Holy Rollers

Green Bay, Wisconsin is a special kind of place.  You may be somewhat familiar with our brand of special if you are a football fan.  NBC/FOX/ESPN likes to paint us as this quaint midwestern city full of insane football fans with no lives. 

That is only partially true. 

Green Bay has these pockets of experiences that seem like they are out of another era or in a movie about a city that is not in the "modern era", today, we hung out at one of these places. 

St Mary of the Angels Roller Rink is a parish run skating rink with a storied past (Since 1959) and part of Green Bay legend of skating parties, intra church dates, and family fun.  Green Bay is historically a VERY catholic town and many of our traditions stem from this heritage.  Today, the rink is open for family skate a few times a month and then for private parties.  There is also a roller derby team that runs a vinyl record only open skate for adults. 

In short?  This place is AWESOME. 

We decided that a good way to beat the January blues would be to take the kids skating.  Back in the heyday of my youth, I was quite the roller skater (and ice skater too for that matter).  Many a nights were spent at the Moulton's rink in Eau Claire and I love to skate, I love the weird skates, loud music, and all the kitsch associated with a fine roller rink. 

What I forgot (or did not consider in the slightest) is that Mike is not a very good skater, Luke and Dottie don't know how to skate, and we have a ten month old. 

No worries.  We will figure it out. 

It took 25 minutes to get Mike, myself and the kids equipped with skates.  Dottie in particular was concerned about fit and tightness and all that.  Luke was raring to go (problem is?  raring to go is not an asset in roller skating). 

We finally take to the church gym/roller rink and both kids are immediately on their butts.  Mike takes a few laps with Charlie to try and get his bearings a little bit (Charlie is in an umbrella stroller). 

I take turns with Luke and Dot trying to help them find their footing.  Hilarity ensued:



Thank goodness for those PVC pipes on wheels - we were able to take a few spins and not fall down every five seconds.  One foot (glide) then the other (glide).  Poor Luke, he was sooo excited that he took quite a few tumbles because he was just trying to go too fast! We all had fun though! Please note the hanging cross and feel good messages on the wall - this place is a trip. 

I wanted to take Charlie a few times so I could go a little faster - please ignore my disheveled disposition!  I am not sure he was much of a fan!

What a fun way to wrap up a cold winter weekend!