We took a family vacation to Nauvoo, IL, because my niece Sage is getting married. We had such a nice trip here, I didn't realize how much nicer it is when you have more drivers. On the second day of driving, I was only at the wheel for about an hour. It was WONDERFUL!!
Thad's family came to help, they cleaned out the old fish pond...we really appreciate Thad for doing that part, it smelled pretty bad!!
And I started working on painting the fence. Uncle Lynn had purchased all the supplies, which made starting the job really easy, but the wood was so wet he was unable to get to it. We have been blessed with perfect weather while we've been here!!
After the plastic pond was taken out, dad decided to fill in the hole with dirt and simplify the yard a little bit. 
The men loaded the old pond into a dump truck, and Marty and Steve hauled it away. 
Dad raked out the dirt, and prepared it for a flower bed. I realized that at the rate I was going with fence painting, it wasn't going to get done. So I recruited all the teenagers to help me finish the job. What had taken me about six hours the first day, ended up taking them only 1 hour the second day...I wish I had thought of that sooner.
These kids were amazing! We had Jamie's two daughters, Lacey and Amber, my three kids, Steve, Kaylea, and Conner, and Amber's 3 friends, Bryce, James, and Luke.
I should have known that when mom and dad set out to accomplish a task it's done in record time! This entire project took us 2 days. Now we can enjoy the wedding and 4th of July festivities.
We were able to come in time for a bridal shower for Sage. It was really nice, I was able to meet a lot of friends and neighbors in the area. My mom and grandma were able to come as well. This is Grandma Dickson's first Great-Grandchild to get married. It's pretty amazing. She has 99 great-grandchildren and one on the way.
Nauvoo has had nothing but rain for so long, Jamie's and my parent's yard was a swamp. Dad had a fish pond in his back yard that became unstable because of all the rain, and the fountain tipped over. Steve thought it would be really nice to help my dad clean up his back yard. After the wedding reception, we are going to be having a family barbecue, and we thought he'd like to have his yard really nice for the barbecue. Well, it kind of snowballed. Steve used the weed eater to clean up around the flowerbeds, and shrubbery. He raked and weeded and really started making the yard look good.
Thad's family came to help, they cleaned out the old fish pond...we really appreciate Thad for doing that part, it smelled pretty bad!!And I started working on painting the fence. Uncle Lynn had purchased all the supplies, which made starting the job really easy, but the wood was so wet he was unable to get to it. We have been blessed with perfect weather while we've been here!!After the plastic pond was taken out, dad decided to fill in the hole with dirt and simplify the yard a little bit. The men loaded the old pond into a dump truck, and Marty and Steve hauled it away. Dad raked out the dirt, and prepared it for a flower bed. I realized that at the rate I was going with fence painting, it wasn't going to get done. So I recruited all the teenagers to help me finish the job. What had taken me about six hours the first day, ended up taking them only 1 hour the second day...I wish I had thought of that sooner.These kids were amazing! We had Jamie's two daughters, Lacey and Amber, my three kids, Steve, Kaylea, and Conner, and Amber's 3 friends, Bryce, James, and Luke.I should have known that when mom and dad set out to accomplish a task it's done in record time! This entire project took us 2 days. Now we can enjoy the wedding and 4th of July festivities.