Tree House Day!

Joshua has been planning HIS tree house since we got here. My parents kept planning to build one, but the plans kept getting more and more complicated. I would have done a nice simple one, only a few feet off the ground. Uncle Dan and Mom wanted something a little more exciting. Dan and Miranda came to town this weekend and the thing actually got started on! They designed a hexagonal shape that will wrap around the tree completely. They wanted it to only be attached to the tree, and wanted it nice and high. They chose 2 trees close together and plan to add a swinging bridge to the second tree, and a walkway of some kind that will extend over the fence, since both trees are on the other side of the fence from the house.

It was a nasty hot and muggy day. The kids were sweaty headed and red cheeked from it, but they wouldn't come in the house. They had to "help" as much as possible. Here is what our fun looked like.....

Here the kids are helping Grandpa unload the truck. They think it is such fun to play in the truck.

I think this was the first arm they built. There were 6 of these, extending like spokes around the tree. That's going to be the support system, and the floor will go on top. Right now, only the 6 spokes are finished. And it did take most of the day! Marian was being a helper here. Actually she just liked to climb the ladder.

Joshua is sulking because he got in trouble for jumping on the wood. And I think he thought he would get to do more things. He said it was "boring", but he didn't leave!

Here Dan and my parents are measuring out the distance for the last supports. The sky was grumbling and we wanted to be done before it exploded. Just as a fun fact, we did get lots of thunder and lightning and a whole 3 inches of rain last night!

So, the tree house is begun, and we'll see how long we take to finish it. Since we'll only be here another 4 weeks, I hope its not that long!