Grammy and Grandpa have left the area

Well, we all survived skate night intact and with no broken bones. Richard was convinced that the skating rink would not have skates big enough for his feet. They did. He rented them. He never got out there and skated, though. I'm not judging, nor do I blame him. There were a lot of kids out there and most of them were beginning skaters, which means that you really had to be careful out there lest you pancake a wee one.

And honestly, as far as my kids were concerned, if you put on skates that means you skated, so you get the cool points anyway. I was kind of hoping Richard wouldn't skate because if he fell and really hurt something it would cause all sorts of nasty havoc. Mom and Richard are leaving here to go to a bridge tournament and let me just tell you this: they do NOT miss bridge games. They are constantly practicing and running card hand scenarios and discussing strategy. I don't know, I got my Master's degree last year and it wasn't as much work as they put into their bridge prep. Maybe it's one of those 'things that I'll understand when I'm older'.

Richard fell right before S was born in 2007 and broke his shoulder. He and Mom were in California or Arizona or some such state out west and he refused to get it treated there. Instead, he drove all the way back to North Carolina so he could see his doctor, who could do very little for him since it had already started to heal (my guess is not properly, but they don't discuss such things with me). I call this 'guy stubborn' and always include an eye roll. It falls into the category of women's 'I'm fine'. I feel it's genetically encoded and therefore not correctable or overcome-able. Whatever.

At any rate, the kids did so much better with the skating this time. Of course the ratio of adults to kids was 2:1, which helps immensely. I was the only adult to get out on the skate floor, so T and S had to take turns skating with me, but they did a great job taking turns and sharing the skaters helper. I even got to skate a little bit by myself, which was just as much fun as I remembered it being. I think that's one of the best things about kids, you get to relive a lot of fun parts of childhood. Luckily for me, the kids are still at that age where I'm passably cool. It's not going to last much longer :(

Mom and Richard were leaving this morning, so all our goodbyes were outside the skating rink last night. It's easier for Mom that way, and probably for the kids too. Even with my..uhh...issues, this was a good visit overall, so I'm hoping that Mom will continue to come out alone for the longer visits. Nothing against Richard, but the entire dynamic changes with him in the mix. It isn't necessarily good or bad, it's just different. And I, in a stunningly unexpected move, have no further comment on that at this time.