Before I forget what we did last weekend, I need to get it written down! We were supposed to go to Annika's birthday party on Saturday afternoon, but since the weather was going to be bad, Kari moved it to Monday (more on that in the next blog). It was rainy in the morning, so we started an indoor project. I read an article about arranging items on your book shelves to make it more attractive. All we've had on our book shelves has been books, imagine that, books on book shelves! Anyway, the article talked about adding some decorative items, and I got inspired! I got Ken to help me go through the books and we discarded some, moved some to another room and did some rearranging so that now I have some shelves waiting for some decorative items. I found a few things around the house, to use on the shelves that I wasn't using elsewhere, but now I have some empty spaces to fill. Good thing my birthday is coming soon!
Saturday afternoon, it cleared up some, so we went to a stone supply place to look at more samples before making a decision on what to use to make our new patio and walkway in the back yard. Then that evening we went to the Skagit Speedway to watch the races. There were supposed to be big rigs racing and we thought that sounded interesting. We got to the race track about an hour ahead of time and got to watch the practice heats. We discovered that in comparison to the little cars that go zooming around the race track, the big rigs are a lot slower and really not that exciting! About 25 minutes before the races were scheduled to start, we got something to eat and halfway through my hamburger, it started to rain. We grabbed our food and other things and headed to the concession area to get out of the rain. Luckily, it was a pretty big area and we were able to squeeze in! We finished our dinner there, as it continued to pour and soon there was thunder and lightening to go with the rain. After about 30 minutes of watching it rain, we decided to go on home. We figured that the seats would be so wet, we wouldn't want to sit on them and watch the races, if they ever did get going. Because we were rained out, we can go back sometime and watch some other races using our tickets from that night. We never did find out if they cancelled the races that night or just delayed them. It didn't take to long to drive out of the rain, a few miles south of the race track, it wasn't raining at all!
Sunday evening, we went to the 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle to see "Aladdin". It was a great show, with wonderful costumes, scenery, and songs. The genie was especially good, in our opinion, he stole the show, and he got the biggest cheers at the end of the show. Even though we really enjoyed the show, for some reason, I'm always surprised to find that the plays in Seattle, aren't that much better than the ones we see at the Village Theater in Everett. I have in my head that the plays in Seattle should be a higher caliber, but they really aren't, which says a lot for the shows in Everett. One of the actors in "Aladdin" has been in several plays with the Village Theater, so they must use a lot of the same actors, which I found to be interesting. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable weekend, even with the rain out of our plans on Saturday.
We had the rcok company leave us some extra pavers, so we could put in a few for a path to the deck on the other side of the pond. Ken's going to put them in himself and he started working on that yesterday afternoon. He traced around the rock first, then...
...cut out the sod, took out some of the dirt so the rock would be level, then...
..put the rock back in place. He got these 3 done yesterday.
The contractor's crew got everything done on Thursday. 
We're very happy with the way it turned out!
Pumpkin and Patches like it too!
The new stairs.
Another new set of stairs.
More pavers have disappeared.
There were 5 guys working on the pavers, trying to get everything done by Tuesday evening. They got most of it done, but sent back 1 guy to do some finishing up today.
One of the steps and the pavers covered in the dust that resulting from cutting the stones.
The plants are covered in dust also!
The path (above) and the patio (below) after being washed off last night. All that's left to be done on it is to put in some filler type stuff between the stones (kind of like grout).
Pavers are starting to disappear.
Putting together the puzzle pieces.
Some puzzle pieces have to be cut and made to fit. Two guys cutting stones...
...plus a guy using a chain saw, makes a lot of noise!
The start of a step.
The retaining wall is almost done. 
After thinking about our original choice of pavers, overnight and talking to the contractor the next day, we decided to go with a different stone. It cost us a little bit to change our mind, but we figured it was better to make the change now, than to regret it the rest of the time we live here. So, this is the new stone that will be put in next week.
Changing the stone delayed them a little, so they didn't get started on putting it down yesterday, but they were able to start work on the retaining wall.
I really like the way it's starting to look!
Thursday, the contractor that is doing the work in the back yard, came with 3 of these pallets of the stone we chose for the patio and walkway.
They also brought a bunch of gravel to lay on top of the dirt.
The first step was to take out some more sod to make a wider path.
They used the machine at the top of the picture to pound the dirt down firmly, then put gravel down and pressed it into the dirt in several layers to make sure it's really solid.
Another guy worked on digging out the area for the retaining wall a little bit more.
Then they started unloading the pallets of stone and laying them out on the gravel and grass.
The more they laid they out the stone, the more nervous I became about how "busy" the stone looked, and I wasn't sure I liked it that well any more.
When Ken got home from work, we spent time looking at it some more and trying to decide what to do. We decided to sleep on it and talk to the contractor the next day.
Lighting the candles on the beautiful cake Kari made for Annika.
Listening to everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her.
A little frosting in the tummy and a little frosting on the tummy.
Eating cake on the blankets.
Time to open presents!
Pose for a picture first!
Dress up time.
Two new friends for birthday presents, Angelina, ballerina and a ballerina bunny.
Striking a pose in the new dress that Gram and Papa got her. (There are pants that go with it, but she didn't want to wear them.) 
Monday, was Annika's 4th birthday. After delaying the party a couple of days, hoping for better weather, the sun came out in the afternoon and the kids got to play in the water, which is what Annika wanted to do for her party. Before they put their swimsuits on, they had a scavenger hunt for "treasures" wrapped in pieces of aluminum foil and hidden in the yard.
One of the "treasures" that Saben found.
Continuing to hunt for the "treasures", which were anything from candy to money to small notebooks, etc.
Time to play in the water! There was water in Annika's little swimming pool, a slip and slide, and a beach ball that sprayed water.
Lining up for a turn on the slip and slide.
Landing in the pool at the end of the slip and slide.
Trying to get Papa wet!
Getting warmed up and ready to eat cake. 
These pictures are of the area that used to have railroad ties as a retaining wall.
We had a couple more high school boys come and remove them for us.
A new retaining wall made of stones, will be put in soon. We have hired someone to put in the wall, the patio, and the new walkway.
These are some of the pavers we were considering. We decided to go with the one on the far left, called Three Rivers stones.
