The 4H Meeting/Ice Skating Party

So Maria's 4H club had a meeting and ice skating event today at the Chiller in Dublin. It sounded all official...they would have the meeting first and then the ice skating portion would begin. Miss Jenny, however, is the most efficient meeting-runner I have ever seen. Maria, Sam and I all got there at exactly 2PM when the meeting was supposed to start. Jenny had us get our skates first and then had everyone put their skates on WHILE the meeting was going on. Everyone stood up for the pledge of allegience, but most people only had one skate on so we were kind of lopsided. The business part of the meeting took all of 2 minutes. By then, everyone had their skates on and we took a group picture, and then the meeting was adjourned. The kids were skating by 2:10 PM. Wow.

Maria took a few laps and hardly ever falls down anymore. After about half an hour, she retreated to the inner-rink area where the figure skaters work. She hung out with Lydia and Joni and worked on spinning and skating backwards. She spun around three times on her skates and it was pretty impressive. She was also able to do the thing where you skate on one leg and put the other leg up in the air behind you. I wish I knew what it was called. I think a "camel" might be part of it. She got a pretty good bruise on her knee from one really big fall she took near the mid-point of the session, but it didn't dampen her spirits.

Sam held my hand for a bout all of three minutes. After that he wanted to be totally independent. I just checked in on him from time to time. I'm not going to kid you...he fell down a lot, especially at the beginning when he was refreshing his memory, and at the end when his legs were so tired he could barely stand up. He's near the ground though, and he always bounced right back up. I'm pretty sure his butt will be a little sore tonight, though. He's a speed demon, and was keeping up with me at my regular "adult" pace of skating. By the end he was exhausted and ready to go. Maria would have stayed all night if I had let her.

We watched the Zamboni for a few minutes after our session and headed home. Lisa enjoyed her afternoon off, though in my opinion, she worked too much and relaxed too little.

Video below of both Maria and Sam in action.