When she was four.....

"Not too many things catch your heart in this world, so whatever catches your heart you should do. "          

 ~Michelle Kelly, Athlete {1974- }

When she was 4 years old, one day out of the blue, she started asking me about skating.

"Mommy. I want to learn how to skate.

 I want to wear a dress and twirl."

I didn't pay a lot of attention at first because I thought it was a passing fancy for a little 4 year old girl.

I don't skate myself...other than the odd winter skate.

But this request from my curly girl didn't 'pass' or go away....it just...persisted.

I was pregnant with her brother at the time, and we were building a new house.

My energy was flagging and I didn't feel like adding another activity to our schedule.

She was already doing ballet and piano.

But in January 2001, we registered her for the Can Skate Learn to Skate program at the local arena.

And she's been skating ever since.

Her father took her to Can Skate for the first 2 years.

After she completed Can Skate in 2 years, she moved on to "Star Skate" which involved private lessons.

And then I started taking her to skating, while Dad stayed home with her toddler brother.

She loved skating.

About 5 years ago,  when we moved to another province, she tried synchronized skating for the first time.

It was then that she found a new passion.

 Synchronized Skating.

She loves this sport so much, she has been skating with a synchro team ever since.

Often, she skate with 2 teams a season.

Her first year of synchro~the "Car Wash" program~2005-2006.

~the "Cinderella" program~2005-2006.

~the "Ragtime" program~2006-2007.

~the "Ballerina" program~2006-2007.

~the "Jungle" program~2007-2008.

~the "Cars" program~2007-2008.

~the "Spanish" program~2008-2009.

 ~the "Movies" program~2008-2009.

~the "Monsters vs. Aliens" program~2009-2010.

And like any sport, sychro skating has brought many things to her life....like....

Fun and new friendships.

Shared mother and daughter times.

Fun and pretty costumes.

Travel.

Because of synchro skating... we have travelled to Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, and Chilliwack.

Mentoring experiences with older skaters in the club.

A singles skating coach who becomes a trusted friend.

A fantastic head coach who teaches, develops and inspires.

Who makes you more than you thought you could be.

{As spectators at Synchro Worlds in Colorado in 2010.}

And all this because of dreams of a little 4 year old girl.

Who wanted to put on skates and a dress

 and twirl.

Colorado Springs...

Hunter and I just returned from a 4 day trip to Colorado Springs in Colorado.

It was a short trip, but very fun.

We went to Colorado to watch the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.

23 teams competed for the title of World Champions.

Teams came from Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Croatia, Austria, Australia,

New Zealand,....just to name a few.

Canada had 2 teams competing in the Championships.

We had quite a large cheering section for the Canadian teams.

A group of about 25 attended from our synchro club here in Alberta.

Colorado is a gorgeous state.

Full of beautiful landscape.

It reminds us of the rockies here in Alberta.

In between the skating events, we took time to enjoy the local sites.

We visited a rock park called "The Garden of the Gods".

It's a park of rock formations that are thousands of years old.

Spectacular to see in real life.

The red clay-look of the rocks remind me of the Bay of Fundy mud we see in Nova Scotia.

The park had a walking trail of about a mile long where you can observe most of the rock formations.

The formation below is called "The Three Graces".

The weather was perfect for our walk through the park.

We even came upon a wedding.

We marveled at the beauty of these gigantic rocks.

Canada placed 4th and 5th in the Worlds.

Finland placed 1st and 2nd.

Team USA placed 3rd.

It was a really enjoyable 4 days of skating, eating out, hanging with friends,

seeing the local sights and shopping.

A  great girls trip!

skating season....

Whoah! This blog has been neglected for far too long! January is when our competition season for skating begins and it pretty much takes over my life for a weeks. We started with Dress Rehearsal on January 3rd and then the first competition in the big city 3 hours away. I am co-managing a team this year, as well as organzing a team of volunteers for a Casino in April. The Casino is very important....it brings in $60,000-$70,000 for the club...which helps pay for travel, etc. This means I am fielding numerous emails, phone calls and other stuff to get these tasks done. I don't have my Christmas decorations put away yet...but I am getting close.

our skating season is over..

so very proud of her...

