Sunday Sunday Funday at the Roller Rink and More

If you haven’t figured it out by now, we’re not the sort of family that likes to just sit at home and watch TV all day. This Sunday was no exception. I started off the day with a 7 mile run with Wes to get things going. Crosby opted to come with today, which I never complain about. We did the normal long loop run down the trail and around Brushy Creek Lake, and then wrapped up the trip with a stop at the “School Park.”

He and I probably played there for nearly 45 minutes before my stomach told me it was time to get going home. He wanted to run a bit, and so when he got home it was too hot, so he had take off his shirt too to be like daddy to cool off.

I grabbed a quick bowl of cereal and then went outside to try to finish up my rock project (which probably deserves it’s own post). I got about a third of the way down the path of setting the stepping stones before Crosby and Korey came out to tell me it was time to wash up. Korey found out that the roller rink opens early on Sunday’s for free public skating lessons, so we really hustled to make it down there in time. We had a buy one get one entry, so it only ended up being $16 for the four of us (including skate rental).

Looking back, doing the lessons were key. Korey and I even picked up a few tricks on the right way to get up and how to use the pizza shape to keep yourself from rolling. The lessons were also a big deal because neither of the kids had ever been skating before. Carlyn had some of the little plastic over the shoe style skates, but Crosby had the real deal.

Carlyn started picking it up like a champ. It definitely took her a bit to get her balance, but after a few falls, she was cruising down the rink on her own, marching, turning, and stopping.

Crosby was having a bit more issues, but in his defense, the real skates were much more slippery than the plastic ones. He was really struggling to keep his balance (even holding onto me), so we eventually gave it a try on the carpet. That drastically improved things and he was doing better over there. However, whenever we went back on the real floor, he was still struggling and getting very frustrated. He was about to give up and even started to cry a bit.

I saw that enough was enough, so we went over and tried the plastic skates this time with far better results. With those, he was out there in a hurry and able to get around all on his own. You could also just see his confidence growing as he was able to stay on his feet for more that 10 seconds at a time. We even got back out to the middle in time to do the hokie pokie with the rest of the lesson group.

Shortly after that, the roller rink actually opened and a few more people came in, but not so many that you couldn’t still get around. By this time, the kids were really into it and having a blast going around. I won’t lie in that I was having a lot of fun too!

If there was one thing we didn’t plan out well, it was food. Both kids started getting really hungry, but fortunately, some funions came to the rescue and we were able to stay for almost another hour. Korey and I would take turns with each of them, but still were able to make a few quicker laps on our own. Skating was definitely a hit, and I’m sure will do it again before too long.

Since we were in the area, and the grownups were getting hungry too, we went next door to Big Daddy’s and got some monster burgers for lunch (BOGO of course 🙂 ). I had a massive chili cheeseburger and Korey had something with fried peppers, queso, and ghost pepper aioli. As always, the food was really good!

By the time lunched wrapped up, the kids were getting restless, so we hurried up to go back home. Carlyn almost immediately fell asleep, and Crosby was only a few minutes behind her. Apparently all that skating really wore them out!

I ran a few errands, and then was going to keg the Hard Cider, but as we were pulling into Kyle and Melissa’s driveway, Kyle comes out to tell me that the autosiphon cracked as he was trying to get it cleaned up for me. At least there were some good intentions there! It was also pretty old, so there’s no doubt that I got my money’s worth.

On the plus side of things, that meant that we could just hang out a bit, so the kids and I watched some baseball with Kyle, while Korey and Melissa did driveway happy hour with the neighbors across the street. It was nice to just relax and drink a few beers with friends.

Last but not least on a full Sunday, we decided to go to Tokyo Steakhouse for my birthday meal there. The kids usually just share some edamame, but Korey and I each got to enjoy some hibachi chicken and steak. It’s always fun to see the show — even if it is the same thing every time. The food is also always really good!

To add to the entertainment, we had a family next to us whose son just turned 21. There were doing sake bombs, and having a good old time. They were really nice and also shared a good laugh when the wait staff mixed up and included a wrong name for him.

It was a really busy day, but it was also a really fun one! I’m so thankful that my family is able to enjoy days just like that.