Swingsets and Horse Rides

There is now a gigantic swing set dominating our backyard. Lindsay Johnson was kind enough to find us a swingset on Craig's List which we purchased a couple weeks ago. Last weekend Travis Jones and I went and dismantled it. Today, Eric Johnson and Anthony Watkins helped me "man-beast" it into our backyard.

When I say "dominate", I truly mean it. As you can see in the picture to the right, it pretty much takes up all of the yard. To get by it, you have to go to the extreme left or right of the yard.

When we got it home and started moving it into the yard (a process made a bit perilous when we had to lift the tower over the fence) the boys came rushing out and had to inspect everything. We'd barely gotten it set and the monkey bars on before they were all over it. We didn't even have time to bolt the ladder and slide on before they were using them. Eric just stood there like a true champ making sure the lip of the slide didn't come off the tower platform and dump whoever was going down it on the ground.

Once we started actually bolting things in place, I believe Logan found his true calling. He would go to my toolbox, pull out a single tool, then climb up onto the swing set and start acting like he was using the tool. He'd most often climb up and get right next to me as I bolted some new piece in place. It was really quite cute.

The swing set still needs some work, though. I need to sand it and re-stain it, but it's well worth it. It's a Rainbow and they don't come cheap (unless you buy them used!).

The kids are going to get a lot of use out of it, and Dalynn and I can't wait til we can just start turning them out into the backyard and letting them go play for a few hours.

In other news, we also started Cole on some horse back riding lessons! Horse back riding was recommended by his physical therapist. It will work all of his core muscles and his leg muscles and should help strengthen him. We've really been fighting a lot of weakness and neuropathy, which has been a bit disheartening. I want to see my boy get stronger, not slowly move backwards.

We recently got him some new orthotics which will give him a lot more stability when he runs and walks. We're really hoping that it will help him get stronger. So far, they've worked wonders. The hard part has been finding shoes that they'll fit in! We have to go a size or two larger, and they have to be wide. We found that they'll fit in large Crocs, so we got him a pair of those to fill the gap til we get him some newer shoes.

All in all, things are good, though. We're all doing well and we're acclimating to having one more member in our family. Having three is certainly a whole new kind of circus (hmmm... three ring, maybe?).