Visitors

Sometimes, when we have guests coming into town, I get the urge to fix something up.  Without a lot of discretionary funds to fix things up in a big way, I take to tiny, "inventive" projects here and there that will make our home feel more home-y or welcoming or fun.  So, of course with two friends coming into town, I got the itch to spruce the house up a bit... only days before their arrival (as usual).  This meant Matt went into awesome husband helper mode while his crazy wife gave order :)  But we got most of it done, and turns out we even like it!  (More on the visitors below)

Back Patio Before: 

(a little crowded with the fire pit we inherited and the old glass table from our old house):

Back Patio After:
(we repurposed our old dining table with a new top I stained a weathered gray color, added one section to the couch sofa - thank you Ikea clearance! - and sold our old umbrella on Craigslist to help buy the new hanging one)

Back Corner of Yard Before:

(Sorry, I don't have any plain pics of it, but you can get the gist of it from these random pictures if you look closely in the back corner... uneven ground, random aspens planted - one dead - and just not serving much purpose)

Back Corner of Yard After:
(all this took was a little manual labor to dig out three aspens, add some river rock we bought at Home Depot, and put 13 red retaining wall bricks around it... new fire pit area!)

Other pics:

Oh, and we also bought one of the cheap standing bookshelves from Ikea to put in the playroom - it adds some seating, some areas to run cars/trucks on, and storage.  A win all the way around!

***

Now on to the more important stuff... our visitors!  Bryan and Matt came out to visit from DC and it was SO wonderful having them here. We enjoyed an adult night out in the Highlands on Friday (i.e. no baby! so - drinks on the rooftop of Linger, dinner at Lola, a drink at Colt & Gray, and a beer at Denver Beer Co.) and had a great time catching up :)

splurge: a pour of 39 year old Scotch!

And Saturday evening we had a bbq at the house with some of Bryan's family and a friend of ours.  It was a great time, and Benjamin loved playing with Ella and Brynn - they taught him how to be a star :)

Putting on a little show for all of us:

enjoying the new fire pit area!

And Sunday we enjoyed the evening at City Park Jazz - and despite there being about 10 babies in our group, I think Bryan and Matt still had a good time :)

Saying bye to Uncle Bryan:

Come back soon!!!