The Chocolate Lady

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Not our family sport

I cant wait until my kids are just a bit older, so that we can start doing fun family activities together. It's not that we arent creating traditions now, like going to the yogurt shop or watching Disneyland parades...but Im looking for something more adventurous that we can do together.

You know how some families all go dirt bike riding on a regular basis, or snow skiing several times a winter....'cause it's their THING?? Well, Im looking for something like that for my family.

I can tell you right now, it's NOT going to be ice-skating.

Today we went to the "Great Park" (that's what it's called) and they had free ice-skating at a rink that they have set up. It was My Honey's idea to go, and it sounded fun to me and the kids, so off we went.

Believe it or not, they had skates tiny enough for Little One...so we were all on the ice. Holding onto the rails, unsteadily jerking around, catching the side rail, falling on our rumps....slowly and painfully, edging around the rink. Joy.

My Honey very quickly decided to sit out with Little One, because one more trip around the circle would probably have resulted in her arm being pulled out of it's socket....as she held her Daddy's hand and slipped to the ground.

I actually did ok, with short glides, able to distance myself about a foot from the rail....so brave was I! But for goodness sake, how much fun can you have when your ankles are aching and you feel as if you might split your head open at any second???

Beauty was loving it. She more or less walked around the ice, but she was confident.

Pooper...God love him. I was reminded that his osteoperosis and neuropathy limit his strength, as his ankles were much weaker than anyone else (which is pretty weak) and could barely support him. He didnt give up, he insisted on going round and round for the entire 45 minute session. Body pressed against the side wall, tightly gripping the rail, as he moved him self along. He was a real trooper.

And while we now have a "family ice skating" memory....Im sort of thinking, perhaps hoping, it's our last. I dont plan on being the family that makes a habit of ice skating together. It's not going to be our thing. It's just not.

What Im really waiting for, is for Little One to get another year or two under her belt, so we can go kayaking, snorkeling...and eventually white water rafting and scuba diving together. We will be the family that heads to the water for our annual vacations, and sneaks in mini-trips in between. Yep, it's going to be water for us, all kinds of water, as long as it's not frozen!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I could never stand up on ice skates. Maybe you should go roller skating.

I have to say, Beauty is happy no matter what, and seems to have the rythym in the family. OK, I spelled that wrong, but I don't have the gene myself so there.

Anonymous said...

Sounds painful yet fun. Glad your back to blogging.

Musings from Me said...

A hearty boo from our corner of the world to ice skating. When my husband took our 2-year-old around the ice he said his back was killing him. He had to bend over to keep our son upright. One of my daughters likes it...the other not so much. I am using weak ankles to not ice skate or roller skate ever again!

Anonymous said...

Yay, you're back!!! I had to laugh that you and we both had our first-time-ice-skating-as-a-family-adventure on the same day. We were gluttons for punishment and stayed an entire 2 hours. Both of my ankles are all bruised and swollen around the front where the torture chamber-like skates were mangling me. Like your kids, ours were great troopers. Not sure how soon we'll be repeating this episode . . . . Three cheers for Pooper, not only for his ice skating determination, but for his speech prowess too.

Love, Karen B.