Hockey Day!!!!

Well today was all about hockey/skating, which was great because we needed to try out those new skates and get Gabe some more practice skating. The day started at 9:30 at the Toyota Arena rink B where Gabe had his stick time practice where the kids are free to just skate around and do whatever they want to get some practice and have fun. So today was the test to see if these new skates were going to make the difference or not. So we were in the locker room getting Gabe geared up and ready to go, he was just about done when I was asked to help with a parent that didn't really know how to put the gear on.

I'm going to go off subject a little bit and talk about something that I hope follows us through Gabe's hockey journey. We had an opportunity to help out a man and his daughter today by lending them Gabe's skates that were too big and let her use them because they weren't able to get any. This man wanted to get his daughter out skating and see how she would like hockey and only has her Tuesdays and Wednesdays and every other weekend and so he was able to get her into the BP this year. However he didn't have any skates for her and we were blessed with an opportunity to help them out. And not 5 minutes later me and Gabe;s coach were talking about pad and skate sizes and she had noticed how small Gabe is and let us borrow her son's old elbow pads because Gabe's were to small....Got to love Karma. I hope that we will be able to help out others more through this and that other parents may return the favor when we need it.

Back to the main topic, Gabe was all geared up and took off to go on the ice with Ashley and I stayed back to help out the guy with his daughters pads. Not 2 minutes had passed and Ashley runs back into the locker room and yells "He fell, and got right back up by himself :-) :-) :-) :-)" (that's the only way I can show how big her smile was.) So the skates did the trick, Gabe was skating better and moving around better on the ice today and was getting up by himself every time he fell. Now practices should be alot better for him. :-)


Stick time went until 11:00 and then we had a little break before we went to Ashley's cousins birthday party at the roller rink at 1:00. I was so proud about how well Gabe did but was nervous because his roller skates are a bit to big too and so I thought he might have some trouble again. Quite the opposite happened... we didn't get him in full pads, just skates and knee pads. No helmet was kind of freaking me out because I've seen how this kid falls and it isn't pretty, but I figured we'd give it a shot. He did amazing!!!!! He was pushing off his skates like he was supposed to and gaining speed and was skating just as well as the kids twice his age and not falling at all. Gabe also won the limbo special at the rink and got a rollereana buck that he was able to use to buy a cool glow stick. We also got Kaden in some roller skates which was a kick because those roller skates weighed more then he did :-) He couldn't really do much with them but was having a blast and was actually able to pull himself up and stand up, another hockey played in the making :-)

It was a great family day and a great day for Gabe, his new skates are working great and we can see that he is already learning and picking things up from his practice and coaches. I can't wait to see all the things you are going to be able to do little guy, me and mom love you so much and are so proud of everything you are doing. Keep it up and always keep trying hard.