Tree Swinging Cousins

Over eight years ago when we moved into this house we had several trees removed (there were large ones within feet of the back screen porch, the woods was just a little bit too close for comfort). While the tree guys were here, dh asked one of them to shimmy up a particular tree in the back yard and attach a long black rope (the part that went around the tree was inside plastic tubing to keep it from deteriorating). Since then this tree swing has been used hundreds (thousands?) of times by my kids and their friends. And even a few brave adults!

Over Thanksgiving there was LOTS of tree swinging.

Most of the time the kids jump off of the stand that my dh built (it looks kind of like a lifeguard stand). There is also a higher-up perch to jump from--it's a very teeny platform about 9 ft. up, attached to a tree. A few very brave souls use this. (You can see it behind my niece in this photo.)

Everything is just that much more fun with crazy cousins around!