almost ice skating
on the ice
Lexington is making a laudable commitment to improving public spaces—following up on the giant street-side checker game over the summer (beloved by the boys even if not blogged by me) they put in a free, open-to-the-public ice rink on the piece of land that hosts the Farmers Market in more temperate weather. The infrastructure was in place some time ago, but with the weather lately more temperate than you expect this time of year the ice took longer than expected to develop; and the boys, knowing that the rink was there, asked almost daily when we could go visit it. Yesterday was the day!
In order to make sure to get enough exercise if they wouldn't let us on the ice without skates, we parked a ways away and walked over on the bike path. The bigger boys ran ahead while I took things at a relaxed pace with Lijah. He was very excited to be walking, except when he wasn't.
"I can't!"
It's not like I was forcing him to walk: I had the stroller, and would have been delighted to plop him in it and catch up with his brothers, who were about a quarter mile ahead of us. But he was having none of it; when I walked back towards him to make the offer he hopped right up, calling, "I did it!"
As laborious and earth-bound as the walk may have been, all three boys were transported with delight to be on the ice, where just walking seemed like flying.
like floating above clouds
There were no restrictions we knew about so the boys ran wildly around the ice surface, racing and spinning to their heart's content. The running was possible because the temperature—just above freezing—and the light snow that had fallen the day before combined to make the ice a little sticky. It was kind of disappointing, given that we had come all that way for ice—but on the other hand it was nice that none of the kids slipped and broke their heads open.
Not to say there were no falls. Harvey cut his face doing a comedic face-plant over the low rail, and then there was a moment when the bigger boys were taking a quiet sit down in between races.
a breather
Lijah came along, but instead of just finding his own spot to sit, he gave Zion a shove.
his role in the family
Turns out Zion's perch was somewhat precarious.
oof
No injury resulted though, and when Zion grudgingly forgave us for laughing everyone was alright again.
After a good long time on the ice surface proper we explored a little further and found that the frozen overflow from the rink was much slipperier than the rink itself. So we played there for a while.
the real slippery stuff
And then some more on the rink (the boys had to get across it to get to the gate...), then a trip to the toy store, and the Lexington library... it was a full day. But Zion confirms, the (almost) skating was the undeniable highlight. Now to find some real ice skates for us all before we run out of winter...