Busy Bees!

I apologize now for the boatload of photos in this post.  I got a little camera-happy today :)

While Baby H prevented me from helping much with the manual labor, the boys were hard at work!  We started bright and early with the digging:

Nice tire tracks in the yard

Thankfully the guy we had dig out the area was willing to spread the gravel in the space as well.

The next step was to tamp down the gravel.

Todd manning the tamper

After some debate over the process (the laptop had to be brought out at one point to get everyone "back on the same page" ;) ), the sand eventually was spread on top of the gravel using pvc pipes as a guide.

Sandy sat at the back door ALL day.

Finally, they started laying the pavers in the modified herringbone/K/I pattern.

Started in one corner and worked out

We borrowed the neighbor's wheelbarrow, luckily it survived the process.

The final pavers were cut and laid as the sun went down.

And here's the current state of affairs:

left/octagon

right

Tomorrow we have to tamper it and put the sand over the top.  I think we are also going to use some of the extra pavers to build a step down out of the back door.  It's sure to be another exciting day in our backyard!