Breakfast + Climb Zone

We woke up with very loose plans for breakfast and nothing else for the day. The two youngest kids, Tony and I headed to IHOP around 830am and as worried as we were that the kids wouldn’t eat anything, we were wrong and they were great. They both go through these silly phases where they’ll eat something and love it then they won’t touch it again. It’s confusing. So, I just let them pick what they wanted off the menu and for once, they both ate pretty well.

After breakfast we went back home to drag Landon out of bed and figure out what we were gong to do for the rest of the day. I gave Tony a pass for rock climbing this Christmas and when he pulled it out, a plan was born. No sooner had we decided to go rock climbing when Zoe texted me that they were going to pick up their new kitten. So, now we HAD to make a trip out to see her and the new kitty as well! (Good thing we didn’t have other plans because this day just got real busy!)

The place we went rock climbing was called Climb Zone and it was super cool. There were all kinds of walls to climb and they certainly weren’t your run of the mill gray with colored stones…

Every rock wall had some sort of art on it. There was a dinosaur bone wall, one that looked like a bookshelf, Mt. Rushmore, The Statue of Liberty and one made out of soccer balls to name a few. The kids were so excited to get started and after filling out waivers and getting their gear on, they were off! (When you first go in they give you a brief instruction on how to use the equipment. Each portion of wall has a rope tethered to the ground that you can just hook your belt on so that no one has to know how to belay for you to climb. It’s nice that it’s done that way and gives kids a ton of freedom when choosing where to climb.)

Harper giving it a go on the practice wall. He looks so scared, poor guy.

Landon tried the jellyfish wall first. It was tough!

Harper and Landon decided to try the King Kong wall. It looked easy because it had a lot of squares, but it proved more challenging than it appeared. Landon made it to the top, and Harper did pretty good for a four year old!

Initially, Dakota was very hesitant, but once she saw how much fun everyone else was having, she was ready to get in on the action. She didn’t really climb anything, she kind of had Tony push her up a little and then she floated down. She was happy, so whatever.

Tony couldn’t wait to get up on the walls either, so once the kids had had a turn, up he went!

And, because there is nothing more fun than racing, Tony and Landon raced up Abraham Lincoln…and Tony won this time!

Here’s that soccer ball wall I talked about:

And, the bookcase:

Besides climbing rock walls, there was a large moon bounce and two bouncy slides for the kids to play on. There was also a play area for kids under three, and Dakota enjoyed playing in there for a bit while the boys finished up their last climbs.

When Harper got tired, he joined Dakota in the little kid area.

It was such a fun day I know we’ll be back!

This post ended up being pretty long, so I’ll post about Zoe’s kitty later.