Friday, April 10, 2009

Jungle Joe's


Jungle Joe's in Kalamazoo is filled with wall-to-wall giant inflatables. It is kid paradise.


To celebrate Gabe's last day of Spring Break, (well, his last WEEKDAY of spring break) I took the kids to Jungle Joe's in Kalamazoo today. It was about a 40-minute drive, so it wasn't too bad, and I didn't tell the kids where we were going.
When we walked into the building and the boys saw what was waiting for them, they just about peed their pants, they were so excited! And I'm not joking! (especially when they saw the shark...)
For $20, all four of us were able to bounce and play for 90 minutes, which was MORE than enough time to wear them out. Gabe and Asher stuck together while I followed Rhy all around.
And let me tell ya ... this place was a great confidence builder for Asher AND Rhylah! When we first started, some of the really steep climbs were too hard for Ash, who couldn't get a handhold and would fall down, only to get frustrated. But within minutes, he was back up and trying again, simply because he wanted to keep up with Gabriel THAT badly. And he managed it!
By the time we left, he was brave enough to try climbing up the TALLEST slide and when he got to the bottom, he was SOOOOO proud of himself!
Rhylah was fearless. That girl would bounce off a two-story slide into thin air if I let her. I got plenty tired out chasing her around. We even went down one of the big slides together, with her on my lap. She loooooooved it!
Afterward, we got happy meals and headed home. I put the youngest two down for naps, and they fell asleep as soon as their little heads hit the pillows. I think they might sleep straight thru till church tonight!
What a blast!!


Asher is thrilled to be bouncing all on his own. Check out that mega-watt smile!


Rhy climbs through a tunnel.


Hey Rhylah, watch out for that shark!!


I snapped this overview from the top of one of the inflatables. There were about 10 of them altogether ... they even had a little play area for younger kids... although Rhy quickly decided that it was beneath her dignity to hang with the babies. She wanted to play with the big kids! In the very back, you can see the ginormous big blue slide that Asher conquered at the end of our time there ... it was his Everest!


The three kiddos try to climb.


Asher and Gabe had SUCH a blast!

3 comments:

Cassie said...

Wow! What a great thing to have near you! I LOVE Asher's "mega-watt smile"! When you are home next, you should try Skyzone! Rachael just LOVES it! They have a website...www.skyzone.com...(?)

Cassie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DawnK said...

What a cool place. My kids would have loved it, too! When mine were little, we went to a place called discovery zone, that had mazes, tunnels, slides, etc. They would run until they were exhausted, too. We were sad, when it closed. You'll be going there again! That's so cool, that you were able to keep it a surprise.