Tons of Fun!

I would guess that is how Parker would have described this past Monday.  I was determined for my little boy to see Santa Claus, even though the closest mall is an hour away.  Luckily we needed a few items at Home Depot, so Greg was able to be persuaded to go on a day trip.  First, we had a delicious lunch at Cheddars.  We sat right under neath the cool big fan that seems to be the trademark at any of the Cheddars I've ever ate at.  Parker saw it and said, "Ohhhh!"  Our table also happened to be near a big fish tank.  Parker was fascinated by all the fish and was constantly leaning over in his high chair so he could see them. 

After our yummy lunch we headed over to Home Depot to get the few items we needed.  From there we were off to the mall!  I didn't have plans to do any shopping, I really just wanted Parker to see Santa and that was all.  We arrived at the Santa station a little after 1:00, only to find a sign that read, "Santa will be feeding the reindeer's from 1-2:30.  That didn't go over too well with Greg.  He instantly began naming off all the things he could be doing instead of walking around a mall.  I suggested that we just walk around and see what stores were in the mall to kill some time.  Sadly, there are not many stores in that mall at all, but we did come across one "store" that caught our interest. 

It was one of those kids arcade type places.  The bonus was that they had a huge room full of several different inflatable bounce houses (the kind I always hated when I was little).  Greg instantly turned into a kid again and said, "I don't mind killing some time in there.  Parker will have fun in the bounce houses."  We asked how much it cost to get in and were stoked when we found out that kids under 2 were half price, and adults got in for free.

Parker hadn't had a nap yet (and this is the kid I keep on a tight schedule, so being up at 1:30 with no nap is not normal for him!) so when we first placed him in a bounce house and Greg and I jumped up and down he looked at us like we were crazy.  That is, until Greg took him down a big inflatable slide!

Look at that smile!

From there, it was game on!  We ran, jumped, climbed, and went down lots of slides.  They had one of those big jungle gym type things that you see at Chuck-E-Cheese's.  Basically there is a lot of climbing and crawling to finally get to a big slide.  We did that several times.  Obviously I wouldn't let Parker do it be his self, so either Greg or I would be in the lead, then Parker would be in the middle, and the other adult would bring up the rear to help push Parker up if he needed a boost.



He loved climbing!  This is when he was getting tired and needed some help from daddy.

After climbing on the jungle gym for what seemed like hours (but in reality was only about 30 minutes) we went back to tackle the bounce houses again.  We found one with an itty bitty steep slide in it and Parker LOVED it!  Greg and I would take turns as to who would be at the bottom of the slide so we could each see his huge smile.  Once he would reach the bottom he was instantly signing "again" and we were more than happy to accommodate! 

Towards the end we showed him that not only could he slide in the bounce house, but that he could JUMP!  Parker has never tried to jump at home, but he did great in the bounce house!



Look at that grin!  PRICELESS!

We left shortly after so Parker could see Santa.  We were tired, happy, and agreed that it was by far the best $4.00 we've probably ever spent!  It's safe to say that we'll be going back.

By the time Parker got to sit on Santa's lap, he was one tired little boy. And rightfully so, since it was 3:30!

So tired he could barely keep his eyes open!

I actually expected him to cry when we sat him on Santa's lap since he was so tired.  The picture that I was given to take home with us has him looking at the camera, but he looks totally spaced out!  I'm OK with it, though!
 

                                                              MERRY CHRISTMAS!