Just a-swingin'

Josh's parents came for a visit, and his dad (Pa) had decided to surprise the kids by building them a swing-set in the backyard!! Talk about an awesome surprise!

We kept it hush-hush, so of course the kids had a 1000 questions

when Nen and Pa pulled up with their truck looking like this...

They still didn't know what it was going to be, but they were on board and excited!

Digging the holes...

...which drew an audience : )

Cutting the wood...

...which also drew an audience : )

It's starting to take shape!

By now, Kate had guessed it was a swing set. Super excited!

Mollie kept herself busy indoors since it was freezing outside.

This girl will pull everything out of everywhere if you give her a couple of minutes to herself.

Mixing the concrete in the post holes...with an audience : )

The weather was not too cooperative, so they worked on it

periodically over the course of a couple days. Screws going in for the swings.

Pa's helper, wearing his shirt that says "Grandpa's Little Helper"

It's almost finished!! Yay for our very own swing set!!

Poor Sheila. It was not the best trip for her...she got a terrible case of food poisoning from a local restaurant that we all went to one night. (Josh and I weren't feeling so hot either. Yuck.) But she was a trooper!

Not much worse than being that sick and not being in your own house. Thankfully, she got some rest and started feeling a little better, so she was able to hang with us

as Josh and James were finishing up.

Almost ready!! Again, with an audience. I think there's a theme here : )

The thing that blew me away the most about all this was that James built it without any plans. He had an idea in his head of how he wanted it to look, and made it happen! Amazing.

And he has no idea how much the kids adore him and Nen for doing this for them.

Many fun hours have been spent out there since.

Thank you, James, for all your hard work.

We all love it. And you.