As New Mexico eases out of COVID-19 restrictions, employees at Elevate Trampoline Park have noticed that children are more lethargic than usual when they come in.

"You could tell they weren't out," recalls Elevate owner Nicole Boss.

After being reclassified as a gym under the state's public health order and fully reopened in March 2021, Elevate staff wanted to help with that. Located at 3301 Southern Blvd., Suite 200, the facility quickly became a great place for kids to exercise.

As the months passed, more and more children walked in, eager to dissipate those pent-up energies after being cooped up for so long.

"I'm actually seeing kids staying longer than ever before," Bosch said. "They want to come in. They want to dance, they want to interact with other kids."

Elevate, which opened in 2018, has been extraordinarily busy over the past few months, Bosch said.

"We've had a record few months. I think there's just a lot of kids who don't want to be in there anymore. They don't want to just sit around and do nothing. They want to come in and work out and be with friends," Bosch said.

Some parents are initially more cautious about re-acclimating their kids to environments like Elevate, but the kids themselves are ready to jump around and get their blood circulating, Bos said.

"It's tiring. But yeah, it's fun and easy," said 11-year-old Ryan Hidalgo. "I'm able to do front flips with ease...I love running on these trampolines, it's like running really fast. It's so much fun."

Ryan Hidalgo's sister, 7-year-old Emma Hidalgo, said she loves learning tricks jumping and flipping on the trampoline.

"I just love that I can sit around and do whatever I want, whatever tricks I want," she said.

Ryan Hidalgo said he and Emma quickly got their summer passes just to make sure they got the extra workout — even if they didn't think they needed it that day.

Bos said she also felt that the introduction of a COVID vaccine would help ease concerns parents might have because their children would have at least some protection from the virus.

During the two hours at Elevate, the kids were outside jumping, doing splits, playing dodgeball and running in a ninja class.

"They're not going to stop," Bosch said. "They didn't even wait to check in. They ran away...they couldn't wait."