More treehouse, grandkids, some mud, and future snow play

The treehouse is coming right along, but still has quite a bit of "right along" to come.

The grandkids showed up Sunday, and even though there was no railing or even real steps, they began enjoying the treehouse immediately. Darci wanted a table and chairs so that they could eat lunch up there. Then she started listing all the things the treehouse was missing. "A door, shelves for putting our toys on, a flag, a roof, a trap door..." and on and on she went. Note that she never mentioned anything about a safety rail. (They are looking up because I pointed out two nests above them that might be abandoned or might have angry raccoons in them.)

The Boy showed up and gave it a bit of a stress test. (He noticed the missing safety features right away. And took advantage of the lack of them.)

Now there are real steps and the beginning of a real rail. I believe Darci is still listing the things the treehouse is missing.

Once it started to get dark we headed inside and Darci went to work on a flag. I haven't the faintest idea what any of this is - I'm pretty sure she just wanted to use as may colors as possible.

The next day she planted the flag in an elaborate ceremony that mostly involved her telling me where she wanted the hole drilled. And then where she really wanted the hole. And then again where...sigh.

The grandkids spent the night, so we got out the folding cushions for them to sleep on.

Here we see Riley tormenting poor Darci.

And really REALLY enjoying it.

They went to sleep fine, but I was jolted awake at 6:00 AM by Darci's normal greeting for Idiot Dog Teddy: a screamed "NO!"

She was hungry, and foolishly the night before I had promised chocolate chip pancakes, so at 6:05 we were busy making them.

Unfortunately it was too cold and windy out to work on the treehouse, so we played with Legos, watched an Ice Age movie (fitting!), and ate lots of snacks.

Tomorrow morning we are heading to the snow country, to a town named Auberry. I had never heard of it either. The Boy is excited that he will get to fool around with his snowboard. Here he is wearing his boots and goggles. (I'm pretty sure he isn't going to wear them to bed. Probably.)

In any case, there will be pictures and such when we get back on Friday.

That's it - move along...

PS: The Boy tends to take lots of pictures of his muddy Jeep. So far he has found two different urban mudholes to wallow in, although both were "fixed" (one filled in and the other fenced off) shortly after he found them. He cannot wait for more rain to hit so that he can start searching for mudhole number three.