to be a(n american) gladiator

one of the perks of being home is simply my niece sophia's birthday. it's the day after christmas, so she faces the curse of the forgotten, but the fam does a good job of remembering and doing fun stuff every year to knock it out.

this year, we went to columbus standard Max and Erma's for dinner*, then proceeded on to the most painful fun i've had in years, barring the gym and whirlyball. my brother vince's girlfriend, candice, works at a place called supergames. it is a center of inflatable obstacle courses. yep.

during this evening, i learned the importance of ditching socks to climb effectively what is a balloon, lost a stud earring, and sprained a pinky. it still made me laugh the whole time, except for the time my brother nick schooled me in one of the obstacle courses (dino entrance, pictured).

happy birf, sophie! being home ruled. i miss it there. how do you top a great fam and the chance to pretent you're Blaze from AG? you don't.

(*p.s., why aren't these everywhere? they're really not super good, but when i was little, we all wanted our birthday parties there because they had phones on the tables. you could call other tables and prank them! IT! IS! A! KID'S! DREAM!)
(p.p.s., they took the phones away.)
(p.p.p.s., nothing was sadder.)