and the words bit

For some reason Blogger is only showing me the html coding for the pictures, and I'm not tech-savvy enough to want to mess around with it and try to put labels under each picture. Hence the two seperate posts.

We had a lovely weekend--as you can see from the pictures, we spent most of it in "garden clothes," aka the clothes wherein we can dig in the dirt and eat popsicles without having to use an entire bottle of Spray 'n Wash. Neil spent a couple hours with the Elders' Quorum on Saturday working on a service project, and then when we got home we hit the yardwork, so to speak. Neil, our Hero Yard Man, attacked the dirt pile that has been languishing by the patio for a month or so and finished filling in all the low spots around the fence and house. Then he spent some time cutting the last lingering bits of sod off the sidewalk, which he then used to patch up the grass killed by the dirt pile. Meanwhile, I picked four rows of beans (eek! They are growing like crazy!) and then Neil used our brand spankin' new electric trimmer to demolish the stealthy tall grass sprouting around the fence while Abigail and I snapped all the beans, blanched them, and packed them away in freezer bags for soups this winter. Abigail was quite the little helper--she worked diligently to snap beans (and was quite successful at the rate of about one every two minutes) and then decided she would rather carry all the snapped ends from my beans over to the grass and dump them there (we were sitting on the patio in the backyard). Amazingly, her attention span lasted through the entire huge bowl of beans. I was quite impressed.

We finished up our yard time by watering our back yard and our friends' garden/flowers, then enjoyed a few bowls of shaved ice or "snow," as Abigail calls it, with a hearty and oh-so-healthy lunch of zucchini bread. After Abigail's nap, we packed up a picnic dinner and headed to one of the nearby parks for a hike. We wish it would rain more, but at the same time we're sure enjoying the comparatively cool non-muggy weather (although it would be really nice not to have to go move sprinklers once every hour to prevent the utter crisping of our lawn).

Sunday was lovely and relaxing as well (after we got home from church, since Neil and I subbed in nursery after teaching our regular Sunday School class). We took a long walk together after dinner and then had a festive time with popsicles and sidewalk chalk and read scriptures together before putting Abigail to bed. And now Neil and I are both excitedly ready to dive back into Naomi Novik's Her Majesty's Dragon and Throne of Jade respectively. Thanks, MB, for the recommendation--we're both loving them!