Backyard Overhaul

We had the backyard on our radar for our next big project.

The pool was so old and corroded, rebar was started to poke through

the bottom and sides which was leaving rust streaks.

We couldn't even get a pH reading on the water because it was stagnant. 

We had to chop down the lemon tree because it dying.

We knew it needed to be done soon, but little did poor Casey know HOW soon!

I was going to host a bridal shower for Alison, who is basically a member of the

family and is our kids favorite babysitter.

My house isn't huge inside so I was thinking of how I could make it work.

The weather is ideal during the winter in AZ, but I couldn't fathom making

everyone go out back to the trenches. 

There was no way possible to cover up the eye sore of that hideous pizza oven. 

I was doing the math on how many weeks until the shower.

Six.

That is totally enough time! 

I happily skipped over to Casey to tell him my genius plan.

Guess what? Lets start the remodel! 

Oh, but I need it done it 6 weeks.

He looked at me like I was crazy.

Which he rightfully should have.

He was trying to explain that it takes weeks

to even get on workers schedules.

This is a 3 month project and you want to do it in 1?

I don't know if I batted my eyelashes super hard, or if

he was done dealing with me, much like a 2 year old.

But he said ok!

No promises, but he would try his hardest to get it done.

So there we were on Christmas Eve, trading in shopping and baking for demolition. 

I was NOT sad to see this thing go bye-bye.

Pizza oven that never worked, see ya later!

Casey was trying to do as much of it himself as he could.

Cutest little helper girl.

She loved looking out the window to all the excitement each day.

Since it was during Christmas break, all the neighbor kids

 loved coming over to "help"

We made a lot of progress until Casey's tractor oil hose busted...
all over my driveway (crying face).

After Christmas was over, they started on the pool.

You would have thought WW4 was going on out there!

Jackhammers so loud you could have heard them miles away.
SO much dust you couldn't see past your hand.

Insane. How do these guys not have lung cancer? 

Then came the pool deck guys.

Please meet Fernando and Jesus.
The guy waving is Fernando and boy was he a friendly fellow!

Jesus, no habla ingles. 

Or at least he pretended to not speak it, lol!

Those 2 worked and worked for 2 weeks out there.

I guess the coping I picked was pretty darn tedious to cut and lay. 

That alone took a whole week.

Love that sweet bystander .

While they were doing the decking, Casey was doing the stucco
 on the block wall that was slowly disintegrating.

I could cry with gratitude for how hard he worked each day, way late into the nights.

He would literally come home after a long day, straight to more work.

I wish I could have done it for him, but I'm not so good with a skip trowel. 

He tried to teach me, how hard could it be.
Wax on, wax off, right?

  It was pretty comical how bad I was!

I would have just created more work for him in the long run.

Spraying the inside with the new Pebble Tec!

We had concrete trucks and pumps early in the morning for the new sidewalks and sitting wall.

Artificial grass guys ready for installation.

After all the blood, sweat and tears, 

missed holiday parties and sleep for Casey... we finished in time!!

It turned out better than I hoped for.

Before: 

After:

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If I wasn't crazy enough, I also decided to re decorate

 the inside of my house at the same time!

I hung my Grandmothers chandelier I inherited in the laundry room.

I love it so much.

When I was little I remember taking the crystals off and putting them

on my ears like dangly earrings. 

We also had the electrician add more canned lighting in the kitchen.

Before:

After:

Bad before pictures, but I forgot to take some before I gave the couches away!

After:

Another bad before:

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I definitely had a thing for black furniture!

It was sad to see them go.

 They were our first big purchases as poor newly-weds. 

They served us well for 15 years!

We have already hosted many parties

and it makes me so happy! 

My favorite is the black and white artistic pavers on the pool deck

and the turquoise glass tile lining the edge.

My tall Ficus plants and wood beams on the sitting wall are another favorite.

The smooth, white stucco wall.

The vinyl fence and turf... shoot, I'm pretty much in love with it all!!

