Backyard Basics

Along with my dream of buying a house came the dream of what I imagined our backyard to look like and what it would have. My dream started along time ago...
 
As a kid we visited Utah a few times and it seemed like every backyard had a trampoline, at least the family members that we visited. I thought that was so awesome! In fact when we returned home from one of our vacations my parents bought one for us. We spent hours on end jumping on it, playing games on it or just laying on it. Then when we became teenagers we would set up a tent on it and have sleepovers. It was so much fun! I knew when I was a kid that I just had to have a trampoline in my own backyard one day.

I cant remember whether my parents bought the trampoline or swing set first but I do remember that my family set off to look at some dinosaur museum but ended up at a swing set location where my parents bought a swing set for our backyard. I think it was around Christmas time because I remember my mom referring to the men that built it as elfs. We anxiously waited for them to build it that day, we were so excited! My siblings and I loved this swing set! It was a great investment because it got lots and lots of play and made for awesome childhood memories. Almost 20 years later my parents still have it and my kids have all played on it as well. Buying a swing set, that was another thing I knew I wanted to buy for my kids one day.

I really appreciate having a fun backyard as a kid! It made me want to create that same experience for my children. So that's where my dream backyard stems from. A trampoline and swing set have always been a must in my mind!

So last week James and I went to Toy's R Us to buy a trampoline for the kids, just a trampoline. We planned to buy one thing at a time, but of course there happened to be an awesome sale on an amazing swing set! So we ended up buying both a swing set and a trampoline!

We only had our van but James was determined to get everything to fit! The Toy's r us employees thought there was no way we could fit 4 big swing set boxes, a 10 foot slide and a trampoline in our van, Note: Never tell my husband he can't do something, because he will work even harder just to prove you wrong! (Not that that's a bad thing, it's obviously come in handy at times) So, we pulled out a seat, pulled a seat up, folded the back row down and everything fit!! The slide was tied to the top.
Who needs a truck when you have mini van!
James and I were so excited to show the kids! They didn't know we were buying them! We had been talking about it and saying we might buy one when it starts to warm up outside so they knew a little, but not that we buying one that day. So we rushed home to get started to get as much done as possible before they came home from school.

We only got the trampoline together that day. They loved it! They bounced on it for hours while our dog, Sadie, ran underneath it chasing them.
 






The swing set, yeah that took about 2 1/2 days to build! James built it all by himself, we had arranged to have help on the weekend but that was 4 days away and James was determined to get it built by himself.  The first day we spent a few hours just separating all the pieces by number and letters. The second day James started first thing in the morning and built all day long! The next day he finished it up. It came out perfect! The kids love it so much!! Those hours of enjoyment and fun childhood memories I wanted for my own children have already begun!!