She is so lucky to have found her passion at such a young age. She loves to skate and she has translated that love into synchro skating..... a really fun team sport. She is skating on two different teams this year-the third year in a row. She will have the opportunity to compete at the national level with the Novice team this year. On the Juvenile team, she is one of the oldest skaters and the program comes easily. On the Novice team, she is one of the youngest skaters and the program and speed of the team is very challenging for her. But she never complains. She goes out and gives her best at every practice. A few weeks ago, on the little team, she was towing a line of skaters up the ice when she fell backwards and got a little whiplash. But she kept right on skating to finish the practice and it was only when we got home that she complained that her neck was sore. Grammie & Grampie came to visit, but she didn't ask to skip practice. This sport demands a big commitment from it's skaters... it starts at the end of August and goes right until the end of March. Missing practice is very frowned upon because the whole team depends on you to be there to fill your spot in the lineup. This year our practice times are 9:00 am 2 hour practice on Saturday morning, where we leave the house at 8:15 am; Sundays sees us leaving the house at 7:15 am to get on the ice at 8 am for a 2.5 hour practice followed by 40 minutes of off-ice work. This means no sleeping in....... all week....... until the end of March. This 11-year-old gets up no matter how tired, and showers, gets her practice dress on, fills her water bottle and packs her bag.......all without being asked or reminded and with a smile on her face (wish I could say the same for me.....I am so not a morning person...) We snake thru the streets of this city early on Sunday morning.....there are barely any other cars on the road....we are at Second Cup for our hot chocolate just as it opens...... and we enjoy our ride to other side of the city in the quiet of early morning. Ron and I are constantly impressed by the level of dedication she has to her sport...... she makes it all seem so easy........we are so very proud of her.

the start of the skating season....

This poor blog has been so neglected!!! The start of the skating season brought some new issues resulting in us changing clubs from our home Club to the other Club. They are rival clubs and it was not an easy decision. It actually seemed harder for me than for Hunter. This decision ate up oodles & oodles of my time as I talked to & emailed anyone who would listen. I solicited opinions from the adult skaters that I know about what the best thing to do was...we actually went to team practices for both clubs for a week while we made our decision, sort of like test driving a new car.

In the end, after I peeled back all the layers, it was a coach driven decision. Which coach seemed like the best person to help raise our daughter in the next few years thru team-building, self-esteem raising, and hard work? Which coach had better people skills and was direct & communicative? This all led us to the other club. I think our home club was completely blind-sided by this and there are mothers who no longer speak to me. That is unfortunate, but I had to make the best decision for Hunter and I am satisfied that I did make the right decision based on the information I have..... Hunter seems really happy and her new teammates have embraced her.... I hope it turns out to be a great season.

yippee.... it's march

I am so very happy that March is here and spring is not far off. February went by in a blur. 5 days after we got home from Chilliwack, we were up at 5am on Saturday morning to leave for a skating competition for Camrose. We went as a family, and it was so nice for Hunter & I to NOT have to travel on the dreaded bus again. Hunter's team had a great skate and I was very busy. Two moms on the Adult team asked me if I could watch their babies while they had practice ice. I had looked after 3 month old Lauren when we were in Chilliwack, but I had not looked after the other two boys before. I had a Lauren, plus a 9 month old and a 4 year old. The 4 year old boy was a handful. I realized quite quickly that he didn't listen or cooperate very well. So I had Lauren on one arm, left Hunter pushing the 9 month old in his stroller, while I was chasing after this little boy. He wanted to run/climb up and down the bleachers, which were exceptionally steep and dangerous. Finally, Ron took over for me and made him sit in one spot with Tyler. Where was the father of these two boys? I'm not sure. Ron just gave me the "look" which means that I have a problem saying "NO" to people. Looking after Lauren would have been just fine. She was easy and Melissa had called me the night before to ask if I could help her with Lauren.
I love Melissa and would do anything for her. But next time, I will be more careful. Babes in strollers are fine, but not busy little people with a mind of their own.

The day after the Camrose competition was Tyler's birthday. We had his party at Chuck E. Cheese's at 5p-6:30pm and the kids had a blast. We had pizza, cake, presents, a visit from Chuck E. Cheese and then the kids were let loose with their "tokens" for the many games. Ron and I loved that there was no mess for us to clean up afterwards. We went home to a nice, clean house and a quiet bedtime. Unfortunately, I forget to take the digital, so I have no pics of the actual party to share.

The long, long journey home.

