Roller Skating

When I REALLY didn't feel like exercising on Saturday, the idea of roller skating came to my mind-- don't ask how, I don't know. I quickly realized this would be something my kids could really enjoy and I could still get my exercise while having fun. By the time it was time to go I really felt like staying home, but I had promised the kids and I still needed my workout so I we went. My 9 year old, her friend and my 6 year old son. We walked in and my 9 year old immediatley notices there are no walls around the rink and says "I can't skate around that." We of course are going to anyway. So we get a package deal to skate and do one other thing (you can pick laser tag, the jungle which is a HUGE indoor play area, or you can bounce in the bounce area) plus you get a bunch of tokens for the dimecade. It was a good deal all in all. We started out skating and both my kids were really difficult to teach and made very little progress. My 9-yr old spent the entire time wheeling around on the carpet area instead of the actual rink because it slowed her down and made a fall more comfortable. My 6 yr old went on the rink if I held his arm (a great workout --holding up all his weight) while he slid his skates EVERY direction with no specific plan but to move them A LOT. If I didn't hold him he sat on the edge. Several people came to ask if they could help and gave tips, which I thought was really nice, but I felt kind of bad taking their fun time. So I accepted and then eventually convinced them to move on. After a while we decided it was time for the kids to go to the jungle area. When we we got there we discovered an entire other rink. This one had two sets of walls, an outer wall and inner wall. It was basically a track that circled part of the jungle (the jungle had a bridge that crossed over to another area) and the bounce area. Why didn't I have this for my 9 yr old earlier? I had no interest in the jungle so I was glad to see that they could go play while I got my exercise in. I skated my butt off around that track dodging kids who were going the wrong way, little guys on scooters (yes they can ride rasers around) and people who weren't looking at all as to where they were going. I need to add here that I wasn't too great on the skates and in the beginning had an embarrassing fall or two until I warmed up. I looked for other people as bad as me and didn't see any, all those people seem to be really good!! It has been a serious long time since I last skated. It came back pretty well because by the end of the night I wasn't falling and was able to dodge the said people above. As I skated around and was surrounded by all the youngins I felt so young again! I started to think of myself as this little teenager thing again. Whatever. It felt great. The kids finished in the jungle and came back to skate on the walled rink. I arranged for Alex to get a scooter by this time and he loved that. Ashlin, I wanted to work on her skills. I passed her about 7 times while she clug to the edge sllllllllllllowly creeping along. Thankfully her friend had some ability, but she didn't like to leave Ashlin. Finally the place was going to close so the kids hurried up and used their tokens on the games where they won tickets and redeemed them for cheap prizes. It was a great night. I still can barely lift my right leg to move it. I must have pulled something because my left leg doesn't feel that way. I guess I am not THAT young after all. This would have never happened to me 10 years ago.