Apr 2, 2016

Jumping for Joy

4/02/2016 — cori

Because this sweet girl is turning TWELVE in just 3 days, we decided to take advantage of our last day of spring break and go jump our hearts out in a warehouse full of trampolines and small children. They were having a special deal and being as I can never pass up on a special deal, we chose to pay for 2 hours of jumping which, believe it or not, was cheaper than one hour. Now I know why. No human being can jump for 2 hours straight. It must have been a ploy to see what type of morons fall for a deal that ridiculous. 


As you can see, we adapted very well to our new environment (sorry, the picture quality is going to be pretty bad throughout the rest of this post). And for the first 15 minutes or so, we had the whole place to ourselves. 


This picture was taken well before we were all hot, sweaty and sore. We had yet to feel the effects of jumping like Tigger repeatedly. Apparently, Chuck and I forgot that our bodies were no longer comparable to that of children. Spine compression, stiff necks and general back pain plagued us from the first jump to the last. 


My very first foray into the Foam Pit. I folded in half under all those blue squares and couldn't get out. Gavin, ever my protector, jumped in to pull me back to the safety of the trampoline.


It looks like Chuck is hovering here. But he came down hard on the foam. It took him a good 5 minutes to crawl out of there. To put it in perspective, it took the kids like 30 seconds to jump in and out like it was just water, not foam.


Here's the gymnast showing off her skills. None of us dared try something so risky.


Except Gavin. He had the Parkour flip down pat. He never once landed on his head like his Dad.


This is what Chuck looked like after attempting the same move. Seriously, he thinks he's still 10. At least he was playing on the trampolines like he was. After landing on his shoulder after attempting the aforementioned flip, he crawled out on all fours and lay on the floor moaning because he couldn't feel his shoulder and his neck was tight. But don't worry, he was right back in there after a quick 5 minute time out.


The boys actually took turns in the Dodge Ball area. This was an intense game. It was all boy (for the most part - I only saw one girl and two dads). Balls were flying and hitting hard. 


Chloe and I decided to take turns doing air splits.


This is the one benefit I've received from doing yoga all these years.

After about an hour in to our jump-a-thon, me and the kids were sitting outside resting and trying to catch our breath. We found Chuck and asked him how much longer he was up for jumping. The kids and I already voted and we were just fine with not using the entire 2 hours allotted us. Chloe was ready to go in 5 minutes. You would have thought Chuck just found out they were out of his favorite ice cream, he so bummed. Even though he could no longer turn his neck side to side and his back was stiff and his shoulder barely functional, he was still hoping to play for the entire time. I love that about him! We compromised and stayed an extra 15 minutes. However, truth be told, he came straight home and took a nap by the fireplace. This seems to be our modus opperendi after doing hard, kid-like activities that wreak havoc on our older bodies (such as riding a ton of roller coasters on Bennett's b-day).









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