Due to lack of sleep, I crashed early last night. Unfortunately I woke up around one in the morning with a migraine. I tried to lure myself back to sleep, but I couldn’t. I read a bit until I was dead tired. I caught a few hours of sleep and didn’t think I could ski the next day.

I woke up and felt OK, but not great. I decided to go ahead and ski. I spent a bit of time on the magic carpet with Xuân and my nephew Hân who skied for the first time. I practiced my hockey stop and Xuân followed me. He picked it up fast. We had a lot of fun.

Then I went on the green slope with Đạo and Đán to continue to work on my parallel. I wanted to bring my skis closer together—to the point that they align next to each other.

I need to find a lesson plan to see what I should work on, but I couldn’t find anything yet. Maybe I should try out a blue slope next. I don’t know. I hope I’ll have a good sleep tonight.

I am having a great time on this ski trip with my older sons. I feel bad that my wife is stuck with Vương. We had a set of skis for him, but he refused to try. My wife had to stay with him. I told her I could watch Vương so she could take a skiing lesson, but she didn’t want to.

A week is going by so fast. We only have two more days to ski before heading back home on Sunday.

Despite lacking sleep, sore arms, and headache, I was determined to hit the slope. My goal was to transition from plow to parallel down the green slope. I didn’t realize that I had been plowing all these times instead of skiing in parallel. When I saw skiers who turned side to side down the slope with ease, I wanted to do that. I turned to YouTube and found a simple yet effective tutorial.

I tried out the technique on the magic carpet, but I couldn’t get anywhere. I went on to the green slope to just try it out. After several trips down the slope, I figured out how to turn my legs and shifted my weight. I was able to keep my skis in parallel positions. When I saw the instructor, who gave Xuân a two-hour private lesson yesterday, teaching an adult group lesson, I asked him if taught beginners parallel skiing. He said that, “I taught them the plow as a defense mechanism, but they should be learning parallel skiing. It is easier for a 75-year-old body.” Then he dashed off with parallel skiing.

As I skied my way down the mountain, I was bending down like ice skating and rollerblading. When the instructor saw me, he said, “You don’t need to bend down to ski. Stand up.” I took his advice and stood up. Tomorrow, I will continue to master parallel skiing before moving on to hockey stop. I hope to get a good sleep tonight.

After my failed attempt to snowboard on Monday, I switched back to skiing on Tuesday. I could barely put on a pair of used ski boots I bought for $40. Once I was able to jam my feet in, they hurt like hell. I could barely walk a few steps. I had to take off my boots. There went my chance for skiing.

I brought my boots to the warming area to warm them up. Before I put them back on, I massaged my feet. It felt better. I snapped my boots into a pair of used skis I bought for $50. I paid $75 to tune up my skis and to make sure my boots fit in the binding correctly. Then I paid $35 for a brand new pair of poles at the ski shop at the resort.

I skied for a few minutes at the magic carpet at the Wildcat resort and my feet started to feel the pressure. I took off my skis to let my feet rest. When I turned around, I couldn’t see Đạo and Xuân. I asked the lift operator if she had let the two kids on the lift to the green slope. Because it was a slow day, therefore; she noticed them. I worried that the green slope would be a bit of a challenge for Xuân. I kept waiting and felt anxious that I forgot about the pain in my feet.

Even though I didn’t feel like I was ready to get back on to the green slope, I hopped to see if I could find them. I spotted them with the ski patrol. When the patrol saw Xuân crying, he stopped and talked to him. He felt intimidated by the slope. The patrol gave him a wagon ride back down the mountain.

I plowed myself down and eased back into my groove. I didn’t fall at all. I joined Đạo and Đán on the green slope until it was time to close. Each time, I made my plow smaller to gain a bit more speed. My next goal is to learn parallel skiing and hockey stopping.

When we got back to our rental house, I was exhausted. Around bedtime, my arms were sore. I realized that I used my poles too much to push myself. My arms were so uncomfortable that I could not fall asleep. I ended up only with a few hours of sleep. I woke up with a headache, sore arms, and a painful thumb. Getting old sucks.

We’re vacationing in New Hampshire and staying close by Attitash Resort. Yesterday, I signed up for a two-hour private lesson for Đán and a group lesson for myself to learn snowboarding. Due to lack of coaches, my group lesson got canceled; therefore, I tagged along with Đán. We took a semi-private lesson together.

