Summer Fun and We're Not Done!!

Locally, there is a grandpa who felt there was a need for a fun place that his granddaughter Elise could go to and have some summer fun.  Beaumont is called the City of Museums, which I think is a great educational idea.  But for some family friendly fun, we have to drive to Houston.  Nutty Jerry, as he is known, built an indoor amusement area in Winnie (about 25 minutes from Beaumont).  He named the place "Elise's Place".  A friend of mine had taken her 8 grandchildren there and raved about how inexpensive the adventure was and all there was for the grandkids to do.   We decided to give it a try and headed there on Gabi's official 7th birthday.  I, the grandma, went with Shannon, little Kyle and Sophia, Maren, Braydon, and Isabella, and the birthday girl, Gabi.  

I took an overage of pictures and promise you that I have not posted all of them in this blog post.  There are no videos because I still can't figure out how to upload them in this new blogger program.  

Gabi is our little Diva and we are pretty sure that Isabella is following in Gabi's footsteps.  Here is Isabella with her hair all done and showing me how great she looks.  Next time I need to get a picture of her when she poses.  This is one little girl who absolutely cracks me up.

Here is our other photogenic, yes you can take my picture, grandchild.  Little Kyle would go inside this jumping place, turn around and come out the door to slide down this little slide.  Then he would repeat the same thing over and over again.  We had fun watching him.

 Elise's place has probably 6 or 7 of these blown up jumping and climbing areas.  Gabi and Braydon were actually sweating when they would come off of one of these.  It was a lot of work.  Here Gabi is trying to pull herself up with the rope to get over the wall.

 Braydon has his Uncle Marshall's genes and does not like heights.  However, I think when he played on this bouncing contraption he didn't realize how high he was.

 Gabi is a great climber and has an amazing amount of strength.  She may be a Diva, but that girl can give the boys a run for their money when it comes to strength contests.

 Sophia loved this place.  She stayed bundled up in this swaddling wrap until she finally woke up.  I know you might think that this looks very uncomfortable, but Sophia loves it.

 Maren was the best mom and aunt.  You can't see her, but she is in the back seat of this fire truck with Isabella and little Kyle.

 Doesn't Maren look thrilled?  Although, Gabi, Kyle and Isabella don't look too thrilled either.  They didn't want to wait any longer for the train to start.

 And around and around they go.

 Isabella totally amazed us.  That little two year old went on this bungee jump and actually jumped on this thing for about 5 minutes.  And, she loved every minute of the 5 minutes.

 I had to sacrifice (oh poor me) and hold Sophia so Shannon could have some fun with Kyle on the train.

This actually is Isabella's second time on the bungee jumper.  She was so funny to watch.

 This is Gabi and I wish so much the video worked because she was doing flips.

 This was so good, I posted it twice (sounds like a good excuse for messing up)

 Time for Shannon and Kyle to ride the fire truck.

 Don't they look tough?

 Gabi was the only one who went on the roller coaster.  Braydon and his fear of heights kept him off of it, and Isabella and little Kyle were too small to ride.

More climbing fun

 Gabi and Braydon loved driving these carts.  What was so great about our adventure at Elise's Place was the admission fee.  Each child was $15 to get in and the adults got in free.  We weren't allow to play golf, bowling or skeeball because we didn't pay, but this was fine with us as we watched the kids have a blast.  I forget how many times Gabi and Braydon drove these carts.

 Maren and I realized that the kids were actually sweating and had rosy cheeks (Kyle is missing because it was time to go home for a nap).  Snack time arrived and the first thing they wanted were snow cones, well they were almost like snow cones.  But, it was cold and tasted good and that is all that mattered to the kids.

 Our birthday girl

 Gabi had no idea that her sweet Aunt Maren was giving her bunny ears.  I showed Gabi the picture and then told her we would take a nice picture of her.  Do you believe Aunt Maren when she says that?  Absolutely not.

 She had Braydon hide and he gave Gabi the bunny ears.  Maren was being normal!!!

 As they were playing mini golf, Maren and I were in stitches laughing.  Isabella got there first with her Tiger Woods special plastic, purple club.  She did exactly what Tiger should be doing right now...practicing his short game.

 Maren and I were almost in tears from watching Gabi play golf.  She would hit the ball and it would go flying off the "green" and onto the floor quite a few feet away.  The child has no sense of aiming (except when it comes to soccer).

 Yes, she has the club right by the ball.  But I guarantee you that we had to yell "FORE"!!!

Maren finally figured it out.  Gabi is left handed and she was putting right handed.  We looked for a left handed club but they didn't have any.

 Isabella put the ball in the hole and then wondered where her ball went.  I wish I had taken a picture of what she did next.  Smarty pants went behind the hole, undid the door that was closed and opened it, and had her hand in it ready to grab another ball.

 On we go to ping pong.  Maren and I were still laughing.  Ping Pong is not a game that little ones can play very well.  Once they hit the ball, it would fly like a baseball.

 We went upstairs to where the bowling and skeeball were.  This type of bowling was quite interesting.  There was a computer screen above your head with a scoreboard on it and you would watch for the green light to go on so you knew when to roll the ball.  I should have taken a picture of the pins.  They would drop down and there were strings connected to them.  The pins would fall down and then the strings would pull them back up when they were hit.  Great invention!!  If you look at what Gabi is holding, that is the bowling ball.  The ball looked like an oversized bocce ball.

 (Yes you are seeing double, sorry)

 Time to switch to skeeball.  Since I got in free, I wasn't able to play which really disappointed me.  My Grandpa Eyrich and I used to play skeeball for a nickel on the boardwalk at Asbury Park in the summer.  Well, back to Gabi's aim.  Yes, she is holding the ball...get ready, get set, throw...and the ball ended up in the roped screen to the left and behind the skeeball machine.

 See the orange ball in the net?  I love the look on Gabi's face.

 Oh no, Braydon is trying a Gabi throw.  Turned out OK, no net ball.

 Isabella got brave and is driving the car by herself.

"You bet I can drive this thing"

 "Oh no, I am gong to crash!"

 "Wish my boyfriend was here"

 I think this picture is out of order

 Braydon, "Gabi I don't need to ask for directions.  I know where I am going"

 (Oops, I did it again...double time)

 Braydon, "Hmmm, I wonder where we are"

 Braydon, "See Gabi, I told you I knew where we were going"

 Big Brother and Little Sister time

After three and a half hours, we had to leave to get to Golden Corral (that's where Gabi chose for her birthday dinner).  The kids loved it at Elise's Place and they are looking forward to going back again sometime.  A grandma can take a lot of pictures when she is with her grandchildren for three and a half hours.  There are more pictures from Gabi's birthday, but I will post those tomorrow.