AirWalk ... a true adventure!

Last week, we took the kids out to a new trampoline place called AirWalk.

Ever heard of it? It's new to Birmingham, and I'd seen some of my friends buzzing about it on Facebook. But of course since it involves physical activity, mild-to-moderate risk and -- on Family Night -- admits families for a single flat fee, I made a reservation as soon as I could.

You have to sign a thousand-word waiver before you set foot on the floor, and there are three large signs in the waiting area that cover about 45 ways in which you can be injured (or experience "paralysis or death").

 Nevertheless, we are a fearless people, and we forged on.

If I told you that getting the boys to hold still for these two pictures before they got to jump into the fray was harder than getting through labor without an epidural, would you believe me?

I regret to say that one member of our family was not as impressed with the facility.

I think she was just tired ... it was a Monday evening, and we'd all had a long day. I'm sure the boys were running on pure adrenaline, but Amelia and I ... we were running on fumes. I wish she'd been able to appreciate it more, because it really is a cool place!

It took Jake a while to get the hang of it, but he really enjoyed jumping off the walls onto the trampoline squares.

He was so proud when he was finally able to do it without falling down.

Each square is big enough for more than one person to jump, so Nathaniel took some time to jump with Jake. I did, too, and I was able to double-bounce him really high!

Nathaniel was able to get some serious air on his own.

This big, open trampoline area was great for families ... here's a short video of Grayson jumping with Jake and Nathaniel:

At the end of the floor, can you see that basketball goal?

Here's a guy dunking a basketball into it!

We saw people doing all sorts of crazy, daredevil things ... there was one guy who did about 15 or 20 backflips in a row, and then he was so dizzy that he fell down. Grayson had to give him a hand to help him up, but even then, he sort of stumbled his way off the mats.

At one point, I was trying to get a video of Nathaniel doing a flip, but instead I caught this guy climbing a bag hanging from the ceiling and then dropping onto his back from about 20 feet in the air. (Amelia seemed to be freaked out while we were watching him; I don't know if she was scared he was going to get hurt or what, but sorry for her fussiness in the audio.)




I never did get Nathaniel doing a flip because people kept getting between him and my camera, but from a different vantage point, I was able to get some pictures of Nick:

Lest you think that the only thing they did while we were there was jump on that trampoline grid -- oh noooooooo. That's only half of the facility! To the right of the grid is a huge foam pit with platforms and trampolines that you use to bounce as high as you can into the foam. (Bonus points if you can find Nathaniel.)

Even Unimpressed McKayla Maroney down there was interested enough to climb up and take a look.

The boys jumped and flipped into the foam pit until they were so tired they couldn't climb out of the foam blocks on their own anymore.

Not to imply that at that point, they were ready to go home. No, at that point, they just decided to move on over to the dodgeball arena.

The big kids and adults were really nice to Jake in there and didn't ever knock him out; they just let him throw balls at them and sort of be the unofficial Ball Boy, running around and picking up balls as they flew by.

We had a really fun evening and would love to go back on a weekend ... sometime when we have more than 10 hours to recover before heading back to work and school. If you have an AirWalk in your area, we highly recommend it -- even if you're adults who don't have kids yet! There was a group of mid-20s adults there for a birthday party, and the guys in the group said it was "the most fun they'd ever had." High praise!

*This is not a sponsored post. It's just something we really enjoyed!*