy and his Grandma Jean. Also a few pictures of his cousin Lindsey, aunt Jenny and Aunt Jenni. :-)

One of the evenings we had a family dinner. It was a birthday/anniversary celebration for Jon's parents. First we took family photos outside and then had supper inside one of the cabins.

One thing we did was have shirts made that said "Rose Hill Farms". This is the name of their farm in Hudson from which they participate in Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings and Thursday Afternoons.

We then surprised Steve and Jean with matching shirts that everyone had on. Here is a picture of Steve and Jean with the grand kids (minus Grady & Cora - who also had Rose Hill shirts too)

The whole family in their shirts. Steve and Jean were so surprised and loved the thought.

On Thursday afternoon, while we had some laundry to do, we took Grady to the park. They had a pirate ship for him to play on. They also had a wooden castle that had a slide. Grady has found a new love...sliding. I think he love trying to climb back up just as much as he loves going down them. It was so fun for Jon and I to spend the day with him and seeing this playground through his eyes...a child's eyes.

Here is a video of Grady's sliding adventure - sorry if it's not the best picture quality!

Here is Grady on our way home - I think we were maybe 15 minutes (if that) into our drive home. He was such a good boy on our whole trip, but it sure did wear him out!!