Backtrack: Ice Skating with Abbey

When I was first contacted by my birth daughter, my girls were so excited.  We had to look at every picture we could find of her on Facebook.  One day we discovered a video of Abbey ice skating, and after that, my girls constantly would ask me when they could go ice skating with Abbey.  We soon learned that Abbey had taken skating lessons for years and had participated in several ice skating competitions.  When we made our plans to meet, that week after Christmas, we didn't have any specifics in mind except that we all really wanted to go ice skating with Abbey.  So, Tuesday night, we met Abbey and her family at the Peaks Ice Skating Arena.  Abbey was already doing spins and having fun on the ice when we got there.

 The girls can't wait

Abbey's dad watched and took some pictures for us 

Abbey spins 

Rachel  ??? 

I know it is blurry, but you can tell he is having fun 

Rachel and Olivia were pretty clingy at first.  They wanted to use one of these walker-type things to help them skate.  When one became available, I was thrilled to let them play with it, because they were wearing me out.

Did you notice how bundled up they were at the beginning?  And now they were just wearing their shirts.  We were all moving so much, we definitely were not cold. 

This is the proper way to use the skate assist thing. 

 Cole was on the go most of the time.  I was lucky to even get a picture.

 There is Abbey again (and the top of someone's head; oops).

The girls were loving it.  Even though we hadn't eaten anything yet when we met Abbey's family at the  arena, and we were there until after 8:00, they did not want to leave. 

Rachel describes Abbey's spin moves. 

And look at that!  I finally got a picture of Garrett.  He was even more on-the-go than Cole.  He was having a great time skating, but he was definitely ready to get something to eat when we finally got out of there.

One last shot.  Go, Olivia!

After the rink, we all headed to the Brick Oven for pizza and pasta.  Rachel and Olivia even got to ride over there with Abbey's family.  We were all pretty worn out, and Olivia fell asleep in her chair, but we had a wonderful time visiting, talking about things we love to do, sharing common interests, discussing our plans for the next day.  It was just like reconnecting with family members we hadn't seen in years.  That day really was such a wonderful part of our reunion.