For two hours, we learned how to turn using our heels and toes and then connect them together to zig zag across the slope. Our coach told us that snowboarding was a bit harder to learn than skiing. Once you got over the learning curve, snowboarding would be less than skiing.

I started out with my dominant right foot, but I kept leaning back to my left foot; therefore, my board didn’t move and it turned in the direction that I didn’t want to turn. I tried switching my feet. As I stepped on the magic carpet with my left foot, I lost balance and fell. I landed my left hand on the belt and bruised my thumb.

After our lesson, Đán went up to the green slope with Đạo, who stuck with skiing. Đán fell several times and managed to snowboard down the slope. I stayed at the magic carpet and worked on my turns. In the afternoon, I joined Đạo and Đán on the green slope. I fell all the way down. I tried it one more time and fell even harder. I felt the impact afterward. My whole body was aching. My thumb was swollen and painful every time I wiggled it.

I am not so sure about snowboarding. My lack of sleep the night before put a toll on my ability to learn. I found strapping my left boot on the binding every single time I went down the slope and unstrapping it to get on the lift to be annoying. I had to sit my ass on the snow and pulled the board closer to strap in. With my swollen left thumb, it was painful to strap in.

I am glad Đán took up snowboarding. With his confidence and fearlessness, he successfully went into the dark side. I am going to stick with skiing and to develop more skills for this season.

Last night, my classmates and I took our ice skating test for Freestyle 2. Our coach graded our skills using the pass-or-fail system instead of the 1-10 scale. I passed the jump sequence, ballet jump, and half-lutz jump. She didn’t test us on the dance step sequence and the edged spirals. To the coach, as well as mine, surprise, I pulled off the one-foot spin. It was like a miracle because I had been struggling with it throughout our 10-week lesson. I could barely spin for 3 revolutions, let alone meet the requirement of six revolutions. Even earlier today, I couldn’t get my spin together during practice. Somehow I found my groove during the test.

I can now relax a bit for the holidays. Learning ice skating had been quite stressful at this level and I just wanted to learn for fun; therefore, I decided to stop after Freestyle 2. The techniques were becoming more challenging and I would need more time to practice. Unfortunately, my kids are no longer interested in ice skating. Đạo and Đán are learning ice hockey. Xuân is still taking figure lessons, but his heart is not in it. He hadn’t practiced and he couldn’t do the techniques at his level.

I don’t see the point for me to continue if my kids are not doing it. I felt guilty going to practice by myself while the kids stayed home with their mom. She had also been complaining about me going to practice. In addition, I have trouble spinning. I have all the excuses and legitimate reasons to quit. So yes, this is the end of my figure skate learning journey for me. I am glad I have made it this far. It was a wonderful experience.

Back in June, I attempted to drop in from the highest ramp at the Wakefield skatepark. I fell backward and hit my head on the ground. The impact cracked my helmet and had me blacked out for a few minutes. After that incident, I would never go near that ramp again.

Last month, I switched from the Zetrablade (by Rollerblade) to the Flying Eagle Enkidu aggressive skates and I felt more confidence dropping in since the Flying Eagle is much more stable. This afternoon, I revisited the ramp and faced my fear again. From the top looking down, the height and the curve were still intimidating. What would happen if I fell? Since I won’t have ice skating class next Thursday, I would still have two weeks to recover. I didn’t have much to lose.

As soon as I stepped my left foot on the coping, I knew I could not back out. With a bit less hesitation and a bit more confidence, I went for it. Thanks goodness, I made it through without breaking my bones or blacking out again. Having the right skates helped tremendously. I had a much better control with the Flying Eagle Enkidu aggressive skates.

I felt rejuvenated after making this small accomplishment. It proved that I can still keep myself challenged. When I first started out, I never thought I could do this one day. I still believe determination and practice paid off. I am old now and I have to take this aggressive sport much more careful than the youngsters. My second son, Đán, is so natural at aggressive skating. He can drop in with ease, but I am glad that he is also being cautious. He wouldn’t do it unless I would’t go first. If I could do it, he knew he could do it. I knew all along he could do it, but he wanted me to go first. Of course after I did, he dropped in successfully. As a father, I have to pave the way. Why not? I rather put myself at risk first than putting him at risk first. Then again, if he went first and succeeded, I might just chicken out.

