Trampoline!!!

Time to jump! That's right, we now have a trampoline! As I said in a previous post, my sister Camille got a trampoline and we had so much fun on it when we were in Salt Lake. Reagan also loved it and John was ready to buy one as soon as we got back to NJ. Of course, as time passed, he felt less and less of a need to go buy one, so we never did. Then my friend Nicole called me to say her neighbor was trying to get rid of hers and she was looking for someone who wanted one! What are the odds? So I went to check it out on Friday and here's what it looked like:
It was in Michele Griffin's backyard and she kept asking her kids to clean it off. After no luck, she finally threatened to get rid of it and they were fine with that. She was so frustrated with them (her exact words were, "they're lazy and spoiled!"), that she wanted it gone as soon as possible. So today, I sent John over with his tools to take it apart and bring it home. Nicole's husband Chris was nice enough to help John with the manual labor on a hot sunny day. Much appreciation goes out to the Heid family for all their help in getting us a FREE trampoline!!

John brought it home and immediately started putting it back together. While the kids were napping, I was helping him. Trampolines have come a LONG way since the ones I jumped on when I was a kid ... no more metal springs to pinch your fingers or fall on. The "springs" for this tramp are just large pieces of elastic that are attached to the frame with a hook. Then pads go over them and a red cover. We got all the springs hooked to the frame, when John realized it was on upside down! Whoops! See the red hanging below in the above picture? That should be on top, hence John's frustrated look!

Once we put it on the right way, we scrubbed it down (it was pretty dirty) and it looked as good as new! Once Reagan was awake, we took her outside and she was ecstatic ... especially because it was her favorite color, RED!

Reagan wanted to help out with the cleaning of it

Running around in the yard with Dawson

It was killing Verdell that he couldn't be a part of all the fun ... he wanted to be on the trampoline with us SO badly! He sure needs a haircut, don't you think? The poor dog can barely see!

So ... we told Reagan the trampoline needed to dry before she could jump on it. It was time to go inside and eat dinner, then she could jump after she ate. As usual, Reagan put up a HUGE fight to eat dinner tonight. This girl is such a horrible eater and it's more frustrating than you can imagine. She threw a big temper-tantrum, went into time-out, and still refused to eat. All along we told her she couldn't go outside to jump unless she ate. She still wouldn't eat. Finally, as the sun was setting, she realized she was running out of time to jump, so she ate. I rushed outside with her and took the following videos.

As you can see, we haven't put up the safety nets around the side yet ... John was hesitant to let her get on without the nets, but I assured him she'd stay in the middle. As you can see in this video, she just about fell off. I stopped videoing right then, but rest assured, she did NOT fall off! John hasn't even seen this video yet, so I'm sure his heart will drop when he watches it ~ sorry honey!

This is such a sweet video. Reagan asks me to come jump with her ~ does it get any better than that??? These are the parenting moments that help me forget about the frustrating times (like force-feeding my child dinner!)

It was such a beautiful night out. There was a nice cool breeze and relatively no humidity. It was great to be outside, enjoying our backyard. Reagan and I lay on our backs and watched the clouds move. Then we watched the fireflies come out ~ something I love about NJ! There are no fireflies in Utah, so I saw my first one 4 years ago. We decided to go inside and get John and Avery to join us with some popsicles. I had a frozen lemonade that soon turned into Reagan's.

Avery LOVES frozen treats! She finished Reagan's discarded popsicle (I buy the Edy's fruit bars) and wanted more when it was gone. Sorry for her disheveled look here ... it was just before bath time!

Brutus was also dying to be a part of all the fun

See Avery's smile? This is how she always looks when she's near her big sister Reagan. It's the sweetest thing to watch ... every time Reagan walks into the room, Avery goes nuts! She kicks her legs, flaps her arms and starts making noise. Avery truly adores her big sister and Reagan is so great with her.

We finally called it a night because the mosquitoes came out, as well as the bats. Yes, bats. They were flying above us and started getting closer and closer, so we rushed inside. It was a really great day :)