The Playset

We live in a silly neighborhood. While standing in our backyard, you can see three or four of those large playsets with swings and slides in various yards. With possibly two exceptions, in the year we have lived here we have never seen kids on any of them. Ever. And we know there are kids living in those homes. We decided they were an expensive waste and we wouldn't be getting one, despite the ridiculous size of our backyard.

And then we went to visit Daniel and Wendy, who have one in their backyard. Guess where Aaron and Catherine spent every possible moment? Outside on the swings. I begged Jon for a simple swingset, if nothing else. It could be Christmas for the kids.

And then we went to a farewell party for our friends, the Hughes. They were moving to California in a week or two and had a smores night to say goodbye. While there I jokingly asked what they were doing with their awesome playset (I assumed it was part of the sale of the house). Turns out that somehow the playset had been excluded from the sale and they were looking to sell it! 

Realizing we would never be able to find anything this nice for a comparable price, we jumped. I have to give Jon all the credit here: he was the one who arranged everything. We had some friends come help move the giant center piece, but Jon and Josiah did everything else. And it was one of the hottest and most humid days of the year, of course. But look at what we got!

Pre-assembly

The awesome playset!

It's hard to see, but behind the swings on the right is a set of monkey bars high enough for adults.

It's seriously the best thing ever. 

Elise is not a huge fan of the swing, but she'll get there!

These two, however, would live on the swings.

Hooray for serendipity and for ridiculously huge backyards!

Now all we need is more neighbor kids to play with.