The Virginia Tech Hockey team uses the Roanoke Civic Center for home games. The nice part about this for Roanoke residents is that on weekends when the Hokies aren't playing - they open up the rink for Community Open Skate. I had not been ice skating since I was about 6 or 7, Katie had never been ice skating before and neither had Matt. So, we knew this was going to be an interesting little adventure. All the same, we wanted to give it a try.
When we first arrived there were about 3 people on the ice. I was relieved because I was worried it would be PACKED and poor little Katie would just get run over. Fortunately, there were a couple of other small kids there and lots of beginners like us. Also, a nice man who had a 4 year old gave us some tips on teaching Katie.
At first Katie just wanted to bend over and touch the ice - ha! It was a bit amusing....but for someone who has never seen an ice hockey rink before, I'm sure she was just curious. Eventually we convinced her to actually SKATE! Her natural tendency was to try and walk in the skates, which was pretty funny to watch. Eventually she figured out how to glide a little....but I must say we were not moving too quickly. I was good with going slow since most of the time I was balancing myself - and her! Amazingly, she only had a couple falls today. I tried to hold her hands and skate with her between my legs most of time to prevent any falls (she has already had one broken arm....really don't want to repeat that!).
Matt unfortunately didn't skate much. He had injured his back at the gym earlier in the week and ice skating isn't exactly good therapy for an injured back. So....he took pictures of us instead. :-)