After a great weekend of skating, we poured back on the bus for our journey home. The ceremonies ended around 5pm and we left shortly after. The plan was for us to drive all night and arrive back in Edmonton around 4am Monday morning. That was the plan anyway. We stopped in Kamploops around 8pm for a late dinner. While we were there, one of the girls on the Novice team sitting at our table got a phone call from her Mom & Dad, who were driving back to Edmonton in their own car, except that they were 4 hours ahead of us. She told her daughter that the roads ahead were very "treacherous" and to stay awake and to stay seated. My heart just sank because this in not what someone who already worries too much needs to hear. We got back on the road, and the girls put on a movie and the volume on the bus was a dull roar. I was sitting 3 rows back from the driver, and I contemplated asking Hunter to sit with me instead of at the back of the bus. The roads were not too bad until we got to Jasper. I was keeping my eye on my friend Allison, who is from Penticton, B.C., and has driven these roads many times over her 27 years of residing in Edmonton. She looked perfectly calm. I decided that if Allison was calm, then I should be calm and I stopped watching the road. Really, unless I was going to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere, how was watching the road going to help? We made it to about 20 minutes outside of Edson, when we came upon a very bad accident, and traffic was completely stopped for 2. 5 hours. Thankfully, alot of the girls slept thru this. Going to the bathroom at the back of the bus was an obstacle course. Girls were sleeping on the floor, in the aisles, under seats. Bodies were littered everywhere. We finally made it into Edmonton around 10 am, 6 hours past our original estimated time of arrival. Of course, I had been calling Ron on my cell since 4am to give him updates on our progress. He and Tyler were waiting for us in the parking lot when the bus pulled in. I went home and went to bed. I was exhausted. On Friday night we went to skating practice. I was chatting with Allison in the bleachers, as usual, when she told me that our trip was the worst she had ever seen the roads in 27 years. She didn't sleep a wink on the bus. I was so thankful that she chose not to share that information with me when we were on the bus!!!! As an endnote, the club has decided that the next time Westerns are hosted in B.C. , our club will be flying. Amen to that.

Mount Robson

This is Mount Robson. I took this picture from the bus on the way to Chilliwack. It was a fantastic, clear view of Canada's highest peak. I am told that people who drive this route often rarely have a *clear* view of the peak, so this was a spectacular day.

Placing 3rd at Westerns.

The big news from Chilliwack was that our team placed 3rd in the Pre-Novice category. This was an incredible feat considering that after our first skate on Saturday, the girls had a fall and we placed 7th out of 8 teams. This first skate counted for 50% of the final mark, so we did not have high hopes. But on Sunday, the girls had a clean skate with perfect unison and wonderful expression and placed 3rd overall. We were all jumping with joy. The Northern Lites had a great weekend, with 4 of 6 placing in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

chillin in chillliwack.

We had an awesome trip to Chilliwack. Tyler & Ron drove us to the bus for 5:45 am and we were on the road by 6am. Our bus was home to the Pre-Novice, Novice & Junior Teams. It was really quite quiet as everyone was sleeping until around 8:30 am when we stoppped at Timmy's in Hinton. Of course, Hunter with the bottomless stomach, asks me if she can get "lunch"-she wants a full meal deal of a sandwich, donut and drink and it's gone before we get back on the bus. I am starting to think that if it's going to cost $20 to feed her everytime we stop, I did not bring enough money. The scenery was just incredible as we continued our trip thru the mountains. It was a beautiful clear day and the mountain views were spectacular. We arrived in Kamloops around 3:30 where we stopped at the local Mall for an hour to get some hot lunch and stretch our legs. We got into Chilliwack around 6 pm. As a side note, the other club bus, which was initially following us, but then dissapeared from view, actually broke down and did not arrive in Chilliwack until 10:30 pm. We were SO very thankful that we were not on that bus. Here is Hunter is Chilliwack. Notice the mountains nestled in the background.

dress rehearsal.

The synchro club held their annual dress rehearsal yesterday for family & friends of the club. All 7 teams skated their programs in full costume to get ready for the competition season which begins in two weeks with the first competition in Calgary. Hunter skated first with the club's youngest team(black & white dress). This program is a "Music Box Dancer" ballet inspired program. The second team that Hunter skates with is a 9-12 year old category, and that team skated to a very upbeat "ragtime" number with a costume of red and white top with black skirt. This team had an *awesome* skate and we are hoping that they will place in the top 4 in their category when we go to Calgary. It was such a fun day to watch all the teams' programs and we were so grateful to have 6 friends come to watch Hunter.