Ghetto Paradise

Contrary to what my husband believes my hometown Taylorsville, lovingly to me known as T-Ville, affectionately to my husband as Trailorsville, is not actually full of scary gangsta tagging, gasoline syphoning, pumpkin smashing hooligans. It's actually a very family friendly environment and was a perfect place to grow up! Brandon's only teasing of course, knowing that my house was only 1 area code west of his, but is good to bring it up anytime I enjoy something the least bit ghetto. Like.. when I refused to toss my extra ultra-clunky skater shoes from high school in the trash, or when I speak of my dreams about going to China again and staying in.. oh the horror.. hostels.. **gasp!!** He'll usually follow up these scenarios, with a, "Makes sense, you did grow up in Taylorsville." :) type of comment. Again, entirely in jest, but I enjoy them. I'd like to think the germaphobic side of me that has slowly grown into quite the compulsion hasn't completely taken over!

One thing that doesn't raise the eyebrow for Brandon anymore, or most of my family is where I find the most joy in my ghetto side and that's NickelMania!

That's right, NickelMania.

Don't knock it till you try it friends. Though most of my friends do and think we're super crazy for finding so much joy there. But really, it's. Incredible! And after any one of those skeptical friends spends an action packed night there, they soon openly embrace the ghetto-ness too.

Not every game is actually only one nickel, but the fun that can be had with $5 is unreal! Sure, they're totally disgusting and probably riddled with all sorts of diseases, but whenever we all gather around the 'Deal or No Deal' game, the suspense is unreal! And the few times we've actually scored the large briefcase, well, you'd think we won an actual jackpot! Haha! Grown men and women jumping up and down pumping their fists, we'll that's what happy memories are made of. And when you finally get to the counter were you can trade your entire evening of entertaining and action-packed earned tickets for a giganic comb (why, yes I need one of those) or a bag of rattlesnake eggs (don't worry, they're not real) or a handful of Frootie-Tootsies (totally worth $5) it bids the question, could it possibly get any better?! And then it DOES! Because right next to the possibilities-are-endless prize counter is a PhotoBooth! And not just any PhotoBooth. It's an old school, PERFECT style PhotoBooth which is a must for any actual successful conclusion to a family-night, date-night, party-night, friend-night out to NickelMania.

The last time we went we were FINALLY able to convince our good friends the Latimer's to come. It's been at least a year of constant begging and pleading and pestering.. but it finally paid off! We had so much fun, even though it was a super busy night, we still found a turn on all the best rides and games. I think we have many a more NickelMania adventures with them in the future.

Here are some cute pictures from a family-night there a few weeks ago.

And like I said a trip to my ghetto paradise is never complete without a PhotoBooth strip.