Telluride

Back in January we took off with some friends

to a winter wonderland in Telluride, CO!

When you have 6 adults trekking in a 12 passenger van there is 

bound to be fun and adventure!

We realized half way into the drive that 4 corners was on the way.

Nobody had ever been before so we figured, why not?!

It was a bit comical pulling up to

a rink a dink pay booth with nothing really around.

Indians sure know how to scalp your wallet on tourist attractions.

We forked over our $40 to get in and walked past all the dream catcher, jade jewelry,

glass "ornaments" made from broken tv screens, and rock hatchet booths to

see the actual attraction!

We had a good chuckle when we saw signs saying there was a 4 picture minimum.

The group in front of us had taken 24 when we jokingly said we were going

to report them to Chief Tonto for breaking the rules.

It was nice having them there to take 44 pictures of US, lol!

It was kind of cool to see 4 corners. 

I remember on a long RV road trip as a teenager my mom

wanting to make a detour (not so much a detour when its over an hour out of the way)

 to see 4 corners.

My dad knowing not to argue, veered that way only to

 pull up to the workers shutting the gate because it was closing.

Access denied!

Haha, we still joke about that to this day.

I was happy to text a picture to my mom saying

I FINALLY MADE IT TO 4 CORNERS!

For some reason, traveling in a car for a long period of time is quite enjoyable

 when you don't have any kids to deal with!

I think we talked and ate junk the whole 9 hour drive.

The scenery was breathtaking. 

It was like a rock castle out in the middle of nowhere.

This was the last hour of the drive.

I was asleep but opened my eyes right when I caught Jeanette taking our picture!
Neck pillows for the win.

I'm glad I opened my eyes so I could see our cute cabin covered in snow!

It's always such a gamble with rentals.

This place couldn't have been more quaint and perfect!

When you never see snow you take pictures of lots of cool things like super long icicles!

A little tour:

From the door you walk right into the cozy living room.

That couch was money.

SO comfy.

It gave me inspiration for my future living room furniture.

To the left is the kitchen and the master bedroom .

Somehow we ended up with the master.

The long stick was in our favor!

And I wasn't complaining once I saw the big soaking tub and steam shower.

Up the stairs was a big loft.

The Rudd's each got their own bunk, lol!

I felt bad but they swore they didn't care.

She had a bad cough and was fine sleeping in her own bed.

A view from the loft.

By the master was a staircase down to the third bedroom and door to the hot tub.

A view of the back yard.

The ski slopes are just behind those trees.

We quickly dumped our bags so we could rent our ski's and check out
 the town before it got too dark!

It really is the cutest little ski town.

And definitely a few steps up from our po-dunk skiing "resorts" in AZ.
I felt like  I was in a fancy European city.

To get to the main street with all the restaurants we had to get on 2 different gondolas.

Boy did those things go high!

They were an adventure in themselves!
But not so fun if you got in after some college winter break kids
 enjoying some Mary Jane.
Pew, splurge for the good stuff while on vacation why don't you!

A good view of Telluride from the top of the lift.

We ate the most delicious dinner.

I don't think anyone left a drop of food on their plates.

Wish I took a picture of it!

The bad part about snow is that all the ice cream shops are closed for the winter!

Boo.

We picked up some Ben and Jerry's then headed back for some hot tubbing!

.

We each dared each other to run up the stairs and do snow angels.

We laughed pretty hard at the first sucker who got talked into doing it.

Next thing we know we had all taken the snow plunge!

Let me just say, I have never been so cold, ever.
I thought my toes were going to snap off while running back to hot water with steam
flowing off of our bodies!

My hair literally froze.

I have never laughed so hard in my life.

It was a great night!

On our way out the door the next morning we got a good chuckle at our body imprints!

I was a little nervous for skiing.

I am no pro whatsoever.

Plus being at a place that is HUGE and has a bazillion runs was 

making me feel overwhelmed.

Luckily I wasn't the only one feeling that way.

We decided to stick together.

