Ice Skating

Daddy and Megan

Megan's getting braver!

Rachel is not happy about this!

This past week, Bill was off of work, and we took advantage of the time together as a family to do several fun activities. On Wednesday (November 18), we took the girls ice skating for the first time! Patterson Ice Arena is right at the end of our street, and it holds weekly "Tot & Tyke" skates (open skate for little ones). I was pretty into ice skating as a young kid; I took basic lessons for awhile and often went to open skate with friends after school and on weekends at the ice arena in our town. So, partly out of that nostalgia, I thought it might be fun to take the girls and see what they would do on the ice. Bill, when telling my mother about the plan, said, "It wasn't MY idea!", so you know where he stood on the issue. But he was a good sport about it. (I guess he kind of had to be; we went ice skating at Yost Ice Arena on our second date!)

Now, how can I say this nicely? My girls are.....umm.....not always the most coordinated kids around. So my expectations were pretty low. I just wanted them to try it out. Megan, at first, was terrified. But once she realized that 1) she could stand just fine if she held her body up straight, and 2) it doesn't hurt THAT bad to fall on one's butt, she actually enjoyed it. The rink had these little bar contraptions that kids could push around for balance and support (kind of like a "walker" on ice). That helped a lot. She even got brave enough to let go (albeit in a standing still position) a few times. She asked us after we were finished if we could come back again tomorrow. So I think for her, it was a hit. Rachel, on the other hand...well, the picture above is worth a thousand words. Part of the problem was that the smallest size skates they had available were still way too big for her, so she wasn't able to feel secure when standing. She pretty much screamed every time we tried to stand her up on the ice, even though we were holding her tight. I'm not into torture, so we gave up on it pretty quick. I guess 2 is too young to ice skate (at least for these girls, anyway!). But hopefully we'll get a chance to take Megan back again soon.