We're back!

Well, we're back from vacation and back in the swing of things!

I kept quiet on the blog (for security reasons), but many of you know that we've been in Michigan for most of this month.  We left Portland on July 2nd, all 7 of us, and landed in Detroit the same day.  On the 3rd we drove up to Alpena, a great town in northern Michigan where my sister Mary and my parents live.  We all had a fun couple of days before Marcus and I left for our own mini-vacation to Mackinac Island.  Then a few more days in Alpena before driving down to Detroit, then flying back to Portland yesterday (July 13th).  Whew!  

Since we got back in the early afternoon yesterday, we worked REALLY hard to unpack everything and start laundry right away.  Marcus and I were exhausted, and the older kids sort of resented all the work, but we are all grateful we got so much done.  We were rewarded with a dinner (that we didn't have to cook!) at grammae and papa's house, with all the Oregon cousins/aunties/uncles/grandparents that really missed our tribe the past 2 weeks.

Today I spent a few hours in the jungle, I mean garden.  That was wonderful to get some weeding in before the HOT weather came later in the day.  The main garden looks much tidier now, but the auxiliary garden needs lots of work....  Maybe tomorrow.

I have a TON of pictures as you can imagine, and they are not organized yet, so for now enjoy the landscaping pics showing the progress that was made before we left:

creating a rock "river" and starting the deck floor for the
tea house--also, small fence posts are in, and the bark-chip
area was expanded (in progress in this picture)