Demolition = Father/son bonding

The year after we moved into our house we got the play set in the backyard.  It was used for many things:  a fort to fight off Indians, a place to have picnics, a place to hide, a construction site, a barn, and most recently a goal for Allie to kick soccer balls into.  It was not an expensive set and has been deteriorating the last few years but we put off taking it down because just when we thought the kids had outgrown it, they would find a new purpose for it.  Recently, however, besides the fact that it was infested with hornets, it was falling apart and was becoming unsafe.

David had a dumpster delivered for clean up and was ready to start Saturday morning.  After about 15 minutes of watching him swat at flying insects with a cardboard box he comes inside and announces there is a problem.  "It's swarming with hornets."  Also, the bolts were not cooperating and were stubbornly not unscrewing for easy dismantling.  After some brainstorming with Trey, they borrowed 2 cans of hornet/wasp spray and a mallet and were ready to start again.

The next stage of the demolition consisted of David and Trey chasing after and spraying hornets.  Finally I noticed David start to take some swings at the play set with the mallet.  I notice Trey is just watching, and it appears it is going to be slow going, so I go outside and suggest Trey get started on the weeding until David needs his assistance.  David tells me "oh no, Trey's staying right here".  Then I notice that Trey is holding the can of bug spray and is poised to knock out any pesky flying insect that might get the wrong idea.

I went outside periodically to take pictures of their progress and laugh at them.  They had a lot of fun deciding the best way to make the play set crumble.  Nothing was as easy as it first seemed.  There was a lot of pushing, pulling, hitting, tugging, swinging and spraying.  Each time a different large section was conquered they felt empowered.  I finally had to leave for a soccer game but they reported they finished up the job just a the skies opened up with a rain shower.