Gardening with Parents!

My parents felt pretty lucky to have pulled off four outdoor wedding receptions at their house with absolutely perfect weather. We felt the same way about the perfect weather we had for our three sets of springtime guests (though, obviously, perfect weather for visitors is significantly less important than perfect weather for weddings). To round out our Spring of Visitors, my parents arrived late last week and spent a warm, fun weekend with us.

Friday I took the day off work and the three of us drove up to the National Arboritum, where the azaelas and dogwoods were in gorgeous full bloom. We walked around a bit and snapped some pictures, then darted to Wendy's for a late lunch.

While we love simply being visited by our parents, we couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity to pepper first Jason's parents, then mine, with questions about how to do this or that at our house. One important question I'd been anxiously waiting to ask my parents was where I should plant the little garden I'd been planning in my head. During my last visit home, we'd spent quite a while scouring plant catalogs and talking possibilities, but I needed their actual eyes on my yard before I could get started.

They one-upped me. Not only did they suggest the perfect spot for a garden, but they volunteered to help build it--well, let's face it, they basically built it themselves, with a little help from us! Saturday was gorgeous, and I spent the morning with my dad at the nursery picking out vegetables and planting them in our freshly-dug garden. By the end of the weekend, we had also trimmed the bushes, mulched the roses, and planted a lilac bush. Then we spent Sunday afternoon sacked out on the deck in the sun reading.

It was a wonderful visit. Part of me feels a bit guilty when our parents spend their vacations working up a sweat in the back yard or unpacking boxes in the basement. But I think the productive time together is important to both of us, especially since we don't get to do it very often. Plus, let's face it, Jason and I would have been totally lost planting a garden by ourselves!

What a fun spring! Now the rain can come whenever it wants...although I could handle this type of weather for a few more weeks. We have a pretty glorious summer stretching out ahead of us--no weddings to travel to, no moving, no getting married ourselves. Is it possible we could get bored?!?