With the first couple of runs under our belts we 

were ready to graduate to another gondola that went higher up.

I was starting to fall in love with skiing!

It was cold but nothing unbearable.

There were snow flurries all day but it made it more magical.

The pine trees were breathtaking while going down the mountain,
 it almost felt like therapy, ha.

The snow had picked up a bit and you could hardly see behind us.

It was pretty cool going through it.

Awe, it was so awesome!!

Nothing like eating a big, greasy pizza after a long day of skiing!

We had a couple of hours after skiing before we needed to head out for dinner.

That's when I put our big tub to use:)

It had a window that looked outside.

Soaking while watching the snow fall was like

I was in a movie!

TMI?

We got all gussied up because we had a big concert to attend.

Back to the gondola's.

This was just a photo prop.

I loved the ski tree!

We needed a fast restaurant and happened upon Nars Tacos.

YUM YUM!!

I think we still talk about Nars.

Then off to see the throw down between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones!

"I want to hold your hand"

These guys had the costumes and accents down!

It was a blast.

 We played some games and ate more junk before bed.

Snowmobiling was what the guys were most anticipating on this trip!
It's been high on Casey's bucket list for quite some time.

We had found some people to rent snowmobiles from in Montrose.

Montrose is about 1.5 hours from Telluride.

Surprisingly people don't like to snowmobile in Telluride, weird.

We found them on the side of the highway then followed them up a mountain

until we were in the middle of snow covered forest.

It was supposed to snow all day, so we got bundled up the best we could!

Jeanette cracks me up!

I have a whole photo album of Marc fixing Jeanette's whatever it was...

 jacket, beanie, gloves, helmet, and in this case her face gator, throughout the entire trip! 

He takes such good care of her:)

Ready to ride!

Casey is a sand duner, so I was comfortable with him driving me.

That feeling changed when he tipped us over the first minute we were on the darn things!

The snow was so deep it was difficult to turn and plop!

Hmm, now I was getting nervous.

Especially when we all didn't get very far down the trail until we were spending all our energy digging stuck snowmobiles out of the quicksand snow.

It's not for the faint of heart! 

Such a workout trying to walk in that fluffy stuff!

We needed a new plan.

Instead of trekking through the forest in untrailed paths, we went up the highway a bit until we

found a big open field for us to goof around in.

Welp, once we found the open field we thought we were good.

Nope. 

Bethany got stuck.

Casey coming to her rescue.

Marc coming to aid in the rescue only to get himself stuck as well!

Ha. It was pretty comical.

Casey and I came pulling up to the group once we got Bethany unstuck.

She was covered in snow and she was laughing.

I guess on the way back, she hit a fence that was buried in the snow and it 

threw her off like a rag doll!

Dang, that would have been hilarious to witness!

In fact, nobody saw it happen.

They were too busy talking and missed the dismount.

She was confused why nobody was coming to help her.

I got the giggles of the thought of her flying off  while everyone else was within 50 feet

 and oblivious to the whole incident. 

We could laugh because it doesn't hurt to land in soft snow. 

My crazy driver!

Riding double was exhausting, so the girls got off and let the guys go wild.

We had a nice chat in the middle of nowhere while they went off and explored.

It turned out to be super fun!

Just glad we all made it back to the van in one piece.

The adventure didn't stop there.

After dinner in Montrose we had the trek back to Telluride.

Black ice was everywhere, as well as the snow that was still falling.

Half way home, we skidded out of control and onto on coming traffic!

Gah! It was scary.

We had to slow down to 30 mph which took a loooong time to get back.

But back we made it and all of us couldn't be happier to get in the warm hot tub!!

Since it was our last night we made the best of it!

Games that had us in stiches.

We even stayed up until 1:30 watching a murder mystery on Netflex.

So sad it was over.

We got all the food in that we could which included blizzards 

in Flagstaff after eating a huge dinner, lol!

I say this about every trip, but it honestly is top of the list as one of my favorites.