Swimming & Skating

Last spring I took the grandchildren skating every week, but then the summer came and we shifted our athletic emphasis to swimming. I wanted the grandchildren to learn some basic swimming skills before they went to Mexico in the fall. We accomplished that goal. After they returned from their vacation in early November, the household was kept busy, busy with the Christmas season, house renovations, and the flu (yuck!). Two months flew by and we neither skated nor swam. Finally I took the leap and I purchased a new membership at the Dimond Athletic Club where they have two nice pools and your membership gives you free time on the Dimond Center Ice Rink. The children were ecstatic. We took them swimming quite a few times over the next month--when they didn't have ear infections. 

However, we did not get back to skating until this week after purchasing another month long membership at the club. At the start of the new school semester Kara had set some school funds aside for skating lessons, but we had not lined up a teacher. When you have three children taking skating lessons, you can hire a private coach to work with all three for the same cost as larger group lessons. 

I finally contacted a lady I had heard about through a girl we met last spring when we were skating. The coach agreed to meet us on Monday. It was a good plan except that the public schools were out for President's Day and so the rink was pretty busy. Nevertheless we were there so we went ahead with the lesson. Coach Ann brought some used skates for the boys that we purchased from her for a great price. (If you skate a couple of times a week, it doesn't make sense to rent skates at $3.50/session.) Coach Ann didn't have any skates in Viva's size. The children's first skating lesson went really well. They picked up some new pointers on how to skate.

The day after the lesson I spent hours scouring thrift stores and used sports equipment stores looking for a good pair of skates for Viva at a good price. I did not find what I was looking for. I found cheap skates at cheap prices and great skates at unbelievable (to me!) prices. $139 (marked down from $189) for a pair of skates for a five year old who will grow out of them within a year? No, thanks! Later in the week, I went back and purchased an okay pair of used skates for an okay price. (On Tuesday when I first searched for skates, I did snag a great pair of used skates for $6.50, but in a slightly larger size than we now need.)

I had hoped to take the kids back to the rink this week to practice the skills the coach taught them, but on Wednesday afternoon they left to spend the night at Grandma Karen's and on Thursday they had ballet and gymnastics. On Friday I checked the ice rink schedule and the pool schedule and headed off to have some fun with the trio. When we got to the rink there was a sign "No Public Skate Fridays." Huh? That's not what the online schedule said. ARG! We shrugged it off and headed over to the pool. When we checked into the athletic club, I saw a sign "Small Pool Closed." Seriously?! Turns out someone had vomited in it. The afternoon was not going our way.

The larger lap pool was still open, so we decided to swim there. We've used the lap pool before, but it's a colder temperature pool and the children get chilled swimming in it. We stayed a half hour when we usually spend an hour plus swimming. B, J & V told me they had fun, but they were too cold to stay longer. I agreed with them! We headed home.

All-in-all our first week of skating has not been as productive as I hoped, but we'll find a good rhythm in the coming weeks. (I have an added incentive to do so because I purchased myself a new pair of skates. They weren't used because it's hard to find used skates in my size, but $70 for new skates seemed like a bargain compared to the $139 that they wanted for skates in Viva's size. Obviously my skates are not competition level, but I'm not planning on doing any spins or jumps.)