Đạo took his Freestyle 1 test tonight. He did well on the pivot, backward edges, half flip, and waltz jump. He didn’t do too well on two-foot spin and arabesque. I was surprised that he pulled it off with not much practice. If he would spend more time practicing, he could be a great figure skater. I am not sure if he would like to continue to Freestyle 2 or he should just focus on ice hockey.

He started learning to play hockey two weeks ago and he really liked it. His figure skating lessons helped him tremendously in making the transition from figure to hockey. I am not sure if hockey is a bit too aggressive for him. He seems a bit reserved when they played the game, but he enjoyed it.

Đán is more of the hockey type. He has the speed and he is not afraid to attack. He still needs to work on his hockey skills, particularly on controlling the puck with his stick. Once he got that down, he would be a top player. I might sign him up for private lessons to work on his shooting and controlling skills.

Đán excels at rollerskating at the skate parks. His fearlessness is taking him far. He can jump and drop into the bowls with ease. He can also ride the sides of the bowl. He has definitely surpassed me. I ordered a pair of USD Transformer for him for his birthday. It’s an aggressive skate for kids. I can’t wait to see what he can do with it.

We had been hitting the skate park almost everyday now because of Xuân. He is stepping up his game with his scooter. He can drop the from the quarter pipe and higher curved ramp as well. He dropped into the bowl too. At school, he drew a picture of me and him at the skate park. I love that drawing even though I have a bald head, fat figure, and two stick arms. The rollerblade looked good though.

The more Xuân is interested in skate park, the less he is interested in the ice rink. He doesn’t want to practice and he doesn’t want to take lessons either. We won’t continue him on the next level.

As for me, I wanted to learn so much. My days have revolved around skating. At work I would eat lunch quickly and hit the skate park for forty five minutes. At home, I try to find time to get to the ice rink when the kids and I aren’t at the skate park. I am learning to pump to get myself out of the bowl or the half pipe. Technically, I should have learned how to pump first before I learned how to drop in, but I did it in reverse. Now I need to learn how to pump and how to ride the pipe.

For ice skating, I have learned all the techniques for Freestyle 2. I am still struggling with the one-foot spin because I get dizzy any more than three revolutions. I will required to do six for the test. Because how terrible my spins are, I don’t think I will advance to Freestyle 3 after this. I’ll learn on my own and focus more on the jumps.

As the winter coming, the kids are already geared up for skiing. We rented seasonal skis for Đạo and Xuân and snowboard for Đán because he wanted to try snowboarding. They ran out of rentals for adults; therefore, I am still trying to buy used ski or snowboard. I am leaning toward snowboarding as well.

Poor little Vương will be spending time with his mom instead. He doesn’t want to do anything yet. I am trying to get him try the scooter like Xuân. He seems to like it. He is still too young. He still has plenty of time to try later. I just feel bad that I don’t get to take him out much with the rest of his brothers.

Xuân didn’t do too well on his ice skating test last week. He struggled with backward crossover and T-stop on his left foot. These two foundation skills are very important for him later on. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to practice. He passed Beta, but doesn’t want to take any more lessons. He wants to learn to play hockey like his brother Đán instead.

Before he could start hockey, I want him to take one more skating class. He will learn the mohawks and 3-turns in Gamma, which will help him with hockey. He agreed to take one more class. Next year, I will enroll him in the Future Caps Learn to Play program so that he can get all the gears and skates for free, which would cost $1,000.

Đán will finish up his Learn to Play Hockey 3 this Saturday. He seems to enjoy it. He will start level 4 next Monday. After that, we will be eligible to join a hockey team. I am not sure if I want to drop $1,600 for him to play on a team. I am sure my wife wouldn’t mind.

Đạo will finish up his Freestyle 1 in two weeks. He doesn’t seem to enjoy figure skates as much as he used to. He is not sure if he wants to take Freestyle 2, but he wants to give hockey a try. I enrolled him into Learn to Play Hockey level 3 and he will start next Monday at the same time as Đán. They just won’t be in the same class.

For me, I am still struggling with one-foot spin. Yesterday, I went to practice, but I could barely do the dance and jump sequences. The rink was a bit crowded. My mind was not in it because I didn’t sleep much the night before. I don’t think I will go to Freestyle 3.

My wife has purchased skiing season passes for Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and me. Đạo and Đán, in particular, are happy and looking forward to skiing. I am grateful, but also feeling guilty. With season passes, we will most likely spend our weekends skiing and less time tidying up the house. As much as I would love to go skiing with the kids, I dread not taking care of things around the house. I asked my wife to see if she could cancel the passes.

