The Monkey One!

That's what Mac and Corrie call their new favorite place to give Mommy a heart attack (otherwise known as Monkey Joe's). Just picture a huge warehouse full of the biggest moon bounces you have ever seen, mostly (in my opinion) completely dangerous, and you will have an idea about what this place is like. Oh - and don't forget to picture the 20-foot-tall purple inflatable monkey that greets you at the entrance! (How does that not scare the kids to death?)

Add to that the fact that I can hardly keep up with them running around all over the place, only to finally find them up on one of the giant slides and about to take a heart-attack giving plunge. I did actually have to climb in a few of those things to either mediate an argument or drag one of them out for my own sanity (I just couldn't watch them trying to go down some of those huge slides or nearly get trampled by bigger kids around them).

And that is another picture I can paint for your imagination: me, in one of those things, trying to walk on the most unstable ground possible with a huge pregnant belly and surrounded by sweaty hot kids while trying to catch two wild little ones. And just for the record, getting in an out of those things is the most humbling experience. The "ramps" to get in and out are actually inflated. Most kids end up flying and tumbling down them only to skid across the carpet on their faces!

I am sure you can understand why I literally had Mac and Corrie hold hands with me before we exited our car while we prayed (fervently) for God's protection.

To keep from making a short story even longer, here are pictures and videos of our time. God did keep us all safe and the kids had an absolute blast. Thank you Lord, for loving us and giving us so much fun. I can say that now...it was fun :-)

Mac getting ready to go down the "Pirate Ship" slide

 Does this look fun to you? Apparently, Corrie thinks it is fun enough to do over and over again. 

A video of the "baby/toddler" slide. Totally safe and harmless! I will definitely be sending Baby Long down this one right along with the other 10 kids that get piled up at the bottom.

Here's one of the bigger slides. Thankfully I was able to recruit some help to supervise Mac and Corrie to slide down with them (thanks Hannah!) A few minutes later I looked up to see Corrie flying solo down this slide with her hair flapping wildly in the wind. Hannah came down a little bit later. I think Hannah saw the look on my face and said, "I don't know what happened - she jumped right out of my arms!"

Lastly, here is one of the times that I dragged myself up the saggy, inflated ramp to get inside the big purple moon bounce. The ladder to get up to the top is super steep, and the slide itself is practically vertical...like sliding down a wall! After helping Corrie go down a few times, I realized it looked a lot worse than it was, and decided to get a video of it. Corrie, you are a fearless little one! Mac wouldn't even go on this one until he saw Corrie doing it first.