Do I worry about my children injuring themselves in all sorts of ways?? Yes...but have they ever.....no unless you count the time that Caleb took a vicious spill off his long board without wearing pads or Liam getting a bum bounce on the baseball field resulting in his tooth piercing his lip. But, that's really it and yes, I'm knocking on wood now for continued luck. So every summer for the past 6 years we have had what we call "summer rewards" where we encourage/bribe/motivate the boys into keeping up with a few things like reading, music practice, typing exercises, math websites, as well a few goals they come up with on their own like trying new recipes, writing a book (s), solving the rubix cube, and on and on. If they complete their goals, they get some sort of individual reward but this year we decided that we'd offer a collective reward and finally get a trampoline. I've long been the parent in the family who has put a damper on the trampoline idea and Jared, who grew up with one, had finally convinced me that they boys would be fine and that I should loosen up a bit. So during the summer they spent some time shopping for the perfect tramp and of course came across an Olympic 14x16 wonder. It was well built and could feasibly hold the weight of our entire family and was spacious enough that I felt they could play on it safely. Yet, we couldn't justify the cost simply for doing a little math, reading and music over the summer, so we left them empty handed. Summer ended and the school year started back and they would only bring it up now and again assuming that I had changed my mind back to my original stance of not wanting a trampoline at all. I said nothing in response to their accusations because we had decided it would be a perfect combined Christmas/Summer rewards gift. But when it was delivered in 4 gigantic boxes they started to think about the trampoline again, but I threw them off explaining effectively that winter was not a good time for a trampoline because the cold temperatures and snow can damage the mat and they were satisfied. So after all the gifts were unwrapped from under the tree we took them outside to unveil what had been laying under a tarp all those days. They were surprised and thrilled and wanted to put it together right then even tough it was only 30 degrees outside. We put them off and waited another day until the weather warmed back up to a reasonable 50 degrees. The frame was assembled one late afternoon and the mat put on the next morning. None of the photos show the net enclosure, but it too is in place to ease my worry.
Many hours have already been logged playing a game they call "dead man" which is like Marco-Polo, cross-over bounce and bum wars...all those great games I did play at my friends who had tramps. Gavin and Caleb can do a front flip and Jonah is almost there. Jared too showed off his flips with a tight tuck and fast rotation. Liam and I are still trying to get our nerve up to do one. The best time was when Jared and I snuck out of the house and jumped by ourselves laughing and getting winded more quickly than we ever did as kids and talking about sneaking out one night for a sleepover!
Jonah spent time helping by making video selflies and showing them to us:
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