Maybe I Have a Concussion...

... a.k.a: This Is What Happens When You Burn The Candle At Both Ends

...a.a.k.a: Fun Things To Do In McHenry County In Winter


Oh, I have a headache. I've had 6 Excedrin so far in this 24 hour period. I had a little bit of it last night when I went to bed, but then it came back with prejudice at 1241 this morning.

At that point, I realized it was a migraine, whereas when I went to bed, I thought, "it's probably just a concussion."

Which bring me to my first fun thing to do in McHenry County (not necessarily in order of experience)
1) A warehouse full of moon jumps
This particular one is called Bounces R Us (in Richmond) and we went for the 3rd birthday party of one of the kids. I had forgotten, a little, how much fun moon jumps were. The kids had such a good time!

I had also forgotten how much enjoyment 8-10 adults can have when they really should be setting a better example. We tried out several of the jumps, including getting a lot of enjoyment out of seeing which of the boys could make it over the hill on the Spiderman jump (heave...heave...). Also enjoyable? Seeing 2 men dashed to the ground when the inflatable side of the jump suddenly collapses.

My favorite, however, was the fire truck. At least I think it was a fire truck. When you're bouncing around upside down on the inside of something, sometimes it's hard to tell. Anyway, it consisted of a port in the side for entering (or being thrown thru, which was also enjoyable), a landing zone, a stairway of sorts (which was really hard to scale--especially while carrying a 4 year old on one's back), and a giant slide.

Now, it was pretty fun to just slide down the slide, but it's even funner to race up the ladder and then cannonball down the slide, seeing how many times you can "skip" yourself before coming to a crashing halt upsidedown in the pile of laughing people sitting at the bottom, having moonjumpburn not only on your exposed elbows, but also on your ribcage. And maybe your face.

Sniff, I miss my college days.

2) Another fun thing to do in the McH in winter is this: DANCE LESSONS!
Dave got me private dance lessons for me for a Xmas present, partly b/c I love to dance, but also b/c I delight in picking on him for the frowny dance face he makes.

Our lessons were Sat am and I picked swing and salsa. I already love swing dancing, so that was all good already. The salsa was fun too! Dave hardly made any dance face at all!

Here's the contact info if you want to try it out. They also teach group lessons at some of the local park districts and some dance studios. So fun!

Frank and Jackie Penze (professional ballroom dance [and other dances] instructors): dancelessons@dancefoxvalley.org

3) All skate, change directions!
If you know what that means, then you and I are near the same age! And you, like I, spent some of your childhood in the roller rink. On Saturday afternoon, I went with an adult birthday party crowd to the roller rink in McHenry.

Since it was a 31 Going On 13 party, we were all dressed in our 13-year-old finery.
Most of us didn't fall (although there was one broken wrist--Michelle's aunt--hope she recovers quickly!).

The rink is as standardly grimy as I always remember them being, sighhh, and the snack bar served chips with that great orange cheesy goo. Ahhh, nostalgia...

http://www.justforfunrollerrink.com/months/january/januaryindex.htm