| Construction on the play yard actually began over a year prior to breaking ground as two large trees had to be removed first in May of '96. In November of '97, with Preston five and Brooklyn three, we knew we had to get moving.
Breaking ground included embedding nine 6x4's into concrete to form the foundation. Constructed mostly of redwood, framing the basic play yard took almost a month despite rain delays which continued to muddy the project. Truck loads of sand helped us continue working through the rainy winter month of December in order to have the project ready for Christmas.
Though painting took until June, when everything was finally covered, our pink, purple, yellow, and blue helped animate a great place for the kids and their friends to play.
Just shortly after a year, both kids had grown to the point where the monkey bars needed to be raised. We were glad we had the foresight to make this adjustable element part of the design.
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| When first built, the play yard was ready for action, even before being painted. Painting all the parts became a weekend project which ended up taking until June to finish. Both kids wanted their favorite colors to be incorporated. Preston wanted blue and yellow and Brooklyn picked pink and purple. |
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Components of the play yard include two swings, a tire swing, height adjustable monkey bars, swinging ropes and hand grip bars, sliding trolley rail, slide, climbing rocks, chain cargo net, spiral ladder, play house, covered fort, open fort area, toy shelves, and a captain's steering wheel. |
| The view from the north side shows the play house window, the spiral ladder leading up to the fort, the slide leading down from the fort, and the captain's steering wheel. |
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Brooklyn loves using the climbing rocks on the west side of the open fort area while the chain cargo net provides Preston with the perfect launching platform for a long swing off the crane hoist. |
| With a mixed style somewhere between Geronimo and Tarzan, Preston, outfitted with his cowboy boots, of course, swishes from the chains to the end of the slide in one great swoop. |
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Though it took her several months to conquer, Brooklyn was the first to travel across the money bars with no assistance. Sometimes going until she has blisters, she proudly performs for any audience. |
| No matter how fast you push, both kids are sure you can spin them faster as they love to spin on the tire swing sitting up together or laying down alone. |
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Both captains of their own imagination, the captain's wheel has lead to many great adventures transforming the fort into ships conquering pirates, dragons, and even Godzilla! |
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