Monkey Joes - North Carolina Day 2 and 3

Sunday was another beautiful day - super warm, sunny and a great day to spend outside.  We headed out for breakfast at the Farmer's Market and then went for a walk though the stalls.  I loved it and while I am pretty sure I didn't eat as many samples as someone else did when she went (can you guess who?), I probably came pretty close.  We ended up buying some fudge (ate almost all of it by myself), some local jelly, fresh lemonade and a delicious local peach/mango salsa which I planned to eat as soon as we got home from North Carolina (unfortunately I was a dope and tried to carry it home in my carry-on so it wouldn't get smashed and it got confiscated for having too much liquid).  After the Farmers market, we went to the flea market and started to head back home when Ryan reminded us that we were going to go to Monkey Joes, a place he knew nothing about other than that Erika's kindergarten kids like to go there.   We decided to drop Jay and Richie off at home and Erika and I took the boys.

In case you can't tell by the picture, Monkey Joe's is basically an indoor collection of bounce houses, slides and mazes: In other words, paradise for my boys.  They could not get their shoes off fast enough and Ryan kept telling Dylan "follow me, follow me, I will show you what to do"  haha.

What first caught my eye was how high some of the slides went and wondered how Dylan would be able to do them.  I don't know how high the ceiling went in the building but the highest slide hit it and you can see that in the background of some of the pictures. 

Ryan did a great job navigating all of the ladders and climbing hills but Dylan was a little intimidated at first I think and some were pretty hard for him.  Erika and I both took turns helping Dylan through the mazes etc.  but soon enough, Dylan was wanting to do it himself.

 

I know Erika will agree with me when I say we got quite a workout and so did the boys.  They were dripping by the end and so were we.

There were a couple of birthday parties that day and Monkey Joe was on site to help those kids celebrate.  I think Ryan and Dylan thought that he was there for them though (especially Dylan) and they followed him around holding his hand.  

The kids didn't put too much of a fight when we left, I think probably because they were exhausted.  Guess they had a great time though because when we were going to bed, Ryan asked "Can we go to Monkey Joes again tomorrow?"  Guess we need to add Monkey Joes to the Must Do in NC list too.

(for full enjoyment, you should click on the pictures and enlarge them - some of the faces on the kids are hilarious and you will be better able to see what a fun time they had)

After Monkey Joes, we went back to Erika and Richie's house.  It was still light out so we hung out first on their porch, and then moved to the back yard so the kids could play and the adults could relax.

Erika and Richie: Thank you so much for a fantastic weekend.  You came up with such fun things for us to do and we can't wait to visit you again.   We love you so much and miss you already!