Last minute Family Day plans, can create some of the best memories. Last night we were discussing what we were going to do for Family Day, my mom brought up that there was free skating at the Vivo center. It sounded like a perfect idea, I’ve got lots of great memories of skating as a kid. I’ve also wanted to bring the kids skating for a while, I really want them to try out different activities and find something they like doing.
When I was younger we spent a majority of our time outside, we’d go play outside with our friends till the street lights came on. You can’t really do that with kids now, especially when you live in a large city. That doesn’t mean that they can’t go and do active things though!
In my mind all I could think about was how nice it would be to finally get back on the ice, my thinking was naive I thought I could pick up where I left off. I never really was a good skater, I could barely pass for average but I could skate. My biggest issue was stopping, I couldn’t do it so I’d either throw myself into the boards or just purposely fall ha ha.
It was after eight when we decided on this plan, so I figured I’d better get looking for the skates. I ended up finding mine and my mom skates, and some brand new skates with the tags still on them that used to belong to Zaden that no longer fit him. Year’s ago my brother was nice enough to buy Keera and Zaden each a pair of ice skates, since than I’ve sold Keera’s skates because they no longer fit her and I guess misplaced Zaden’s till now.
This ended up working out rather nicely, we tried his old skates on Emilee and they fit her. Also a week ago the kids “grandpa” had bought Keera and Zaden skating helmets. So all we’d have to do was buy two pairs of skates, and one more helmet.
So this morning we went to Canadian Tire, and picked out some new skates for Keera and Zaden. We also got Emilee a skating helmet, because when it comes to the kids safety is no joke. Once we bought the skates, we got them to sharpen everyone’s skates I believe it was 5 dollars a pair to sharpen.
As soon as we got the skates done, we headed to Vivo to skate. I’m telling you getting three young kids with their skates on, and getting yourself ready while trying to keep them in one area away from a large crowd of people is exhausting. It wasn’t until we got onto the ice that I realized just what I got myself into, it turns out I’m not as good at skating as I use to be.
I blame it on the extra weight I’ve gained since I was a teenager, and the lack of skating 10ish years probably didn’t help. I was like a new-born calf getting onto the ice, then I had all three kids clinging to me. Ha ha so it was more like four new-born calves on the ice. Thankfully my mom came with us, and she knows how to skate very well.
She ended up taking Zaden and Keera for a bit, then after a while Keera just stuck to holding onto the skating rink boards. Zaden had no shame and tried to skate into the middle of the rink, every time he fell down he just got back up again. Emilee on the other hand was clinging to me for dear life, and I could barely figure out my footing.
Half an hour went by, and my feet started to hurt so bad I just had to sit down. I took Emilee to the bench, and we sat for a bit until the others joined us. Then my mom and I swapped turns taking care of Emilee, since Emilee wasn’t fond of going on the ice. Keera really stuck it out and stayed holding onto the boards and she went around and around the rink.
We were there for almost two hours, and for the last ten minutes my mom got Emilee and Zaden to take off their skates and switch back to their shoes. So that Keera and I could go around the rink a few more times, my feet were killing me but near the end I was managing to actually skate a bit without touching the boards myself.
I also figured out how to stop myself properly, instead of just running into the boards like I did when I was a kid! Even though my feet are insanely sore, I’m so happy we took the kids to skate and that I could go skating again. It’s coming towards spring soon, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to go and skate some more.
I don’t like feeling like I can’t do something, and the way that my body reacted to skating was frustrating for me. On a happier note, we got everyone out of the apartment and doing something active.
It’s definitely something that I want to do more of, it’s important to me that the kids learn to get and stay active. It’s the best way for them to live a healthy lifestyle, and of course it’s great for them to have some fun.
When Emilee was just a few months old, I always said that she would be a figure skater. In my mind I still believe that she could be, of course only if she wants to but I just think that she would really love skating if and when she learns how to ice skate She’s got the personality for it, and she loves to twirl.. maybe that’s just a little kid thing. 😛