The Best Memorial Day Weekend Ever

The Tuesday after Memorial Day stinks. Especially when your Memorial Day weekend was the best one ever.

For the last few weeks, we (well, our great carpenter, Zane, from North 47 Landscape Carpentry) have been building a new, child-safe deck on top of our garage. The job was finished on Saturday, and it looks amazing. I tried to find a picture of the "before" picture, but the best I could find was a picture of Ryan shoveling snow off of the old roof with planter boxes housing dried and nearly dead trees preventing you from falling off the side of the roof (click here).

Whatever it looked like before, it looks fantastic now, and we plan to spend as much time as possible out there this summer.

The view out to the garden and front door.

The deck is so large that we need to invest in lounge furniture to fill half of it.
I also added a massive livestock watering tank for warm season edibles like tomatoes, peppers, and basil. If successful, you may see more of these in the future.

Looking from the garden path toward the entrance to the deck.

And now, a garden photo break.

Lovely Columbine

One of my favorite shrubs for both appearance and fragrance, a Summer Ice Daphne.

Now that the deck is finished, Ryan was able to put up his hammock for the season. We have a great little side garden that is quiet, private, and surrounded with beautiful old roses and other plants. A fussy Arlo got to enjoy it for the first time this weekend during snack time.

A minute before this photo was taken, Arlo was crying and cranky.
The hammock, with a little help from his bottle, calmed him right down.

Now that's relaxation. What more could a baby need?

We also took Arlo on his first "real" hike this weekend. We chose a trail that is close to Seattle and is easy for a baby and his out-of-shape parents.

Shortly after taking this photograph, we talked about getting Arlo climbing lessons when he's old enough.

Peek-a-boo!

This is what we call "Zombie Face."
It's a sign that you have about 45 minutes until meltdown.

Arlo was great on the hike, and we're hoping to make up for not hiking at all last summer. In fact, Arlo will go on his first river trip in a few weeks with a flat water float through the Yakima Canyon and overnight camping in eastern Washington. We're very excited!