A Great Place to Visit

This last weekend for the 4th of July the whole family headed north to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

My parents are always working on this home and it shows.

Here's a little peek at the front.  The red bushes line the driveway that my kids love to ride their bikes up and down on.  One of my boys even got rid of the training wheels on their bike last weekend.  About time!

I'm jealous of all of the landscaping that they have.

The following picture is of the east pergola...yeah, ya heard me right, they have an east and west pergola.  This one is the newer of the two so the plants need to continue filling in.  This is between a huge grassy area that will one day hold a playground for the grandkids and the huge garden that ALWAYS looks better than mine.  Grrrr.:(

Here's the west pergola that has had a bit more time to fill in and offers all kinds of great shade.

It includes a fire pit that all of the kids, and maybe just a few of the adults love to make smores around.

What good would such a great space be without a big old barbeque grill?

You just want to sit back on that nice teak furniture and take a great nap...something grandpa gets caught doing A LOT.  Retirement wears you out ya know.

And here are some pictures of the garden that has been totally redesigned over the last year or so.

Two whole rows of raspberries...yu-um!  Off to the left you can barely see grape vines that just got planted this year.

My dad put in a couple of raised garden beds this year too.  One is for strawberries, and the other is for lettuce and whatever else suits grandma's fancy.

Of course, ya gotta have your basics like beats, onions, carrots, tomatoes, three kinds of squash, etc.  Oh, and I forgot the pictures of the apple tree and nut trees.

Always a good place to visit.

Last thing, does anyone know what this stuff is called?  It is a ground cover that I would love to have but can't find anywhere in my area and my mom doesn't have any idea what it's named.

Sometime in the future, I'll show ya'll a few pics of the inside.  I just couldn't resist sharing the summer greatness.