Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Skating in the New Year

This little bundle of joy has been begging to go ice skating for years, so today was the day.  Daddy and Gavin opted not to skate before we got there, they just wanted to watch.  On the ride down, Gavin fell asleep so Daddy stayed in the car and let him sleep until we had our skates on.
 
 
Emma was so excited and ready to get her skates on as soon as she saw the rink and all the skaters.  I was just praying I did not break a leg or fall with my camera around my neck.

 
Oh I love this little girl so much and her willingness to try anything once.  She continues to keep her 40 year old Momma active, that is for sure.
 
 
Waiting in line to get our skates and wondering who wore these before us.  Relieved to see the guy squirting Lysol in them as they were turned in (ha ha).


Look at that face, she is ready to get those skates on and give it her all.  Oh goodness, I knew this was going to be very interesting.


She finally made it to the rink and started hugging the wall for dear life.   It was super crowded, so people were a little pushy and the more advanced wall huggers were really wanting to go around us.

 
About 45 minutes into our skating adventure, we had only made it HALF way around the rink and Emma declared she had enough.   She refused to go any further, realized that it was not as easy as it looked, would not let me help her and just stood there saying, "get me out of here, please get me out of here."  I admit I started laughing hysterically and begged her to keep going until we got to the exit.  She was not moving at all!

 
I asked her to let me carry her, but I knew we would probably both be taking a trip to the ER if I was her mode of transportation off the ice. I did the only thing I knew to do and that was raise my hand and flag down the man from Guest Services.  He was so sweet and told Emma he would be happy to get her to safety. Thank goodness because my feet could not have stood on those skates for another hour.  When he skated off with my baby girl, I did figure out how to skate and followed behind him quickly (look at Emma's face, laughing just blogging this... it was FUNNY!).
 

She was willing and ready to turn in her ice skates and told her Daddy she did not want to do this again for a long time.  He sweetly told her, "I am so proud of you for trying Emma."


Poor Gavin was freezing and we could not get him warmed up.  We even put an extra scarf I had in my bag around his little neck, but he was still shivering.

 
After we finished skating we walked around and admired all the decorations and played on the hill. These kids crack me up.

 
I think this is our little version of Central Park in our big city.  It was a fun little family getaway and one more thing for Emma Lou to mark off her bucket list. 
 

This sweet boy was a trooper while he waited for us to finish skating.  He enjoyed the artwork, water, lights and sculptures.


The ice rink was buried in the middle of all these beautiful buildings and lights.  I was so glad we opted for the outdoor ice experience.  Perhaps we can stay on the ice a little longer in a few years, what a great memory.

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