New things

So a few weeks ago, probably closer to a few months, we decided to expand our yard by removing our fence and building a shed and kennel for the dogs. Here are some of our progress pictures:

Outlined the ground to make it level

Levi standing on what will soon be where the dogs will be (stone tiles)

The dogs enjoying their last few days of freedom in the backyard.

FINISHED PRODUCT

We're still in process of taking the fence down. You can see some of the panels are up behind the dog kennel but we took the other panels off everywhere else. Tim had the missionaries come by for a service project and they used shovels, manpower, and a 3 ton car jack to get the fence posts out of the ground. They worked for a few hours and only got about half of them out.

And now that's also been delayed.
Why is that? Well, Monday afternoon Tim was involved in a car accident. The basics are he was going the speed limit (55) down a state highway and a car ran a stop sign and he T-ed into the other car. Luckily the intersection wasn't perpendicular at a 90 degree angle, but more of a 45. (If that makes sense, so Tim didn't hit the kid straight on his passenger side) Here are some of the pictures from the scene. Pictures were taken with a phone from one of Tim's co-workers who happened to be traveling only a few cars back.


The other guy

LUCKILY, no one was hurt seriously and any other injury was minor. Tim ended up with a minor concussion, a contusion in his left hand (a bruise), soreness in the neck and back (minor whiplash), and a small sore spot on his head (from where he probably hit his sun visor)

The bad news?? The car was totaled and now we were down to one car. Tim ended up taking a few days off and we decided to look for cars. We were already casually looking for a minivan and now we were basically being forced to look with real intent. We checked out a few dealers but didn't care for the cars or the people. The missionaries actually had told us that the mission sells their cars for a good price after they hit 50K miles. We called our mission to see if they had any vans but no luck. Then Tim called the Columbus Mission to see if they had any and they had THREE! So we headed down last week to take a look and test drive them.

We decided to go through with it because it was such a great deal and felt like the right decision. We chose the van with the least amount of miles and the one that felt the best. One of the vans had like a clunking sound when driving and the other had a broken armrest that they were replacing soon. Luckily the one that felt the best didn't have any other issues. In fact, we picked it up from the mechanic because they made sure it was roadworthy and that the brakes were in good condition.

We had hoped to get everything sorted out by Friday but the bank needed the actual title which they keep in Salt Lake. So they had to Fed-Ex it to us. BASICALLY, we ended up having to stay another 3 days until the title came in. We didn't want to drive all the way home, just to turn around and come back to pick up the car. Luckily we found someone to feed our dogs for a few days and we stayed with my parents. (The other downside was we had only packed enough for two days, so we kind of all wore the same clothes a few times. We also had to go to the store and pick up more diapers and formula to keep the baby happy as well.) 

We did get to spend some time with family and I didn't have to cook either! Which basically means we ate out frequently. All in all, it was such a LONG weekend and we are happy to be home.

And now look at our beautiful new (well, new to us!) 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan.

Learning!

We know most (almost all) our letters and their basic sounds.
With how much Levi loves books now, this kid will be reading in no time!