we're rollin'

we went roller skating last night with my son's cub scout pack. i have not been roller skating since i was a teenager. both the kids were very excited about it. the officer was not feeling well when he got home, but he decided to go with us anyway.

we arrived at the skating rink and then i realized i had set my vcr to the wrong channel so i ran back home to fix it. (we can't miss lost - then later we realized it was a re-run. what's up with that? i thought it was supposed to be all new until then end. did i miss something? sorry rabbit trail!) when i got back to the rink, the kids already had their skates on, laced up and were out on the rink. they looked so cute!

my son, well, he looked like those pictures of cartoon people who's legs are going absolutely everywhere for a minute and then they fall. he was determined to get it down. we realized they had a kiddie corner where beginner skaters could try it out without worrying about getting ran over by all the bigger kids. we went to the kiddie corner and i think he felt much calmer. every time he fell (which was a lot), he shot right back up as quick as lightening with a look on his face like "did anyone see that?" i have to give it to him. it was hard. he fell a lot. he fell on his bottom a lot. he hurt his wrist and ankle a couple of times when he fell but he didn't complain about it. he was determined to go fast. he never did but i think he liked it. he never quit or got upset. i was proud of him.

my daughter loved the roller skating. like i said when i got there, they had already started skating. i don't think they had been at it for too long. the officer was skating (that in and of itself was a sight to see) holding up each child with an arm and trying not to fall at the same time. before long, my daughter didn't want to us to hold her hand. she wanted to do it by herself. although she never was fast, she could hold her won. she didn't fall that much. she could make it around the rink by herself. the only thing that bothered her were the strobe lights. they had a disco ball (or some equivalent) that made little round circles move around on the floor. since she was always looking at the floor, when she got to that spot she would slow down. it made her dizzy. although she went to the kiddie corner, she didn't want to stay there. she wanted to be out on the rink with everyone else.

the officer did great. he helped the kids. he was also happy to get a pretzel and sprite from the concession stand and sit with the kids. :) there was something to worry about. i'm pretty sure one of the parent's of a cub scout broke his wrist when he was skating. when he fell, the dj cleared the floor. they helped him take his skates off and had ice ready for him when he got off the floor. i was very impressed with the skate staff. the officer went around the rink a couple more times before it was time to leave.

i had a lot of fun. i did not go fast. i was helping the kids a lot. i did not fall down. the most embarrassing part was at the end. the dj said, "let's get our skates off, turn them in, and come back out for the cha-cha slide." alright kids, let's do that. we turned our skates in and went back out onto the rink with our socks on. what did the officer do? he sat in the concession stand area with his iphone pointed at us. i had no idea what the cha-cha slide was. apparently they play the song and you do whatever it says. it took me a minute to realize this. i thought the music was background music, like it had been for other games. there was an 8 year old boy who had apparently done this before. he was cha-cha-ing everywhere. he knew what to do. i told the kids to just do what he does. of course our daughter was figuring it out pretty quickly. my son had his hands in his pockets with a look on his face like he was in pain. i just looked confused and silly. didn't matter. it was all fun.

the officer took pictures with his phone and when i figure out how to get them off the phone and onto the computer i'll come back and put pictures in this post.



it was fun to be able to do something with the kids that they had never done before. you don't get those chances too often as they get older.