Jungle Jim's on a cold day. And pumpkin time

We came back from New York on a Sunday to 80 degree weather.  The kids had even gone swimming at Aunt Tiffany's over the weekend.  Then on Thursday I measured 2 inches of snow on my back deck.  Yes, this is Utah.  So I quickly tossed out all the very summery clothes, leaving some mid-temperature clothes as it's going to return to 70 this coming weekend, and added the long sleeves and pants.  This past Friday the snow was gone, but it was still a bit cold outside.  Well, not that cold in comparison to what it will be in a couple months, but when the weather drops 30 degrees in a matter of days I feel 50 is FREEZING.  So we opted for an inside Friday fun day activity.

We pulled into Jungle Jim's around 2:00, as it's Spencer's early day.  I had an Entertainment book coupon for buy one get one free, but I noticed on their website they also had this deal for any weekday before 2:30 p.m.  I don't know if they always have this deal or if it changes, but I went ahead with my coupon since it expires at the end of this month anyhow.  It's like $9 per kid, except kids under 2 years are only $6.  And adults don't have to pay.  If your kid is small enough to need you to accompany them on a ride, they'll still let you go.  Friday fun days are getting more expensive as the kids get older.

So we first headed to the carousel.  Clara LOVES riding on the carousels.  I remember when Spencer was little and he was scared to death of these.  Not surprising if you know my cautious kid.  I think he was probably 4 years old before he would actually ride one without screaming in fear.  Tessa always seemed fine with them, but she didn't LOVE them the way Clara does.  Maybe Clara just gets more exposure to them being the 3rd.  In any case, we went on this ride the most--4 times while we were there.

Then we went to the large swing.  The two older kids went to a swing and I kept Clara back since I couldn't exactly swing with her.  But she was squirming, kicking, and screaming.  I asked the kid working it how fast the swings went, and he said very slow so I decided to let her go.  I was so scared the whole time.  It did go slow enough that they hardly even pushed out, but I could still imagine Clara slipping down and tipping out.  She didn't and she loved it.  I didn't really look at the other kids to see if they loved it, nor did I take a picture, as I was too focused on Clara staying sitting the whole time.  The kids did talk me into letting them swing one more time and I was just as frightened.  Then we went to the little spinning things (like Disneyland teacups).  I was definitely riding with Clara on this one and Tessa decided to come in our little spinner too.  Spencer went in his own.  The lady who worked there spun each one as they went around.  Spencer liked his spinning fast but I used Clara as my excuse for spinning slow (really I get motion sick so easy that it didn't matter if Clara was in there or not).  The kids said they loved this ride but we only went back on it one more time.

 

From here we skipped over to the airplane ride.  The first time we went on it the two older kids each had their own airplane and I shared with Clara.  This ride was definitely built for a kid and I had a hard time fitting my legs in the airplane.  And I'm barely taller than a "kid" at 5'2".  So the kids of course love this ride and the first time they just kept the joystick pulled back so they flew high the whole time.  The second time they went up and down more, but by then Clara had caught on that the joystick controlled it so she held on and screamed if I tried to touch it.  But she didn't understand pulling it back so we stayed low the whole time.  The third time we went it was more crowded so the older kids were planning on flying together but the seatbelt had broken so they had tied it together and therefore it was too tight that it barely closed with just itty bitty Tessa in it so Spencer had to go ride in the last one, that wasn't a color he wanted.  But I think he forgot by the time he was flying again.

Then we headed over to the Jeep Safari.  I felt okay having Clara ride with Spencer, telling him to make sure she remained sitting.  The jeeps really moved so slowly that I felt even if Clara managed to get out, she would be able to climb out rather than fall.  The second time we came here the guy couldn't get it to work so I had to pull my kids out of the jeeps.  We later saw them moving just fine so we ended up going a third time, letting Clara ride with Tessa this time.  It looked like she thought about getting out a couple times, but she managed to remain in the jeep.

After the jeeps the kid headed to the playground.  Spencer seemed to really enjoy climbing up and all around and sliding down the slides.  Tessa kind of meandered about, not too excited but still enjoying herself.  Clara couldn't really get anywhere.  I put her inside one of the areas and she just kept getting stuck in the netting as her feet were small enough to go right through the squares.  So I put her in another area that was kind of bouncy like a really weak trampoline.  She just kind of rolled around every time someone would step on the ground.  So I took her out.  Then the big kids went in the bumper cars.  I didn't feel like taking Clara on that one as the cars looked quite small (if Tessa could drive them they had to be small).  So I tried to pacify Clara while I laughed my head off at the other kids.  Spencer could drive it pretty well but seemed to only have one goal in mind--to bump Tessa.  Tessa kept her foot pressed all the way down but either had the wheel turned all the way and held it so she just kept spinning in a circle, or did the back and forth deal where she would zig zag around.  She must have had one major headache after that ride, but she was smiling and laughing as much as Spencer.  I think I laughed the most--it was really funny to watch them.  We ended up coming back one more time when it was crowded and Spencer had a harder time finding her to crash into and Tessa kept getting stuck against the guardrails and didn't know how to get out.

I think after the first bumper car ride we repeated the airplane and carousel before taking an arcade break.  Then the kids went for the roller coaster.  It's the kind that spins around and pushes you to the outside of the car.  Once again I get motion sick.  I rode this with the kids the first time we came here, about 3 years ago, and I still remember how sick I felt.  So I sent the two older kids together and I held Clara back.  They LOVED it.  At first you could see the surprise on their face at the speed, but they smiled and laughed the whole time.  After it goes forward a few times, it stops and goes backwards.  The kids ended up doing this one twice.

There are 7 rides and the climbing/sliding playground.  There are also arcade games that take a token that costs a quarter.  Some of them are out of order or don't give you tickets.  In any case, you can only ride the same 7 rides so many times before getting sick of them even though the wristband is for all day.  So we also had to buy $5 of tokens and ended up with enough tickets to get the kids each a sucker and a few small toys (that I refer to as choking hazards that will be treasured dearly for a few days, then forgotten and thrown away).  Clara thoroughly enjoyed her sucker.

And a couple hours was plenty of time.  Being indoors and having as much fun as they did in these 2 hours makes Jungle Jim's a once a year with a coupon place for us.

On Saturday we headed to Farnsworth Farms to let the kids choose pumpkins and so that we could buy some peaches to bottle.  What would you know, the kids thought the playground was the funnest part.  Oh how I wish we had one in our backyard...

When it came to choosing pumpkins Spencer chose quite a small one.  I think he wanted one he could carry by himself.  But they do enjoy choosing pumpkins off the ground rather than out of a box.  They wanted to carve them immediately and were disappointed when I told them they'd have to wait to do that project.