So Samantha had outgrown her little plastic swing/slide deal. Her birthday was coming up and we decided it was time for a swing set.

However, I did not want to have to put together multiple swing sets over the years. There would only be one. And it better last her until she was 21. One swing set to rule them all. One swing set to find them. One swing set to bring them all and in the backyard bind them.

So Lennie's parents and her brother Britt and his wife Julie all went in together and bought a swing set forged in the fires of mount doom. But sadly Sauron did not pre-assemble it, so that task was left to us.

(To anybody who has no idea what I'm talking about above, it's all Lord of the Rings references. This is what you get when nerds have blogs.)

So we spent Wednesday through Friday evenings, and then all day Saturday putting together this monstrosity. Credit to helpers in no particular order: Grandaddy, Mimi, Lennie, Britt and Braden. Here are some pictures from the event.

I believe this was from early on Friday evening. Doesn't look like over 2 evenings of work, does it?



Later in the day Saturday. Lennie was too busy organizing bolts and screws for us to take many pictures during the early progress.



Testing out the swings under heavy goober load.



Walnut and Coconut as unwilling porch testing victims.



Testing out the Cafe, or as I like to call it, the Tiki Bar.



Testing out the ladder.



Testing out the window of the "Aspen Lodge."



And finally testing out the slide.



Mission accomplished. When we are done with that thing in 20 years I think we will just burn it down.