Twas the weekend before Christmas...

My first thought was something along the lines of  "damn that is a big box and this is not going to be fun." Taking advice from my mother and her past experiences with this sort of thing, I elected not to wait until Christmas Eve to assemble this beast. In the event that were any items missing I would have vastly more options to source the needed parts if I did it the Saturday before.

 

That is my friend Nick in the middle there. He is a great sport in case you can't tell. That said, I made him a big breakfast and bought his lunch in exchange for the labor. Should he have ordered two servings of filet mignon, I still would have gotten the better deal. 

Halfway through the process, it started to rain. It is hard to read instructions when the ink on the installation booklet runs and the pages all stick together. If the trampoline falls apart, I blame the elements. It is sad when you have to argue about who gets to go under the top to tighten bolts. Thankfully the safety net was pretty straight forward and we were able to call it done right after we hit the three hour mark. 

Word to the wise on this one, get more than 4 hours sleep before tackling trampoline assembly and if you can avoid it, don't do it hungover. Thank you Ultega not only for a superior affordable product that will keep my children occupied for hours but also for the reminder that I am no longer in my twenties and unlike my children on this trampoline, I no longer simply bounce back.