skating skating and more skating

My mom and I had the joy of attending the US National Championship Ice Skating event. We had the weekend pass so we attended Friday night, 3 sessions on Sat. and the Sunday session as well. We made sure to capture at least one picture a day of the two of us! We had a great time and seeing the ice skating in person was fabulous!! It was amazing to be so close to so many people who have filled our t.v. with entertainment over the years. Our section was 14 rows up from the ice, just enough to see all ends of the rink. It also seemed to be the section that skaters just kind of hung out. Paul Wylie sat just a couple rows ahead of us for the majority of the time.

The top 4 in the pair ice dancing division.

Some of the better known skaters including this pair Merile Davis and Charlie White.

Ashley Wagner was the women #1.

Then of course mom and the girls had to take their turn at ice skating as well! Looking pretty good ladies!! funny how each of you is able to hold the same pose so well! Each of you is a Smuckers star!!

The girls were able to join us on Sunday and we had the chance to go into the "Fun Zone". The girls stopped to pose in front of the rings here.
So there is the ice rink where all the adult competition happens. Then there is a warm up and cool down ice rink. Then there is yet a third ice rink set up for the juniors and intermediate competitors to skate in front of judges. Wouldn't you know as we walked around here were 9 to 12 year old little girls doing their ice routines. My girls walked right up to the each and watched in amazement! no one told them to move back so we let them enjoy the close up view.

Frank Carroll is a famous ice skating coach and he had a couple of people he was coaching over the weekend.
Scott Hamilton among others were around all weekend. It was very fun to see all these people in person.

This is little Tara Lipinski who won gold back when I was in high school. She is all grown up now, crazy!

So all in all I had a great time, seeing the event, spending time with my wonderful mother, and having a "mommy break". We could not have had better seats and better weather for being the end of January! This was a common look on my mom's face all weekend so I think she too had a good time!