Climbing the Walls

It is a well-known fact that young children, especially boys, need to move, run, jump, and climb. They need to explore and conquer something, anything, everything. All of my boys have been very active, so much so that my mother (who only had one introverted girl) used to ask me if I thought my son was "hyper". She asked that with each one until I had our fourth son because by that time, she had finally figured out that they were just being "normal" little boys. She regularly comments about how I must have "nerves of steel". Haha. No, I have just been conditioned over the past 16 years and have become more relaxed around all of their energy and rowdiness or able to tune most of it out.

Over the years, all of my boys have literally climbed the walls in narrow hallways and doorways. They have also climbed the counters, furniture, stairs, shelves, storage sheds, and trees. So, we knew that when we moved into a new house we really wanted to have a climbing structure of some kind. Enter Grandma and Grandpa. They love to buy things for the boys so we suggested that this would be a worthy investment. The boys and I had our eyes on the Highlander at Sam's Club. Three levels, covered, slide, swings, seesaw, rock wall, picnic table, made of cedar. Yes, they needed that.

The perfect spot. Visible from the kitchen window over the sink and the back door.

NG put together the picnic table, then Dad showed up.

Every one of those hands were busy building the Highlander. Over the course of a week, the total time spent putting it together was about 20 hours! Needless to say, no one wants to build another one any time soon so it needs to last at least 10 years. Of course, if we continue to have the whole neighborhood show up, it may not. Yesterday, there were 16 kids in our backyard playing on it, playing soccer, and running around. And only 2 were mine.