Saturday, February 2, 2008

A cheap afternoon of fun, almost...

Mark planned a little surprise for the family today. He took us all downtown Grand Rapids to Rosa Parks Circle to go ice skating. It is really cheap, fun entertainment. It is a $1 admission and skate rental is free. You can't beat that.
Here is Anna trying to help Libby. Libby wasn't to sure about the whole skating thing.


Zack took off the minute he hit the ice. He made it look like old hat. Very impressive.



Libby thought maybe it would be easier to use one of the things that looked like a walker but she kept forgetting that she couldn't push down on it. She needed to hold it down lower and push it forward.




Look at that concentration on Mark's face. This is only the third time ever that he has been on skates.


Zack had fun giving Mark a hard time about hanging on to the rail so much. Kaylyn looked like she'd been skating forever.


Anna and I finally talked Libby into holding our hands and going around the circle but Anna kept letting go of Libby's hand thinking that was all it took to get Libby to skate alone. If you look close at Libby's legs you can see a lot of snow from her going down so many times. But she was still a trooper about it.


It was a fun afternoon for all of us. We promised the kids we would go again. Mark was told that at night they turn lights on that are under the ice so he told the kids next time we will go at night.


Love parking downtown. Yep after paying only $6 for some family fun time we come back to our vehicle to find that our parking meter ran out and we had this pretty $12 ticket under the windshield wiper. Bummer! From what we can figure the money had been out for less than 5 min when we got the ticket. Live and learn. Next time we will park in a parking lot instead of on the street. It didn't put a damper on our fun.
Smiles!


16 comments:

Chad and Tammy said...

That looks like so much fun! Chad takes the kids to the Georgetown Ice Arena once in awhile to skate, but they've never skated outside. We're going to have to do that! It looks like you guys all had a great time. Bummer about the ticket though.

Anonymous said...

You didn't mention how"mom" did on the ice. Looks like a lot of fun!!See-ya soon,Patty Yeah I see your jeans are clean and dry.

Nate and Brenda said...

Wow! What a neat surprise!!

Looks like fun!!

That is a bummer about the ticket.

Mari said...

Great family activity! Even with the parking ticket it was cheaper than going to the movies!

Anonymous said...

I am impressed... I haven't been on skates in, well, quite a long time and I want to take my kids but I can't get fired up for it. What a drag about the ticket though.

Anonymous said...

Jennifer---
Don't you look great!
It sure looks as though there was a great time had by all! (even if it did include a parking ticket!)

Do you know that in Japan parking tickets start at $100 a pop? Yikes!

Rebekah said...

Lots of family fun. I can roller skate but not too good with the whole ice thing. I tried it once expecting to be as good as I am on roller skates. They are not the same at all
Sorry about the ticket.

jennwa said...

What fun, ice skating. I have not been in years.
Sorry about the ticket.

Melissa said...

What fun! I think it's so cool that Mark surprised ya'll with that outing. The girls were so excited!

Cheri said...

I've never been on ice-skates in my life.
Looks like a fun time.
Those parking police must be really monitoring the meters!!

Anonymous said...

What a fun day! I haven't been ice skating since before I had kids; my kids have never been! We should go too!

Cherdecor said...

What a fun time on the ice! I bet the lights at night would be spectacular!

Monkey Giggles said...

You are very brave. I would be on my bottom laughing uncontrollable the whole time.

I have not been on skates for a long time.

Laura said...

I'm not too good on skates either - broke my arm in 3rd grade on roller skates.

And you gotta watch out for those downtown parking police - they'll getcha - ask Heather about her downtown parking ticket! :)

I'm glad you had fun though! Those are great pictures!

Terri said...

That looks like fun. I didn't know they had skate rentals there. Bummer about that parking ticket though - Agg, missed by 5 minutes! That stinks!

julie said...

That looks like so much fun!!! I have never ice skated and I really would love to try - when no one is watching how many times I land on my booty :) Glad you guys had a fun family day.