What a beautiful day. Bailey and I took our little girls into my back yard to play in the super-deluxe baby pool we bought this weekend and visited and enjoyed the serenity of the afternoon. Layton and I bought this house about a year and a half ago, in the fall, and thus did not see much but dead grass and leaves in the back yard, but when the following spring arrived (finally, after such a long winter) we discovered we'd purchased quite the gem. The house was built in 1973, with an oversized double-detached garage added ten years later, and though we bought it from a numbered company that rented it out to questionable tenants, I suspect it was much loved before that. We have a large spruce tree, three or four white lilacs, an apple bush, some sort of Japanese cherry tree, a birch, a long-suffering oak, lovely ivy, climbing wisteria and so forth. It's heavenly. Prior to moving here, I lived in a highrise condo just west of downtown, which I loved, but giving it up was worth it for what we've found here.

My daughter spent more than an hour in the pool. Quite contrary to myself, she is quite at home in the water and probably would have stayed longer had her nap not become so overdue. Her cousin was not so keen on it and spent much of the time in the playpen I irresponsibly leave full of toys in the back yard. Bailey and I drank Slurpees and chatted. If only summer lasted much, much longer. :D