Sky Zone

I got invited to the grand opening of Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park a few months back, but never made it. (I think it must have been on a school day?) It looked super fun and I made a mental note to take the kids...someday. Seeing as it is almost in Mississippi and (I assumed) crowded and expensive, it took us awhile to get there.

Jiro has seen the commercials on TV and has been asking to go lately. On Saturday we had a perfect storm of no Warren in town to make us do yard work, the JCC being closed, and me having no other plans. So, off we went.

Thank goodness for Google maps. This place is not close to Midtown. It's in a weird, but not sketchy, warehouse district on E. Holmes.



I was really worried about it being insanely crowded, so I mentally prepared myself on the way over. I also beat myself up a bit for not printing out and signing the waivers ahead of time. Turns out I should have just enjoyed the ride because it wasn't crowded and filling out the waivers took about a minute.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the prices. It costs $10 to jump for half an hour, $15 for an hour, and $20 for an hour and a half. Okay, maybe it is a little pricey, but not as pricey as I imagined. The monkeys asked to do an hour, which I thought was reasonable. They were given special shoes and a sticker with their starting time. We had 8 minutes for them to get their shoes on. (I worried they'd need socks like at Pump It Up, but they did not. The flip side of that is, ew! No socks!)



Immediately, they asked, "Can we keep these awesome shoes?"




Once they were in their shoes, we went up the stairs and got a rule briefing by one of the floor guards. Basically, they want one kid per square. I'm sure there were other rules, but I don't remember. Oh right, they had to stay out of the back area, which was marked off with a shade, because that's where they have parties. (You can see a gaggle of girls back there.)



The monkeys immediately went wild jumping and I chatted with the floor guard a little. I noticed that some people were barefoot and some had the shoes on. He said it was up to the person whether they wanted shoes or not. She shoes provide ankle support, the bare feet allow for more flexibility. The kids seemed to like the shoes, so I didn't say anything to them.




After about 5 minutes the monkeys came bouncing over and sat down next to me. They were already sweating and their hearts were racing. "The commercial lies," Satchel said. "What do you mean?" I asked. "Well, I guess it just makes it look easy, and it's not," he replied.



I was glad that I didn't splurge on the 90 minute package, and I wondered if they'd make it the whole hour. We decided to explore some of the other areas. Satchel said he was not interested in either the dodgeball area or the basketball area because he didn't want to embarrass himself. Aww. Jiro begged and begged and he eventually played dodgeball when it got to where it was just the two of them. I thought the basketball looked fun. There was a low hoop and a high hoop.



The best area was near the front where you could bounce and then jump into a foam pit. Both monkeys got into this and did several daring flips.



Our hour seemed to last a really long time, and they were ready to go when it was over. However, someone they knew came in as we were leaving and they suddenly got a second wind. I held firm and said we could come back another time. I definitely think that getting them out when their session is over is the key to not spending tons of money. Snacks and a second round of jumping would certainly add up.

Speaking of, there is a snack bar with candy, drinks, and pizza.



I love this unintentionally "fresh & fast" picture I took of Satchel.



There's also a parent lounge where adults can read or watch TV while the kids play. It was empty.



Most adults watched their kids or looked at their phones in the common area.



Adults can jump too, and I saw a woman I know from triathlon training there jumping. She was super sweaty and said it was really hard. (They offer exercise classes there which I bet can kick anyone's ass.) Another floor guard told me about adult nights on Saturdays. It's for 18 & up (They do 10-16 year olds on Friday nights, I think) and he said it isn't crowded at all. I'm pretty sure these events have a flat rate and include pizza. Date night anyone?

(The East Memphis Moms blogger suggested a sports bra, stretchy pants, and kegel exercises! Ha!)

Jiro has been begging to go back all week and wants to bring all of his friends. And he wants to have his birthday party there. Sardis has been trumped!

Anyways, I may oblige him this Saturday. I may even jump too. Anyone else wanna try it?