Skateland

Pogo pass fun!  Katy has been bugging me to go to Skateland all Summer.  It's really far away and not my favorite thing. Today we had absolutely nothing, so I told them we would do something.  They begged, I caved.  It was worse than I imagined.  In the beginning, it was funny.  Well, let me begin with....as I was putting on my skates I had the thought "I should have gone to the bathroom first".  No biggie, we'll all get our skates on and go together.  Ha!  Katy and Bo could not even stand up.  Seriously.  And Brooklyn, barely.  By the time we got to the bathroom, I was crying from laughing so hard as Bo and Katy struggled and flailed and fell in every strange position you could imagine.  I went in the stall with Katy, had to pull her pants down for her and back up cuz she couldn't stay standing.  Really funny.  

We slowly made our way out to the floor (we've been on carpet thus far) and it was hysterical.  Legs flying everywhere.  Arms flailing and all my children splatted on the ground.  Except Rhett, of course.  He was pro right from the start.  When I realized there would be no skating at this rate, I rented the "skate mate".  It's basically a walker on wheels.  I got one for Bo and for Katy.  It was helpful, but they were still all over the place.  We hadn't even made it around one time and Katy was crying...hard.  Bo was still slipping and falling around happily.  Brooklyn was falling every few feet trying hard not to cry.  I though "sweet, we'll never have to come back here again!"  Wrong.  I suggested we just go home and they all gave a big NO.  

Katy would take herself off and then come back on and try again.  She never gave up!  I was so proud of her.  She finally got to where she could go slowly around with the walker and not fall down.  Bo on the other hand would not listen to any direction and just kept falling every where.  Finally I pulled him off and tried to help him and of course, he sat down and cried.  He stayed there a bit while I went back out with Katy.  She was ready to do this herself.  Mind you, we've been here over an hour at this point.  She did great!  Finally kind of got the hang of it and could do it on her own.  Still a lot of falls, but she got it!  I went back to help Bo and he decided he would listen.  Once he listened, he caught on really quick.  At one point, he very smartly said "mom, I just figured out that you have to have your weight on your heels."  Yep, I hadn't noticed that, but it's true.  He finally ditched the walker and could sort of do it on his own.  He fell A LOT but kept getting back up.  Brooklyn had fallen and hurt her ankle and was now in tears.  She said it wasn't broken and when I suggested she stop for the day, she said NO.  Everyone was very sweet as my children recklessly slammed themselves into the ground over and over.  Offering a hand up, asking if they were Ok.  Brooklyn was a little miffed at being helped up by 6 year old girls all day, lol.  

Fun details of the day.  Bo initially fell many times because he would insist on letting go of the walker to do some sort of dance move.  I finally let the kids do their own thing and skated like I wanted to.  Awesomely, of course.  Well, a song that reminded me of Stephen came on so I went a few circles thinking of him, then the song A Thousand Years came on right after.  I hear "Mom!" from across the rink and I see Rhett holding out his arm to me. I love him.  I said the words "did you break...." about a hundred times as I watched them crash to the ground holding different body parts.  As we were taking our skates off, Katy says "Are you going to take a nap when we get home, cuz I really need a nap!"  Yes, darling so do I!

We stopped for thirstbusters cuz we were all sweaty after that two hours of torture.  When asked if they ever wanted to do that again, they all yelled YES.  Crazy people.  I had a blast, didn't fall once.  But my ankles were tired.. they never even switched directions!  And within an hour of quitting, my booty is seriously aching.  I thought I still had it, but apparently not so much.  Katy made these couple of statements afterward: "I really hate that old 80's music.  Every time one comes on, you do some weird kind of dance."  Awesome!  Then as we got in bed to take a nap, she told me how much she loved my bed.  It would only be better if it were made out of that stuff that's under our Christmas tree (fuzzy Tree skirt).  She said "That would be the life!"  Besides all the bruises, I think everyone looks back as having a great day.  I look back and think "holy cow I  can't believe nothing got broken!"