The garage is consuming us!

As you all know, we're building a new garage.  I think we chose the worst possible time of year - it was fiscal year-end, which typically requires me to work over time.  Add to that the fact that I picked up a new sport, and you can see that I've been going crazy with too much stuff and not enough time.  Thankfully, I'm not doing this alone!  The garage-building team has been fantastic, with Straub and our friend Ron playing the major roles.  And don't forget that Tom and Will are helping!!

Here's Tom helping Straub drive the bobcat, while my dad leads the compactor to rest safely on the ground (my dad has also been helping, and volunteering his truck whenever I ask for it.  Couldn't do it without him!)

Will moseyed over to check out the bobcat after it was parked.  He's a pretty cool cat.

Two weekends worth of work were accomplished in one weekend - framing and trusses.  Our friend Rob came to help, as did Ron's son Zack.  That took some pressure off me - I helped on the Friday, but was able to wrangle the kids on Saturday and Sunday.

The weekend before framing, however, was Tom's birthday!  My little guy is six!! The weather wasn't spectacular, but when you have large mountains of dirt in the back yard, well, you have to expect that kids are going to want to play on them.  Here's Straub, explaining to all the party-goers how a rocket works.  Because what's a party without rockets?  (Tom and Will are the two kids at the far left of the lineup.)

And so the launching began.  I think we launched it about half a dozen times, each time drawing the same enjoyment from the crowd! (Tom and Will are the two kids framing the rocket on the top of the pile.)

It took about 5 minutes to reload the rocket, so in between launches the kids rode all manner of wheeled toys down the sand pile.  They had races.  They traded toys.  They had a great time.  One kid came up to me and said "excuse me.  My dad won't let me in his truck like this" as he pointed to the dirt on his pants. I promised to sweep him off before he had to get in the truck.

Tom and Will go to Grandma's house during the week (or School for Tom, on Mondays and Wednesdays and a smattering of Fridays.)  Couldn't build the garage without Grandma either - while she typically doesn't swing a hammer, she does watch the kids so I can!!  Here are the boys on a bike ride with Grandma, blowing dandelion seeds.

And here's one more of the garage, since it's all-consuming right now.  It took another entire weekend to get the front trusses on, since the ladders weren't built quite right (so it took us a while to figure it out!)  But it's coming along - we had the concrete floor poured this past week, so we'll keep working on the roof to get it water-tight.  Garage doors to follow!