Crazy Weekend

I have the craziest weekend story to tell you.  Oh my, I’m still trying to catch my breath it was so busy.

I don’t even know where to start with it.  I guess it all started about a week ago.  Buck was going to come home and bring the kids.  Then he had truck trouble mid-week and said -no he wasn’t coming.  We all made different plans.  Then Friday at about 3:30 pm he called and said he was coming home and would be here about 10 am.

I scrambled and called the other kids to tell them Buck was coming home.  Everyone thought they might come home then too.  So I started planning for a houseful.

That caught me completely off guard.  COMPLETELY…so I quickly made a rhubarb dessert and then started doing a little cleaning and blog post writing as I knew I wouldn’t get anything written while they were here.  Then Kalissa came by and I went to help her with things so not much got done at my house.  That was all okay as we had a great time hanging with the boys.

Saturday morning I got up and called Kalissa to see if she wanted to go to the farm store with me or if she needed anything.  I was going to get some straw to cover the grass seed once it was planted.  I was secretly hoping Buck might plant it for me when he was home.

I picked Kalissa and the boys up and off we went to the farm store.  It turns out she needed grass seed as she is working on seeding in a few spots too.
Everyone we knew was in the store and everyone was talkative so we were there longer than expected.  On the way home Kalissa was scrolling on her phone and said, “Oh, I’m going to send this swing set listing to Kelli’s friend Chelsea.  I know she’s looking for a swing set.”  WHAT??  I’m looking for a swing set.  I had picked something up but wasn’t completely happy with it as it wasn’t really big enough.  I really was still looking for a swing set.

I was driving.  I said what does it look like?  Kalissa flashed me a picture on her phone.  All I could see was that it was HUGE.  She said that it had been in a storm and wasn’t assembled anymore.  I sadly lamented that it would be so cool to have one so big.  Kalissa said, “Well let’s buy it.”  It was originally a $4000 swing set.  They were asking $300.  I said I didn’t know how it would get home.  Kalissa assured me if I wanted it, she’d make sure it got home.

Kalissa quickly messaged the man and said we’d take it.  He messaged back and said he’d hold it but he really wanted us to come and look at it to be positive we wanted it.  I was already positive but thought maybe I should.  So off Kalissa and I went in the complete opposite direction we had just driven.

It was about 20 minutes away.  As we drove Kalissa took her phone and showed Carver the picture of the swing set.  Carver said, “Oh my, I’m freaking out.  I’m so excited.  I’m freaking out!”  Kalissa asked if she could take his freaking-out picture.  Here he is…
As we were driving I just bust out laughing.  What a crazy life I live.  I just bought a swing set…a huge swing set and I really have not even stopped the truck to take Kalissa’s phone and really look at the picture.

I had written a blog post some time ago telling you all about wanting a swing set…well actually needing a new swing set.  At the time I hadn’t really wanted a big wooden one but that had started to change this spring once we started getting out and using mine.  Carver had grown enough and a couple of childcare gals had grown enough that the small metal swingsets really weren’t going to cut it.  I could see as the grandkids got older, I’d want something more…so, this was what I likely needed.

We pulled into the place.  I went to the door and the man took us around to show us the swing set.  Keep in mind, I still hadn’t seen the swing set picture from Kalissa’s phone.

Here’s what we saw…I slide…some roofs…metal construction.   There were swings…a tic tac toe board.

Wow, a rock climbing wall…and curly tube slide.

Wow, I could make out at least two towers.  I could see a couple of plastic pieces were cracked but that wasn’t a big deal.  I guy apologized saying that the swing originally had three slides but now it only had two.  That’s okay.  Remember I had wanted two slides when I was first looking at swing sets.

YEP.  I really wanted it.  The lumber alone was worth WAY more than that.  I didn’t know if we could make it look like it once did but I was pretty sure I could end up with a HUGE awesome play equipment piece for the kids.  So, I handed the guy $300 and told him we’d come as soon as I could get the guys to make it work.  He told us it was no problem.

We loaded up the kids.  I was doing the happy dance.  I pulled to the end of the guy’s driveway and asked Kalissa if she’d pull up the picture of the swing set on her phone so I could see how it was supposed to look.

Here is what she pulled up…

I clicked on the main picture and it expanded to THIS…

HOLY WOW.  SERIOUSLY, WOW.

I never dreamed for a second that I could have a swing set like this for the kids.  NEVER.

You can’t see from this angle of the picture but there is a section with actual swings on the other side.

So… once Buck and Karl did get to my house on Saturday, I tried to do a little sweet-talking.  I was really hoping that Craig might be able to borrow the trailer from the farm, but they were using that.  They Craig said friends of ours had a trailer.  He called them and arranged for us to borrow it.  Craig had to work on Sunday but Buck and Karl said they would go get it.  YAHOO!  At least it would be at my home.

That night Buck and the kids stayed overnight.  When I went to be I did a little research on my phone.  This is original the swingset.

The set is a Gorilla brand Treasure Trove II and the slide I am missing is the Commercial Grade Super Scoop Slide.  It’s the nice long one.

Being I don’t have the long slide on the left, we’ll have to do some modifications.  I looked and sadly the replacement slide would be $800 and right now, I don’t think I want to spend that.  I think two slides will be okay.

Some of the cute green trim pieces are cracked so we’ll have to improvise with that too.  It’s okay with me…it’s still going to be a great swing set.  Once it gets together I might try to contact the company and see if they might sell them.  I couldn’t find anywhere to get them online.

While I was online looking the set not sells for $4559.  Oh, my word.  I’m going to have more into my set than the $300 I spent.  Some boards need to be replaced.  I’ll need to seal the wood…but all in all it’s awesome!!

So…did it get home??  YES!!

A HUGE shout out to our friend for letting us borrow the trailer.  Here’s what it looked like when they pulled up.  It took all of the trailer and the truck.

Buck and Karl worked hard to get it all here and unloaded.

I don’t ever need Mother’s Day gifts.  Their help doing these types of projects that their dad would have done for me is all I ever need…

So now…God grant me patience.  I’m going to need it.  The large piece is sitting here…

…and the rest is at the side of the back garage.

It will rest here until Craig or Buck have time to help me out.  I’m hoping that maybe by the 4th of July we can get it together.  Regardless of when it happens, I’m one step closer to having a really nice swing set for the kiddos.

I’ll tell you more about the rest of the weekend in tonight’s post…  I have more good news.  I got a picture with all nine of the grandkids!!  You’ll have to come back then to see it!!