1) No swings on the play structure? Also, was it difficult to put together? Is it attached to the ground in some way?? Sorry for all the questions, but we're contemplating one in our backyard later this month...

2) Swimming outside.....so jealous!

3) No swings. They came with the play structure, but they just require a LOT of room. And although we have a "large" backyard for this area, it is still relatively small. If we put in swings, then either (a) the "safe zone" that they would need would take up the whole room for the whole play structure, in which case we'd only get swings and nothing to climb on, or (b) if we kept the structure and put the swings elsewhere, the "safe zone" would take up most of the rest of the yard and we'd have nowhere to run around and play and such. There is a tire swing under the main canopy platform.
As for putting it together, it took Isaiah about 2.5 days in total... and that was working at it all day for 2.5 days. And it was challenging. He was quite sore. But I think the hardest part was reading the directions. We got ours from Costco (online). Maybe a more name brand version would have better instructions? I did help him stand up a few things and move it a few times. But he did most of it by himself.
Lastly, it does have stakes that you bolt to the bottom of the posts and push into the ground. And we'll do that when we get it to it's exact position. But Isaiah said it's not going anywhere. It's flippin' heavy!

4) Yeah... nice to swim outside this early in the year. But we don't have any indoor pools, so in the winter rain (we don't get snow), we don't have any good place to swim, unless you belong to a gym, and even then it's not guaranteed to be indoors. Whine, whine....