Whew, Labor Day weekend is over and boy did we do some labor! Our weekend started on Friday when we got to sleep in until 7:30! Jealous? I thought so. After playtime and morning chores we took a trip to the Salem Mall to drop my MacBook Pro off at the Apple Store to replace its hard drive. It is my work laptop so I was waiting for a long weekend to drop it off. After spending about a half hour at the Apple Store, we took the boys around the mall, got some pretzels and headed home. The rest of Friday was pretty much a relaxing day. The real labor started on Saturday.
We got up early so that we could take the boys to Twice the Fun to play. Twice the Fun is basically a big open area with toys and room to run around. The boys love it. We love it too, except when there are devil children around. There was one such curly-haired devil child, about four years old, running around beating up all the other kids, including the boys. Adam had his toys ripped from his hands and Zach got kicked in the face while the devil child’s nine month pregnant mother waddled around trying to stop him. Other than that it was a fun time.
At noon we had 16 cubic yards of clean(ish) fill dropped off in our back yard. This has been Sally’s recent crusade in an effort to fill in some of the remaining low spots in our back yard. Other than the guy almost hitting our deck and telling us he had cancer in a roundabout way, the dirt drop off went well. For $130, he found it, put it in his truck, and dumped it at our house in two big piles. We didn’t have time to spread it out at the time so we left it out there. We ended up going to Home Depot to pick up a tool cabinet which we attempted to assemble while trying to clean the garage while trying to keep the boys from hurting themselves. We ended up stopping.
Later that evening we met some friends for drinks in Portsmouth. It was fun to get out and hang with adults. We missed dinner but had drinks and dessert. The parking garage was closed and I thought that the world had ended (where would I park?) until Sally told me about a new parking lot near the conference center and hotels. Yeah, that’s big news for me. I’m boring.
On Sunday we went to the beach with Rachel, Josh, and Heidi. “The beach,” you say? “On Saturday?” “Wasn’t it cold on Saturday?”. Why yes it was. It was no more than 70 at the beach with a nice breeze so it was quite cold. The whole thing was my idea and it was a failure. We tried to play with the kids in the jungle gyms at short sands but it was too cold. We ended up walking around the shop areas and never actually touched the water. Lame… Who thought of this stuff anyway?
After the failure that was the beach, Rachel and Josh had the idea to go eat at When Pigs Fly. They have a pizza restaurant that’s been around for a couple of years and has good food. Well it was amazing, the best dining experience we’ve ever had out in fact. We sat on the deck, the boys and Heidi were very well behaved, and our food was quick. All the kids saved their meltdowns for the end . It. Was. Great. We did almost watch an idiot get crushed by a tractor trailer on the way out, but it was her fault… Other than that it was great.
Here’s where the labor part comes in, by the way. After our beach morning, we came home and started to spread out our dirt piles. It took three hours, but we were able to spread out the first pile and flatten it down with the help of some neighbors. The boys even pitched in! Now the marshy wet area at the bottom of our hill is filled in and gently slopes down to the rest of the yard instead of being a mucky pit of nastiness. And don’t worry: we saved our cat tails.
Today we continued our labor by finishing our garage reorg, which included filling the tool chest, throwing out a bunch of junk, and switching the sides that we park our cars on. It took a few hours but our garage is now spic and span. Once that was done we moved onto our second pile, and with the help of a Maplewood youth, we spread that pile out in front of the deck. The sun was beating on us so it was brutal until the last hour, but we got it (mostly) done. We’re going to be feeling it tomorrow I’m sure.
To top it all off, we washed, folded, and hung up all of our laundry, which is the marker of a successful four day weekend to me.
Relatively Ambitious 