When I was a kid, my dad decided to build me and m

When I was a kid, my dad decided to build me and my sister a treehouse.  We had been wanting one for a while, and after much begging and pleading, we finally talked him into doing it.  We had the perfect tree for it, too, a huge oak tree in the back yard.  So he started building our treehouse.  From the first day we wanted to go up and see it, but he told us it wasn't safe yet, and we would have to wait until it was done.

Day after day went by as we watched the progress.  Not a day went by that my sister and I asked to go up and see it, but my dad always replied the same.  "Not yet, it's not safe yet."

A month went by, and then two.  The treehouse got bigger and bigger.  Now, my dad, once he decides to do something, he doesn't do it halfway.  He goes all out.  As time dragged on, the treehouse got bigger, and bigger, and bigger.  When it was all done, it would have three separate rooms at varying levels connected by aerial walkways and stairs.  Everything had safety rails and other measures to try to keep us kids from falling off and breaking our necks.

Eventually, the neighbor kids started to notice, and they would come to watch the progress as well.  Before it was all done, we had kids from 10 blocks away coming to look.  All of them clamored to go up, but my dad told them the same thing he told us.  "Not yet, it's not safe yet."  After a while, some of them gave up.  Some of my friends actually got mad at my dad because he wouldn't let them go up yet.  But he wasn't about to let any kids go up until the thing was completely done.

Finally, finally, the day came!  My dad had an opening ceremony of sorts, and he finished the very last part of the treehouse:  the ladder.  Up until this point, he hadn't built the permanent ladder in order to keep us kids from sneaking up when he wasn't looking.  So the ladder was a huge deal for us.  We knew once we had that ladder, the treehouse was ours.  The biggest treehouse in our entire town.

My dad drove the last nail into the ladder.  He turned around to face the huge crowd of kids that had gathered.  He said, "Now you can go up.  It's safe now."

We had kids from all over town who wanted to play in our treehouse, and we had many overnight sleepovers up there.  We were so proud to have the most awesome treehouse in town.