Backyard upgrade

Our backyard was less than stellar when we moved in.  Basically, it was dirt and weeds.  (Apparently the tenants before us didn't see a need to water the lawn for several YEARS.  Hence, the dirt and weeds.)   

Meanwhile, we just dealt with the fruits of their (lack of) labor.  I thought the kids would just get used to it and get over the fact that there was no grass, but that didn't seem to happen.  Alayna pretty much didn't step foot in the backyard for several months (due to snow causing mud).  

But this summer our backyard improved when a family in the ward ordered too much sod and were giving away the extra.  We rushed over, completely loaded up the back of our truck, and got to work.

I forgot to take a picture before we started laying the sod, but these pictures should give you the gist.

And after.  (We have recently been blessed with a lot of rain.  So our grass is pretty green.)  The grass has been SO great!  Our girls love to play outside and now we can even invite friends over to play in the backyard.  :)

 Then towards the end of the summer we noticed a townhouse down the road that had a huge pile of sand in their driveway with a sign that said "Free".  It didn't take me long to convince Dan that the girls needed a nice big sand box.  

Several bucket loads of sand later, we had a nice large sandbox as well as our turtle sandbox filled to the brim.  One trip to Home Depot later, we had ourselves a pretty awesome sandbox!  And the girls seem to enjoy it quite a bit.  Don't you think?

I'd say our backyard is pretty nice considering we just paid for the cost of wood.  That's my kind of price.  :)