"The Aftermath..."

Well, Christmas has swept by us in a haze of wrapping paper and gifts, and now...now, we need a day off to get ourselves back to normal. And what better way to spend a day off than in the one place we never seem to get out to enough...Grapevine Mills Mall! They have two really fun things there that cost a little moolah but I thought the kids deserved it for working so hard in school. First we had some lunch:



Emmy of course got a Charley's sub. I don't think she's gotten anything different in like forever. Hey, when you know what you want, don't fix it if it ain't broke. Zach and I got Sonic, cuz...we like Sonic.



A carousel ride! Emmy is like me and just wants to chill but Zach got on the spinny wheel with some other kids and almost made it jump off the track! Well, not really. But he was pretty dizzy when he got off. This is what people look like thru our camera when they're in motion. You'll see more of it later I'm sure.



Zach: "Um, this is awfully tight around my waist...is it supposed to be cutting off my circulation?"

Me: "Hmm...I'm not sure...you may want to ask a supervisor."

Zach: "You mean the old Korean lady eating behind the cash register?"

Me: "Exactly. And be sure to call her ma'am."



Ya see? Zach is disappearing from existence! It was kind of hard to take pictures of him when he's bouncing all over the place. But he had a blast leaping high up into the sky on the space jump. Here's a video of him doing it too:



I think it's more breathtaking than fun when you're seven years old, but he really enjoyed it.

Did Emmy do the space jump too? You betcha.



Again...disappearing from time and space.

Next stop...water balls!

What?

They're these gigantic inflatable beach balls that kids can get in and jump around on a pool of water. It's all the fun of swimming and none of the drowning and inhaled pool water:



Man that looks like fun...if you don't get seasick easily or motion sickness. If you do...better to avoid these.



Is someone tired? You betcha. I wish my kids could drive me around while I slept in the back seat. One day...one day.

But wait, the fun isn't over yet! After we left the mall we stopped by one of our favourite haunts:



Starbucks!! Zach got a snowman cookie and Emmy got a marshmallow square. Fine choices one and all.

New Years' Eve came around and the Barkers were nice enough to bring over some sparklers and other exploding things:



Jerramy: "Oh geez! How come no one told me these things were so hot??!! Ouch!!"

Ahh, good times...

It's always nice to take time off from work and do all the things I never have the time to do. Whoever said time was a valuable commodity really hit it on the head. I know the day is coming when the kids will be on their own. Hopefully I have enough hobbies and friends to make each day better than the one before. It's a shame we can't do more sometimes.