Greg vs. The Lawn (Round 5)

As most of you know, Greg and I aren't "yard people". We basically do the bare minimum so we don't get the cops called on us for having foot high weeds. Greg has always mowed the lawn like a good neighbor should and I have historically been the weed puller. It has been a long running joke among the Reynolds' clan that our yard is never quite up to par. Above is what our current yard looked like when we moved in (granted, it was early spring, so the grass hadn't greened up yet). The house had been built over a year before we bought it and no one was tending to the yard much so, again, we figured we had an uphill battle on our hands. We've lived in 5 houses over the past 10 years and we have always had one of the worst yards in the neighborhood. Until now..........

This is the current state of our yard. It is Greg's pride and joy. In fact, he has been wanting me to email pictures of our yard to Matt and Jon (his greatest lawn critics) for about a month now. I figured I would go all out and devote a post to document Greg's triumph over the beast (lawn). Above you can see our lovely hydrangeas surrounded by lush, carpet-like grass.

This is me showing my love and appreciation for our lovely yard. It has been a long time coming. I used to beg Greg to hire a lawn care company to come and fix our yards of times past, but now Greg has come through. It was Round 5, he was on the ropes, and he came out victorious!!!

Here is Greg. Doesn't he look like a man who has tasted victory?? In this picture, he is standing proudly by his most recent accomplishment, the rock garden. I have to interject here that I was completely against the rock garden. Every time he described it to me, I just couldn't imagine anything even remotely attractive. But I must say, it turned out much better than I thought. The reason for the rock garden was not aesthetics, but rather to keep the stream of water that would always form in that area during a rainstorm from washing away our mulch. I am happy to report that it has done the trick and it really doesn't look all that bad. We will probably add some larger boulders around the area just to tie it in a little more.

I believe that the true test of a good lawn is if you can comfortably pencil roll on it. Here I am demonstrating that our yard is indeed pencil roll-worthy. I am also demonstrating that I am in desperate need of a tan. Yikes!!!

Well folks, that's all for today. As you can probably tell by the subject matter of this post...we don't get out much :-) Please stay tuned for our next post entitled "Dog-Mate of the Year". Doesn't that just put you on the edge of your seat?

Love you all,

Brooke

Me Gusta Puerto Vallarta!

For our upcoming 10 year anniversary, Greg and I took a vacation to BEAUTIFUL Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in late May/early June. We had such an amazing time!! Neither of us had ever been there before and we were pleasantly surprised! If you ever get the chance, I definitely recommend going. The resort we stayed at was Dreams Resort & Spa and it was so nice. It was an all-inclusive place, which I normally don't like because it makes it seem more "touristy"(I know, I'm weird), but Greg wanted an all-inclusive resort so we went with Dreams. I'm so glad we did!! We really couldn't have asked for a better place. It's located south of downtown and is pretty secluded. The picture above was the view from our balcony. Does is get any better???

There were a couple of weddings on the beach while we were there. You can see the white tables set up in the picture. The wedding was under a white tent and then all the guests went over to the tables for the reception. They had a dance area that was lit by candlelight. It was so beautiful. We were totally spying on them the whole time, wishing we were invited. We should have just crashed, but I think they would have noticed considering it was such a small wedding.

Here is Greg being a trooper on the beach. Doesn't he look thrilled?? Greg HATES laying out on the beach!! Poor guy. I made him buy a couple of books before the trip so it wouldn't be so boring for him. Truthfully, he was really sick when I took this picture. Shortly after, he had to go back to the room to get sick. Lucky for him, it was our last day there. I have to say though...he didn't complain even once. Every morning, we made sure to secure our places under one of the "huts" on the beach so we'd have some shade. It's a good thing we did because the sun is incredibly intense down there and Greg and I both burn fairly easily. Don't worry, we stocked up on our SPF 30/45.....no melanoma for us!!

Ahhhh....relaxing on the beach, in the morning, with a full tummy and a good book. Life is good!

This was taken at our favorite restaurant on the resort, the "Seaside Grill". As you'll see in the next couple of photos, the view was breathtaking! Behind Greg, to the right, you'll see a little mini-cliff. They let people try their hand at rock-climbing on it (supervised, of course). We saw a couple of people "trying" to climb it one afternoon. They didn't do so well.

See what I mean....WHAT A VIEW!!! And the sunsets.....WOW!!

Again....gorgeous, beautiful, wish I was back there right now!

No folks, do not adjust your screen. Objects in this photo are as they appear. Hee hee...just kidding. I'm thinking Greg probably wouldn't be thrilled to know I posted this photo but I couldn't help myself. This was the jacuzzi on our balcony! Pretty cool, huh? This is where we spied on that wedding I was talking about earlier. We both grabbed a beer, fired up the jacuzzi and stared at the strangers enjoying their lovely wedding. A little sad and creepy, but fun nonetheless!

I'm completely bummed that I don't have any pictures to post of the best part of our whole trip. We went on an all day excursion into the "jungle" where we did all kinds of zip-lining and rappelling!!! I've always wanted to do the zip-line thing. Have you ever seen it on the travel channel? It's where you get in this harness and you "zip" from one tree to another on a very sturdy (or at least you hope it is) cable. I can't even begin to tell you how glad we were that we decided to do that. The cruddy part was that they don't let you bring a camera because you get soaking wet. One of the rappels was down a waterfall! Plus, with the gear they put on you, there really isn't a good place to put a camera. They do, however, offer pictures that were taken by the company that offers the tour. They show you all the pictures at the end. They were really expensive, so we only bought two. I guess I could scan them on here, but I already have them in frames and I'm lazy.

If you ever go to Puerto Vallarta....DEFINITELY go on the Outdoor Adventure tour through Vallarta Adventures. That's who we went through and it's very safe and the instructors were so fun!!

Adios amigos!!

Brooke

New to this....

Ok, so I decided to start this blog without really knowing what I'm going to write about. I really just wanted an easy way to let friends and family know what's going on in our lives since they all live hundreds of miles away. Right now I'm just getting all set up, so bear with me. More to come.........