I had a fantabulous idea of going somewhere yesterday since it was a little chilly, looked like it might rain, and we needed to get out of the house. So I went on the jolly old internet and found something in Woodbury called the Lookout Ridge Indoor Playground. It was $5.33 per child to get in, but it was for unlimited time. And by God, we played and played and played until it hurt to move. But let me back track a little bit to the beginning.
When we first walked in, to the right was the whole Huck Finn type set up. To the right were two rows of chairs, and then some tables set up. Every single parent/grandparent that were sitting there, looked like they were waiting at the DMV for hours. Seriously. No expressions, no talking, no nothing. I looked at the guy who we paid and I said, "All they always like this?" He said yes. Man, not us! We were going to have fun at this place. When we first got there, we only had about 6-10 other kids there with us. Perfect. And no one over 12 is supposed to be in there and I think that was followed for the most part.
Anyway, we jumped right in. I took the girls up the little rock wall thing to go down the slide, not knowing that a little boy was right behind me and ended up sliding into my neck. We were off to a rough start, but the girls were having a blast.
Dion and I would do tag teaming with the girls, so we both ended up running around a lot. I think we motivated some parents though, because then I started to see parents going in and doing the goofy things we were doing. I ran into a dad, who informed me that the set up was kind of hard to do as an adult, and he was right. The girls loved going into the bouncy area, but as time went by, older kids started coming the the park. Now, on the bouncy thing, there are rules of, no flips, no climbing on the netting, no jumping from the entrance, and no one over 47 inches. There were some kids in there who were doing all of those things, knocking down kids, including mine. So I walked up to the netting and said,"
"I am pretty sure you are not supposed to be doing flips, and I KNOW you are taller than 47 inches."
Their response? "Yeah, but it's fun."
Nice parenting, folks. I loved how some of the parents just sat there, I suppose trying to keep the drool from falling from their mouths, or maybe contemplating how they can run the world, or maybe both. But I will say that the bigger kids came out of the bouncy thing after that and were careful if they went back in. I was ok with that, as long as my kids weren't getting hurt.
I went around the corner and saw Dion standing there with a look on his face and he tells me that he went around the corner and saw a kid putting Nadia into a head lock type of thing, but he wasn't sure if it was intentional, or how they came down the slide. Mental note: keep an eye on The Little Crap With a Red Shirt (to be called TLCWARS from here on out. Interesting what the acronyms spell).
Nadia decided to go back into the bouncy and TLCWARS is in there too. I stand on the outside watching, and TLCWARS has a look in his eye, and tends to bounce pretty close to Nadia. He was watching to see if I was watching the whole time. I pretend to turn around and walk away, and do a quick spin in time to see him bounce right at Nadia's feet, trying to knock her over. I walk up to the net and say/kind of yell the following,
"Hey! Are you trying to knock my kid down?!?"
He stopped, luckily for him. I had Nadia come out and we went to another area of the park. Time passes, and I am now with Claire running around. She has made a friend with this little boy who kind of looks like Urkle, but they're having fun, running around playing. They go into this one area that as a parent, you have to go into the whole Huck Finn structure, around a tree, and through some rock wall type things to see the area that your child has just gone. I did that and saw Claire playing with Urkle. I went back out because she looked like she was coming out. I waited. Nothing, so I go back through in time to see TLCWARS with his hands covering Claire's mouth, and Claire struggling. Oh, the gloves came off. I didn't kind of yell, I yelled.
"HEY! Keep your hands off of my kid!!!"
He dropped his hands and I went up to the mesh and put my face as close as I could to him.
"Do you understand me? You stay away from my kids!"
He looked at me.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!?!?"
He nodded. I have never felt anger quite like that. This kid was probably 5, but I didn't care. You don't come between a kid and their mother, you will suffer. I wanted to pull TLCWARS out of the structure and find who he belongs too, but that probably would have landed me in jail or gotten a lawsuit slapped on me. Man was I mad! Unfortunately, Urkle started to play with TLCWARS, so Claire couldn't play with him anymore. She did alright with that because TLCWARS really scared her.
Well, besides Mama Bear having to make an appearance, the place was awesome. I don't think a lot of people know about it since it was never really packed with kids like Chuck E Cheese gets, which was nice, and you had to be under 12 to play, which was even better. There were no games to play, which meant the only extra money we spent was on crackers, sodas, and juice. So, if you have a kid and come to visit, maybe we can make the little roadtrip to Woodbury and do some serious playing. Or we could sit and pretend that we are at the DMV, since it seems like that was the thing to do if you were a parent. Nah. You can't hold me down......
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