Tough Girl

The girls have been taking ice skating lessons for the past week or so and they love it.

But...

It is their first real attempt on the slippery stuff and so they take their spills in the learning process. Allison took a fall last week and unfortunately the typical, "I'll put my hands down to catch myself" thing didn't work. The hands shot out to the side and the face hit the ice.

The fist black eye to be sure. And while it just hurts to look at it (you feel badly for them) there's also that small part of me that thinks it looks pretty cool. My daughter the hockey player!

You look great Ally...

Ice skating anyone?

I said in my previous post that while on vacation we took the kids ice skating. This is something we try and do once a year. Daryl pretty much lived on ice skates as a kid and it is pretty cool to watch how well his entire family ice skates. I am hoping someday our kids will be able to keep up with their dad.

Allison and Rachel did great, by the end of our time Rachel was out there on her own. Allison was a little more dependent on the walker type thing they could hold on to, though she was trying to jump with it by the end. The girls had a great time and we pretty much had to bribe them to leave the ice.

This was Tyler's first time on th ice and be honest I was not sure how he would do. We decided to just let him out on the ice with his boots on and he had a great time. He was all smiles and followed his sister's around wherever they went. I think his favorite part was slamming his walker thing into his sister's. We decided to try skates on him to see what he would do. He was a little freaked out at first, but with his daddy by his side he did okay. Watch out NHL!!!!!

Allison and Tyler on the ice.

Rachel out on her own!

Tyler trying out the real thing.

Thanks for the great time Lori, Brian and kids. We had a ton of fun!

Vacation

So this is a little late coming, but hey what is a girl to do. Last week was absolutely AWESOME! Why, you may ask? Because we were on VACATION! It is the first time in a long time that we have had an entire week together as a family. No school, no work, no agenda, just fun! We did a lot of staying up late (yeah we totally screwed our kids up with this one), sleeping in, hanging out with friends and family and just doing nothing.
Some of the highlights of our week were spending Christmas Day with family, seeing Charlotte's Web with the girls, having dinner with friends, taking the kids ice skating, painting the office, having dinner with friends again, seeing "Holiday" with my girl friends, and ringing in the New Year with friends. My favorite part of vacation was getting to spend time with friends and just being together as a family. The month of December was crazy for us, so it was nice to just "be" for a week with no real agenda.
I have to admit it was really hard going back to work this week. I did not want to be there. I found myself thinking about Daryl and the kids all day on Tuesday and wishing that our vacation had not ended. I guess I will just have to start a count down till our next vacation.
As much as I love going away for vacation, I have to say there is something to say for just staying home and doing whatever you want whenever you want. I think I just need to be on the same vacation schedule as my kids, which would mean a vacation day at least once a month. I think I need to propose that to my employer :)