My 4 year old nephew moved to Richmond from California a little over a year ago, with his Mom, which is my sister, and his Dad. Having an 18 year old son who has very little use for me, I thoroughly enjoy my time with him. He celebrated his 4th Birthday this past week; we had a family dinner celebration last Sunday and his Mom orchestrated a kid party this past Saturday. She debated for a while over the ordeal; if, when and where, and finally settled on Inflation Nation.

I received the Monster Truck invite in the mail and since it was from Logan, I will keep it forever. I am not typically a sentimental person, but Logan is so precious to me for a variety of reasons. I showed the invite to my husband and asked him if he was going to go with me, his response was, “Inflation Nation rhymes with Chuck E Cheese.” So, I took that as a “No".

Saturday morning I get up and debate, “Should I take a shower and what do I wear?” If I wear a nice outfit, I may luck out and be exempt from playing with the kids on the stinky, slimy, germ infested blow ups. If I go ahead and go for the “workout” look, I could suck it up and keep my options open; even develop an ailment once I get there if necessary. I decide on the workout outfit; T-shirt, sweatshirt, sweat pants, hair up, slip on shoes and heavy duty socks.

Of course I beat my sister there; I live an hour away from Inflation Nation, she lives 15 minutes. The outside of the building wasn’t extremely appealing; cosmetically and the parking area. But, once I got inside and checked in and went through security, I was very impressed. The place was clean, well laid out, spacious, organized and did not reek of sweaty feet or any other body odor. They had music playing that was the right volume and appealing to all age groups. They appeared organized and were adequately staffed by the usual teens who work in a place like this. Although, these teens spoke clearly, smiled, used proper English, appeared happy to have a job and looked you in the eye when talking. They had a “family room” area with a huge flat screen TV and a couple of big comfy couches with an abandon remote; scary thought.

Logan arrived and we played. And I am elated to report that all the inflatables were clean and I did not cringe crawling, sliding or falling on them. All the kids and parents played well together, had a good time, exhausted themselves and filled up on Birthday cake. Kudos goes to Inflation Nation for running an exceptional business.