Trying out the new skates

On Boxing Day (December 26th, for your Americans), we went ice skating at the Magrath Arena. Austin and I had just gotten new skates; Preston now fit Austin's old skates; and Alyssa took over my old skates. In addition, we got Brian and Sarah skates for Christmas. I really enjoyed skating together. I hadn't been skating for quite a while, and it felt really good to be in skates that fit (my old ones were a 1/2 size too small). Mom and Dad came and watched and Rob stayed home to take care of Mark. Unfortunately, the curling we had also scheduled for the 26th got cancelled due to the a problem with there being water instead of ice at the rink.

Preston did great skating. At first, he couldn't even stand up. One of the first things I taught him was how to stand up after falling down. That seemed to give him confidence to know that falling down is normal, and a problem that can be fixed. I started out having to hold him by the torso to keep him up. Over the course of the hour, I went to holding his two hands, then one hand, then having him skate a few feet to me at a time. By the end of the hour, he skated the length of the arena three times all by himself. Admittedly, his "skating" is still more like walking, but it will come. I put Alyssa and Austin in preschool skating lessons in Rocky and I tried to teach Preston in a similar way. I was super proud of him, and I think he was very pleased with his improvement. We want him to learn to skate before his class starts going skating at school.