Yes, You Should Buy A Trampoline
This exact scene has happened, if I had to guess, four or five times now. We’ll have a new family over for dinner, and when the wife’s eyes land on our backyard trampoline through the dining room window, she cocks her head to the side and says, “We’ve been thinking about getting one of those.”
Immediately I launch into my pitch, as if I’m trying to sell her oils, as if there is a commission at stake. It’s the best thing we’ve ever bought! We’ve had that thing since Everett was three!
I still remember moving into this house, spring of 2018, utterly exhausted. Moving in general is quite a feat, but moving into a fixer-upper with popcorn ceilings and wall paneling and electricity that only works half the time is something else entirely. More than once, we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.
We spent our days unpacking, stripping wallpaper, painting every wall in this house white. I arranged wall galleries on the floor. Brett hung them up. We made phone calls and called in favors. My dad fixed the dishwasher. Our friend Joe helped us knock down walls and build shelves in the closets. We found a floor guy, a drywall guy, an electrician. We forked over piles and piles of money.
Every day felt like chaos, the house buzzing with drills and saws, covered in dust. And every day, I sent the boys outside to enjoy their new backyard.
One of the first photos I remember taking was of the boys on their trampoline, which we positioned in between the two big maple trees. Every winter, the trees get bare and naked, but between March and April, fresh green leaves appear like little signs of hope, creating a canopy of shade over the yard. I remember snapping a photo of the boys and sharing it on Instagram, calling the trampoline our free babysitter.
And here we are, a little over four years later. Still working on this house. Saving our pennies to renovate the kitchen. Still watching our boys, and the precious girl we’ve had since then, jump to their heart’s delight.
So yeah. What I’m trying to say is: you should get a trampoline.
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P.S. This is the one we have, 12 foot. We’ve had it since May of 2015.
P.S.S. Blast from the past, same trampoline.
