This week Tyler had spring break at the junior high, so we decided to go to Los Angeles and build my mom her dream patio. We wanted to practice some landscaping skills before we do it to our own place.
My mom's inspiration.
At first I was against participating on digging up our backyard to build a patio so large. I guess you could say I'm a grass lover.
Tyler and Paco moved all the bricks, gravel, and sand into the backyard. Each brick weighed 38 lbs. In the end they carried 5 tons of brick--aside from all of the sand and gravel that they carried. We couldn't find a weight measurement for those bags but I'm sure it was a few more tons.
The finish product. (We ran out of bricks.) Someone else is going to have to finish putting the wall up, but it should be pretty easy to do. Tyler and I learned a few lessons and would do things a bit differently in the future. The most important thing I learned is that patios can still be very expensive even if we are doing all the work.
I wanted to do something special for Tyler while in LA. We went to Pasadena and toured the Gamble House (built by Greene and Greene) with my mom. Madison and I had to leave early and spent most of the time roaming the grounds. They had a great time looking at the architecture and furniture.
We let Madison chew on a strawberry at the Gamble house.
We also took Madison to the beach, but she ended up falling asleep on the way.
Napping with Pierre.
