The Ice Palace

November 26, 2010

I had some pretty excited kids. James decided he wanted to get the Ice Skating Belt Loop for Cub Scouts and it just so happens that there is an ice skating rink not too far from our house. So we told the kids we would go. They were so excited. It was hard work finding enough warm clothes for everyone but we did it.

Sophia was so great at skating. She took to it the fastest.
They had these great walker/rake things that were perfect for learning how to Ice Skate without falling too much. Daniel named them a "Rake" so we all started calling them that.

I had all 3 kids out on the ice at the same time while Sterling took the first turn staying in the snack area with Helena. I moved from one kid to the next helping them to pick up how to move on the ice.

After about 30 minutes they cleared the ice so the Zamboni could come out and clean the ice. Mostly I think they wanted everyone to come spend money at the concessions.

My kids all had a churro while we waited for our turn to go back out on the ice.

Sterling was next up at bat. He found it was trickier than he had remembered.

This is my great picture with all of them in the picture. Daniel is in the front with James in front of Sterling and Sophia.

They had roped off part of the big rink to make a small course for the 'Rakes' to go around, then once you had mastered the skill you could leave the rake and go around the big rink. After the Zamboni had been out the smaller course turned into a mixture of skating and bumper cars.

Sophia was having so much fun.

This picture isn't completely in focus but shows her excitement anyway.

They were having lots of fun.

I really wish I could have gotten my camera to do what I wanted it to.

The boys were doing really well. James was finding that he was just a little too big for the 'rake' to get the hang of it so I took him for a spin out on the big rink. He did pretty well and really started to get the hang of it. For his Belt Loop he has to have skated for 3 hours total. We have completed 2 hours of that so we will get to go back for another fun day to complete the belt loop requirement.

Daniel finally got it going at a pretty good speed.

I took each of the kids out to the big rink for a spin. Daniel decided he liked staying on the 'rakes' a little better. James liked the big rink and Sophia just liked 'dancing' in the middle of the big rink the best. They had the disco lights on and she liked doing spins with mom in the middle.

James and Sophia didn't want to leave. Sophia stayed out the longest but was finally convinced that we would come back another time and relented.

Helena was a trooper. She got held most of the time so was happy and we had a cute little warm outfit for her that used to be Sophia's so she was toasty.

As for me, I left the rink with only a few new bruises (some really big ones). It was a fun time with the family and brought back a lot of memories from when I was a kid.

Sophia was getting worn out, she was almost running the whole time she was out on the ice so she had been working pretty hard for almost 2 full hours.

This was the end. The kids were all very tired but had a great time!