Swing Jump

Swing Set Deployment Take III

When we lived in Ogden, we had this little back yard which was divided and slightly off set. When Steven and Anna were to the age where it seemed fun to have a swing set, I convinced Mary that we should get a nice one - something that would last through Armageddon. Mary relented only because I promised that our grandkids would someday swing on this very set.

Unfortunately what I didn't plan for was moving the thing twice. Having been deployed now in Ogden and Brigham, it was now time for a set up in West Point. I figured that since we've done it twice already, this time would be easy.

Thinking that this would be a fun afternoon project, I grabbed the camera and thought maybe I'd try a timelapse type video thing. I couldn't find the tripod, so we settled to just chronicle our progress. One of the things we decided was that since the wood on the deck was looking a little rough

We should buy new wood and stain it ourselves. (Which Mary did while I was at work.)

And so we began with the goal being to turn this

Into this

Mary had thoughtfully labeled all the hardware in little bags from our tear down, and the deck went together pretty easily

We then couldn't get the railings on the side of the deck so we took it back apart. Then we put the railings back on, and the deck back together and got to this point.

We dug our holes

(Look Brigham City friends - the only rock we found the whole time)

and tried to get the swing set down in it. We couldn't do it. We tried again, again, and again, but we couldn't keep the thing together and get it stood up correctly and level in the holes in the ground. Our quick little project that should have just taken an hour or two was pushing eight hours, and we weren't even close. The part that had gone so easily had to be undone twice. 

So after getting some help from the Dixons (thanks Adam and thanks for the second ladder) and waiting for Saturday when Steven was home, we finally got the thing up. During this process Mary refused to talk to me no fewer than eight times once being after I accidentally smashed her fingers while trying to squish the sod back down.

Note that there are no more pictures between dirt and the thing all the way up. It's no fun telling a photo-story if the story is lousy.

She Said "Dad" Eleven Months Ago

Poor Mary.

I really can't remember how long ago Mimi started saying "Dad." She says: food, shoes, puppy, bath, buh-buh (?), and a handful of other noises that may or may not be words. What she doesn't say is "Momma."

Today Mary decided that she had had enough. With a handful of M&Ms, she tried to bait our daughter into saying Momma. It took a really, really long time, but eventually some limited success. I found the whole thing to be a bit on the mean side.

"Just give her the candy," I kept saying. "She thinks you're just saying your name. Look how confused she is."

  If the roles were reversed, I would probably be far more interested in teaching her to say something that would lead the shoppers at the Walmart to question what type of upbringing she had been exposed to.

You can't really hear her say "Momma" at the end of this video, but Mary insists it's there.


(For those of you thinking it - yes, she is sporting the three-tooth grin.)

Family Golf in North Salt Lake