Ice Skating and the path

I don't know if we have ever taken the kids ice skating.  We have talked about it but I can't remember going.  Actually I think we took Vince once when he was less than 2 years old.  I ice skated as a kid and I love it, but helping 4 small kids stay upright on the ice just never appealed to me.  This crazy weather has melted all the snow, which caused some sadness around here, and then the rain came.  More sadness because mud and dogs and kids just results in more cleaning for me and I can't keep up with it as it is.  Then the puddles all froze.  My drive way is icy, my in-laws driveway is icy, the path between our house and theirs is icy.  The part of the field next to the path that has bad drainage has froze into a nice pond, and thanks to the kids we have found a reason to be happy about all of it.

Friday night the kids and I went to go see Buttercup after dinner, we needed to do chores and find Brad.  He was working in the farm shop on a project.  V was not happy about having to leave the house at 7pm.  He made it very clear he wanted to stay home so he could read, and that anything we were doing wasn't actually going to be fun.  2 minutes into the walk to Grandma's he was having a blast.  It was dark, but there was a full moon, and the star on the top of the silo marking where we needed to head.  We pretended we were the 3 wise men and a couple camels looking for baby Jesus.  The path was icy and at first the big kids were scared, then they learned how to slide on it in their shoes and they were off having fun.  D was in the stroller and watched on the way over.  They had so much fun and even more fun on the ice in Grandma's barnyard.  I was having a blast too!  After playing with the pony for an hour or so and making some dangerous obstacles in the barn to play on we headed out to find Brad.  We skated down the driveway to find him and the kids realized how icy the little hill was and started having even more fun.  When we got down to the shop D was even excited to get in on the ice skating.  He kept running around saying "I ice kate, I ice kate!"  They played for another 45 minutes outside just giggling and having a great time.  We then headed home with Brad.  He had to drive the Pioneer home and not one kid wanted to ride with him because they wanted to ice skate all the way home.  They proceeded to skate down our driveway right to the barn to play there for awhile.  By the time we got in the house it was 9:30 and we had 4 very tired kids.

Saturday was more ice skating or ice sliding.  Brad and the kids tried out the big puddle in the field and had a blast.  I was at work but I hear Uncle Bob joined in and so did Pete for a little bit.  The kids just loved it!

Tonight we played with the pony, celebrated Grandma Diane's birthday with a dinner at her house and then walked home.  Again it was after 9pm, there was a full moon but it was very cloudy and therefore very dark out on the big puddle.  We were all skating, laughing, and just having an awesome time.  No electronics, no flashlights, just the faint light from the moon (except when I took a short video) and the 6 of us just making memories.  I can't even accurately put into words how wonderful and perfect it felt.  After all it is just a puddle due to bad drainage and the full moon was covered by clouds, we didn't even have ice skates, and we could barely see each other.  It was one of those times when you hope that all of you will remember it forever because pictures, videos, and words just can't do it any justice. 

We have a great barn, a fabulous yard, a house that is unique and we spend a lot of time doing fun things in all of those places, but one place that has become the most special to me is the path between our house and Grandma and Grandpa's house.  There is nothing fancy about it and from the road you can't even see it, but so many memories, conversations, fun times are had all year long on the less than 1/4 mile stretch that takes less that 5 minutes to walk.