Leap Frogs

We recently took the boys to one of these converted warehouses that are wall-to-wall-to-ceiling inflatable giants. I don't remember the occasion, a weekend or rainy day, etc., but it was packed full of kids. For the first 15 minutes the boys stood around in awe at the vinyl monoliths and hoards of people. They first resigned themselves to playing it safe and confining themselves to the toy area with kitchens, workbenches, push toys, and the like. It was not until daddy got his shoes off and had to get into the inflatable with them that they perked up.

With their affinity for slides, we knew that they would like these if we could only get them to the top. These things were 20 feet in the air and we knew that they were not going to be able to climb the little inflatable rungs up by themselves. So, daddy had to carry one up at a time under his arm and navigate the slick stairs in only his socks. Good exercise carrying 30 pounds of furious thunder under one arm on unstable surfaces. Just as we thought, they took to it like fish to water after their first descent.

Wyatt, of course, wanted to go down on his belly. Parks wanted to go to higher and higher slides. Wyatt thought it would be fun to go down not on the slide area but on the ladder rungs, tumbling down like a tumble weed or coin being flipped. Parks would run at ramming speed into the corner pillars of the bounce house and then look like a blond projectile into the center of the ring. Here are some pictures we took of the day when we were not fearing for their lives or concussions.