A Blast from the Past

Rick and I have been talking about trying to find some different things to do with the kids during the winter months because it's either too cold or too wet to be outside. Yesterday, we decided to take AJ and Ashleigh roller skating. I remember going to the roller rink when I was growing up and just having a great time. I remember the music, the games they would play and just how much fun it was. Rick and I had a hard time actually finding a roller rink near us, but we finally found one about an hour away. We weren't sure if the kids were going to like it or not, but we thought we could at least give it a try.

Once we got to the roller rink, we walked inside and it brought back all of those memories from my childhoood. The loud music, the concession stand, all of the kids and their friends and the disco lights! It was great!!!!! When we got to the place to rent the skates, you could rent either roller skates or roller blades. We decided to rent the skates and for us we rented roller blades. You should have seen the AJ and Ashleigh's faces when they first stood up on the roller skates. They were smiling from ear to ear. We decided each of us would take one of them around the rink for awhile until they figured out how to do it on their own. I don't think I realized how hard it is to teach someone to roller skate. I think for the first hour or so, AJ and Ashleigh spent more time on the floor than on their feet, but they were still smiling even when they fell. Finally, one of the other parents came up to us and said that he thought it was easier for the kids to learn on the roller blades than the skates, so we traded in the roller skates for the blades. After awhile, AJ really seemed to get the concept, but Ashleigh on the other hand still struggled a bit, but did do much better with the roller blades. I think we ended up skating for about 2 hours and had a blast. It was so great to see the kids enjoy something that I used to enjoy as a kid. In fact, this morning when we woke up, the first think AJ and Ashleigh asked was if we could go skating again. We had so much fun doing it that we are thinking about buying some roller blades for the kids to use at home too. We have so many Forest Preserves around here that we could get a lot of use out of them during the summer.

As you can see from the pictures below, they had a great time!