swingset someday

thanks to the generosity of brad's parents, the boys now have a swing set. almost. it is in our possession, it is just in parts still. several parts. so many, many parts. the entire thing came in three relatively large boxes packed with a random variety of boards, screws, bolts, and misc swing set type necessities. brad and i had fun perusing swing sets online, and then locating the perfect one at meijer. the excitement mounted as we lugged the boxes to the backyard and opened them to find the aforementioned parts.

well brad and i are nothing if not ambitious. (that made me giggle to type even.) i meant to write, brad is super ambitious and when it comes to his boys he is willing and ready for any task at hand. this swing set is a big task. within minutes, brad was using language i rarely hear, by this i mean adjectives mostly that were slightly profane. do not worry, the boys were out of hearing range.

although i could not relinquish my clutch of the directions, i did take several mental pics of the boys' entertaining themselves. here is the image: imagine the large pile of sand (a sandbox someday), with bear struggling hard to climb to the tippy top while big bro maxer shoves him from behind. upon successfully reaching the summit, they take turns sliding down the sand pile on their once clean bottoms. this activity was followed by exploring the fields, throwing various objects out into any puddle in sight, and chasing birds. what a night.

brad's physique was manipulated in such a way as to drill holes in places few men have been before. his mouth was full of hex bolts, and tapping screws, a pen, and drill bits. his head full of loving thoughts towards me, his beautiful wife, as i said things like "huh, it kinda looks like this board is in the wrong spot... do you think that matters?" and "oh, i just saw a little notation regarding spacing and how imperative that is but since we already drilled those in we can just continue", as well as " when it says something about being vital to be level does that still count for us because it will be in a sandbox?" and frequent questions regarding carriage bolts and flat washers whatever those are. brad has rarely been more in love. just kidding.

so here we are. feel free to drive by and honk your encouragement as the swing set gets bigger little by little. remember to be gracious in these next couple of weeks for lack of progress due to field work. the good news is that the boys still are not aware of what we are building, so they are not anxious about the finished product. this is huge as we just could not handle more pressure, though does not say much about our progress to date. truth be told, brad and i are mostly working well together and i do appreciate the opportunity to build something with my man as this may be the one and only time it happens. it is awesome to see the progress and spend time together in this element. it will be even more awesome to spend time together watching the boys play on a swing set we built on love :)