Sunday, January 25, 2009

Don't try this at home!

Living in a year-round warm climate brings it's subtle lifestyle changes, no chance of a white Christmas, no scraping your car in the morning, but a huge bonus for the kids is 12 months of outdoor play! Kids in the states work hard all summer on their skateboard moves, bike stunts, and pool tricks all to watch the skills go rusty as they sit inside all winter. Not here, 12 straight months of outdoor play = plenty of time to perfect outdoor skills, taking them even to....the extreme!!!
Exhibit A: Jordan spent weeks building courage, and speed, for perfecting his bike jump. He pretty much hauls full speed now from the top of the hill in the background. Typical jump starts here and proceeds as follows:
Mid air now.........

Smooth landing...pretty much every time now, wasn't at first. We had a few scapes and bruises,
but according to Jordan...well worth it.


Next up, Jordan demo's the ever popular back flip into the ocean. Good starting stance....



The arms get you started.....




Then the legs help you swing around to complete the backflip for......





The perfect landing...


The same hill used for Jordan's bike jump is also home to Andie & Emma's extreme rollerblade
challenge. They also love the jump, but Dad holds their arm when they go off it. They prefer smooth speed to catching air anyway....


Emma slowing down for a better pose..


Extreme nitetime lawn gymnastics.......all we can say is ouch. Andie loves practicing her splits.


Finally, the most extreme stunt of all....allowing the deadly Guam tree frog to climb your neck!!
Actually it's harmless, the kids were excited to find this in our yard the other day.
Well that's enough adrenaline for today. The kids weren't excited to go back to school after the long winter break but excited to go to Thailand next month. We'll post the pics on that after we go in late February.