The Weekender

Happy weekend, friend! This blog is officially 5 YEARS OLD!!!

I can’t believe that 5 years ago I pushed publish for the very first time. And it used to live under another name that some of you probably remember. Thoughtfully Lovely. My kids hated the name and since then I have renamed the blog to include my name.

I remember exactly where I was the first time I posted to the blog. I was in Chicago, at a Starbucks, and totally stressed out!! Like, bawling tears stressed out!

Check out what happened with my passport……that I needed for my daughter’s wedding in a few days in MEXICO!

I am so happy to have you along this life journey! Thank you so much for showing up week after week for this blog and sharing your DIY and life triumphs. I am so glad to share it all with you.

In other news, I have never been so happy to be home. Only because I am exhausted.

I just returned from my 11 day trip to Seattle to rebuild my parent’s deck. Whew! If you kept up with me @aprilcolleen for my daily updates, then you know how it went!If you weren’t following along, let me tell you that it took me six 8-12 hour days to complete it by myself. All the details coming soon to the blog including cost, what went right, what went wrong and some tips for success!

Did you see how it all started and what they wanted to charge my parents for the deck?

I absolutely love the city of Seattle. It has so much history and is really beautiful. Did you know that the city is built on top of a city? It’s true! And you can tour the city underneath. There are so many things to do there that we haven’t tapped into most of it. Another trip back there where I am not doing a project will be in the works.

I love the moss covered trees.

Ivy literally grows on everything. Even cars.

My parents live right off Puget Sound.

Remember when I told you last time that I was taking my daughter with me to help with the deck? Well, as suspected, she couldn’t really help at all with her broken toe. But she did manage to look for critters left in tide pools and under rocks on the beach.

If you want to plan a trip to Washington, I would definitely go the coastal side and visit any time after 4th of July through August/early September. We had the BEST weather. It was in the 70s the whole time! It only rained once and that was the day we were leaving.