This has been a long winter, and it’s barely even begun. The short days and weather make it nearly impossible to do anything outside. Bryce stands at the sliding door and screams to go play on the screened-in porch or outside, neither of which are feasible in western Pennsylvania in the winter. Landon has as much energy as you’d expect a bored preschooler to have.

Trampoline parks are a welcome new thing (at least since my childhood) and Landon loves bouncing. Jumping is such a fun way to expend a lot of energy in a short amount of time. We’ve been to a couple birthday parties at local trampoline parks and met a new friend a few weekends ago at yet another one.

Fortunately, there’s one pretty close to our house, which is one of our two preferred trampoline parks. We’re currently in the midst of a one-month membership so we can go there every day if we wanted (he does) and if the schedule allowed (it doesn’t).

One of the best things is watching Landon’s confidence grow. One section is like a giant bounce house and includes an area you climb and you can either take an inflatable slide down or jump off a “cliff” and land on a big inflatable poof. Landon must’ve gone down the slide at least a dozen times before he considered jumping. He went from sitting on the edge and slipping off and down to full-on launching himself off and doing a belly flop.

Another part of that bounce house section has three giant green balls kids jump to. The first time, he jumped to the first one and slid off. After only a few more tries, he got across all of them to the other side!

He also doesn’t like jumping with me only watching, so I jumped with him for two hours. I consider myself to be in reasonably good shape, and it left me winded and tired. I’m also very glad to have two littles who will enjoy the trampoline park for years and I’ll have a ready-made excuse to continue to jump myself! It’s almost as much fun for adults as for kids.

When Landon and I were leaving, he exclaimed to me it was “so much funner than I remember!” The editor in me cringed at his use of language, but I squashed it down and myself as a mom and person enthusiastically agreed it was a “very fun” afternoon.