ice skating

we had our annual christmas adventure with the ward family last weekend. we decided to try ice skating. it was really really fun! we headed to the ice rink, somehow managed to help 8 kids get their ice skates on and off we went. all the kids did really well. it's like they had all been life long ice skaters.

here is a shot of me with vera, nathan, amanda, ana and ethan getting ready to start.


ana did a great job for not having been ice skating except for once when she was 3.


ricky, being the little hockey player he is was skating circles around everyone. he is fast!


vera surprised us all by somehow being a brilliant ice skater. she was doing all sorts of tricks and skating like a pro. we think she may need to get into figure skating.


here is me and all the kids trying to see if we could make a chain of ice skaters.


we had such a fun time ice skating but mostly just spending time together. after we left the ice rink we realized we were downtown just in time to catch the city's parade of lights. we sat and watched for about 30 minutes. the kids dug it. the biggest thing we learned by watching the parade... do not have the horses go before the high school marching band without having someone between them picking up after the horses. there were a lot of people yelling "watch out" to the poor high school kids but often it was too late.

here are the kids watching the parade.