Zip Line

I haven't posted this even though we've actually had it since late April because it wasn't finished.

It's still not finished.

Hubby is tweaking and twirking this thing to death (not to be confused with twerking).

It all started because we had no idea what to get Madison for her birthday.  She desperately wanted an X-Box and we desperately didn't want to get it for her…. so we had to come up with something awesome to distract her from being disappointed.

Enter Hubby and his child-like sense of fun and adrenaline.
He had the great idea to get her a zip line for the back yard.

In case you don't know - I am the voice of reason when it comes to activities for the girls, he is the voice of fun.
(The tables turn when it comes to food).

A zip line sounds fun, but they are 6 and 8 - are they old enough for this, will they get hurt, where the heck are we going to put it?

I managed to talk him out of hanging it from the playground to the (brick) wall of the house.  He thought this path would be fun because they could drop over top of our kiddie pool.
I was worried they wouldn't drop and would smack into the wall like a Wyle E. Coyote scene.

Instead it runs from the playground to my 12' high pergola.

The line is about 60 feet long and averages about 9 feet off of the ground.

The kids love it.

At first, he decided that he needed a higher platform than the playground had - so he built another one 8 feet off of the ground.

The kids were too frightened to take off from it, so the platform came down.

He then decided that it needed to be bound to the tree behind the playground at a higher height so the kids could pick up some speed.  (did I mention that my backyard is sloped downward even without the added height from the tree?)

Now when they hit the end of the line they are going fast enough that they have an upswing.

So he installed a cross beam on the pergola so they wouldn't actually slam into the 6x6 post.

Yes, they think it's fun to give my patio umbrella a bit of a kick while they're there.

Exhausting.

I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I should be happy that the kids are happy, that Hubby hasn't come up with any other great ideas to ramp up the excitement and that they aren't zipping towards anything solid.

Did I mention that he thought it would be fun to buy them both a kayak as well?

UGH!

Not on your life!!  I'm saving for the X-Box now!

Have a great one!