7.3.12

We were invited to the beach today by Josh's sister, and Wyatt really wanted to go - however, I'm still battling a head cold and have been running a mild fever all day, so the last thing I wanted to do was to go sit on the beach.  Actually, the last thing I wanted to do was to go for a walk, but we DID that and it was horrible.  Way too hot!
Anyway, as a compromise, we inflated the little pool and set it up.  I had also suspected that had we gone to the beach, Wyatt would not have gone into the water at all, and for the $8 (!!!) admission, I'd rather let him play at home.  Paige had a blast in the pool, and Wyatt...well, Wyatt stood in the pool for a bit and then ran around beside the pool. Paige was pouring water on her own head, splashing herself....just a little fish!  Just another thing that they do not have in common - not even in the slightest.
Wyatt and I went back outside after I put Paige to bed, and while he played in his sandbox, I attempted to tame that stupid dogwood in the background of the bottom picture.  After I trimmed it back to a reasonable size, you could see that ants or aphids have completely devoured the bottom of the tree - so I trimmed those pieces off and now it looks quite sparse.  Being that a landscaper lived in this house before us, there are a lot of trees, shrubs and various plants.  I hate most of them.  After trimming that dogwood, I had a rash on both arms from my elbows to fingertips (and I was wearing gloves!).  We also have two massive cedars to contend with sometime this year, and a poplar that was damaged when a portion of our fence caught fire 2 years ago.  I vote for pulling everything out and laying down a rock garden.