Lace 'Em Up

As I mentioned before, Week 3 was not our best week. Both Mike and I had crazy weeks at work and all three kids were over distance learning (they at least spread it out so only one kid was losing their crap at a time ... ). They were stressed. We were stressed. No one was the best version of themselves. So I'll spare you much more recap than that. Key takeaways from the week:

- Mike flooded the rink. It took two days to fill it up. Our flat-looking yard is not flat. There is a very deep corner where I was worried we had a pool instead of a rink. Quinn and Declan were so excited and really great helpers. The rink looks awesome. Everyone should have a dad as cool as Mike!

- Quinn made a batch of rolo pretzel Christmas cookies all on her own - including oven work. I simply yelled up instructions and she took it from there. Mike did supervise the oven work, for the record. 

- By mid-afternoon on Friday, when I was desperately trying to meet a work deadline and dealing with constant interruptions, it is possible that my temper was a teeny tiny bit short. Allegedly. So Mike packed up the gang to go explore for an hour or so and left me with a quiet house to finish up my work day.

The bonus of their Friday exploration was that when they went down to O'Dowd Lake to wander around, Mike thought the bay was frozen enough to maybe skate on. So Saturday after lunch, we grabbed warm clothes (learned our lesson from the week before), skates, helmets, and Mike's auger. The ice was perfect glass. It's been cold, but there has been any snow so you can see right through it to the lake bottom! Those ice conditions are pretty rare, so it was really exciting to get out, let the kids experience it, and take advantage of it. Fun fact: lake skating is the best. Mike and I can't remember the last time we were lake skating, but we immediately remembered how much we love it!

Glass ice does make it tricky to guess how thick the ice is. So once Mike drilled a few holes to verify quality and thickness, it was deemed safe to skate. Hooray! While we waited near the shoreline for him to drill, the kids and I spotted several turtles swimming under the ice. It was so cool to watch them - and yet have six inches of ice between us. Fiona even spotted a huge snapper! Its shell was bigger than a foot diameter - and it was amazing to watch. 

The turtles paled in comparison to skates though. Quinn almost crawled out of her skin in excitement and could.not.wait to get her skates on. It had been over three weeks and she desperately needed to skate! All five of us laced up and we spent two hours skating up and down the bay. There were skating drills (Coach Mike is always coaching), games of tag, superman dives, races, and so much happiness. It was exactly what everyone needed! 

After we were done skating, we went over to Thole Lake where the ice was definitely not thick enough to walk on. But it was fun to stand on the shore and break the ice skim with giant rocks. By the time we got home, everyone had rosy cheeks and big smiles. We made hot cocoa and enjoyed a very quiet bedtime!