Cold weather is coming. It's an unfortunate truth. As any
parent knows, cold weather means kids with cabin fever. Kids with cabin fever
mean patience is wearing thin. When patience wears thin, it's just a matter of
time before a parent starts screaming into a pillow or banging their head
against a wall. The parent's head, not the child.
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| It's about time to have another Scrubs gif. |
This week has been one of those weeks for me on occasion.
Therefore, since I wanted to end my work week on a good note, I decided to take
action today to insure that's exactly what happened. Lucky for me and the kids,
today was Toddler Time at Above All Trampoline Park.
We had never actually been to Above Air before today.
However, I have known about it for quite a while and had every intention of
taking Ellie. We ran out of time before Ethan was born. Then we ran out of time
on Bethany's maternity leave. Then, another six months went by without going.
None of that matters any longer as today was the day!
I honestly didn't have much clue what to expect as I parked
our Traverse outside a nondescript building in an industrial park in Liberty.
From the outside, it certainly wasn't anything too special. As we opened the
doors and headed inside, I realized I was mistaken. Ellie too realized there
was something to be excited about. I could barely contain her long enough to
sign the required waivers and pay her entry fee. I even had to call her back
over so that her smiley-face wristband signifying payment could be placed on her wrist.
Unfortunately for me, I felt like I couldn't really take
part in the trampoline fun due to Ethan's presence in my arms. Therefore, I
stood there, slightly jealous, as I watched my daughter happily bound across
the gymnasium as she wandered from one obstacle to another.
First on her list was a massive section of trampolines, all
connected to each other. I kid you not, this thing was probably a football
field in length. Starting on the nearest side of the gym, Ellie took off
sprinting and bounding her way across the floor until she finally reached the
other side. Once there, she turned around, smiled, and came bounding back as
fast as her little legs could muster. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the
half dozen falls that accompanied these trips. Judging by the enormous smile on
her little face, it was definitely all worth it to her.
From there, we continued to wander through the gymnasium.
First, we discovered a pair of "dodgeball courts" as well as three
basketball hoops. Ellie only spent a few brief moments at each of those two
stations before she was ready to see what else she could find. Fortunately for
her, "what else she could find" was all she could have ever asked for
in a trampoline park.
We climbed a small set of stairs to find an enormous airbag
set into the ground, complete with trampolines leading to it. Imagine the kind
of thing a stuntman jumps into and you have a good idea of what this looked
like. Ellie, fearless as ever, pulled herself up onto the highest jump point
and took a brief moment to assess the situation. Then, she ran down the slight
incline, bounced briefly on the trampoline at the bottom, and flew through the
air, gracelessly crashing onto the airbag below. With a slight laugh and a huge
smile, she then clawed her way out of the airbag, clambered back onto the jump
point and took off again.
While all of this was going on, Ethan was doing a fantastic
job not only entertaining himself, but endearing himself to everyone we came in
contact with. Whenever we'd reach an area that I knew we would be staying at
for a while, I sat Ethan down on the ground to play a little while we watched
Ellie bounce. When he wasn't keeping a keen on his sister, he was keeping a
keen ear on the Disney classics playing over the stereo in the gym, smiling and
clapping along to the music as it went.
As time went on though, Ethan got a little bored just
listening to music. Instead, he desired to be more of an active part of what
was happening. As I hadn't bought my son a ticket, he couldn't actually play on
the trampolines. However, that didn't stop him from cheering on his sister. In
fact, during quite a few of her daredevil jumps onto the airbag, Ethan was standing
there, hands on the jump point, gleefully looking up at Ellie as she prepared
for her next stunt. He would even follow her with his eyes as she executed said
stunt, laughing happily as she crashed into the airbag below.
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| Ellie? What are you doing up there? |
Unfortunately for all of us, our hour at Above All came and
went a little too quickly. Lucky for Ellie, she has plenty more opportunities
ahead of her for similar experiences in her future career as a professional
stunt woman. You can expect to see her
in whatever the inevitable summer Marvel movie is in 2041. She'll be the one
diving off the impossibly high structure, gleefully defying death all the way
down. #DaddyWrite
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