Saturday morning, I took Đán to ice hockey as our usual bonding time. Đán is an excellent skater. He has speed and perfected his hockey stop on both feet. His hockey skills, however, need more work. He couldn’t control the puck with his stick. He kept missing the goal. His coach loaned him a new stick for lefty, which seemed to help him. After class, his coach came to me and gave me the stick. He promised Đán that he would give him the stick if he finished level three. That was nice of him and Đán was happy about it.

We came back home and I took Đán, Xuân, and Vương to a Japanese ramen house for lunch. Đạo didn’t want to go. The night before, I promised Đán that I would take him out to one of his favorite restaurants if he read Let’s Read with Xuân. He was more than glad to do it. When I read this book with Đán when he was in kindergarten, he struggled quite a bit, but Xuân seemed to pick up the words quickly. In any rate, Đán and I ordered our favorite spicy miso ramen while Xuân and Vương ordered their favorite pork and chicken buns.

After lunch, we went back home and relaxed until 2 pm. Then I took Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to get their flu shots. Xuân volunteered to go first. This guy had no fear of the needle. He later described getting a flu shot was as painless as marrying his mom. His analogy was hilarious and I wish our marriage was that easy. Đán took the shot without a fuss. Đạo was a bit nervous, but I reassured him again that he wouldn’t even feel it if he would just relax. I told him to work with the needle instead of against it. He took my advice and we were done. He didn’t feel a thing. We were out of the pediatrician office in less than 15 minutes.

I took them to Veterans Memorial Park in Woodbridge to check out the skatepark, which has the tallest halfpipe I had seen yet. We had to take the stairs to go to the top of the pipe. If I were to drop in, I would either break every bone in my body or die. No one was dropping from this pipe; therefore, the kids used it as the slide instead and they loved the thrill. The skatepark also has a humongous bowl. Again, if I were to drop in, I would break my ass even at the shallow end.

Most of the skating activities took place in the area away from the bowl and the halfpipe. Đán rode the ramps with the skateboarders. He is a natural skater with confidence and a bit of fearlessness. Đạo and I hesitated a bit because of the crowd. There were quite a bit of skateboarders. Xuân rode around smaller ramps on his scooter. After spending nearly three hours at the skatepark, we headed to an ice cream parlor close by. The menu items were written in Spanish. All of the employees spoke primarily in Spanish. Although all three of my sons are enrolled in Spanish, only Đạo put his foreign language skills to use. Đán was shied and Xuân could only count from 1 to 29 in Spanish. I let Đạo order for us. After that, we went home and had dinner.

On Sunday, we got to sleep in a bit. Around 10 am, I took Đạo to the library to return some books and to pick up new ones. After reading a novel, I wanted to switch to nonfiction. I picked out two books. We went back home, tidied up the house a bit, and folded our clothes. We had a late lunch. Then I dragged my wife and all of our kids to Woodland Wonderland playground and Walker Mill skatepark in Maryland. I felt guilty for not spending too much time with Vương because he has not picked up skating yet. Since the playground and the skatepark were within walking distance, this place was perfect for us. My wife took Vương to the playground while the rest of us stayed at the skatepark. This skatepark was less scarier than the one in Woodbridge, but some skateboarders were a bit aggressive. Đán didn’t seem to mind. He went in and did his things. Đạo was a bit intimidated. Xuân tried out new ramps on his scooter. We were there for almost two hours and drove back home for dinner. That was pretty much how we spent our weekend. I was glad that the kids got to do outdoor activities rather than stayed home playing on their digital devices.

Learning ice skating is like building LEGO. Each step is a LEGO brick that is designed to let you create a work of art. While practicing yesterday, I combined the jump and dance steps into a long sequence. I am sure the professional skaters already knew, but it was a revelation to me. Here are the steps I did:

1. Begin with a backward crossover with your left foot over right.
2. Repeat another crossover with your left foot over right.
3. Transfer your weight to your right foot and glide with your left foot.
4. Do a waltz jump with your right foot.
5. Tap your left toe pick and do a tap-toe jump with your right foot.
6. Continue with a 3-turn on your left foot.
7. Tap your right toe pick then finish with a one-half flip jump.
8. Instead of checking out, continue on with your left glide.
9. Glide right.
10. Glide left.
11. Glide right one more time.
12. Do a left mohawk then stand on your right foot as you skate backward.
13. Cross your left behind your right foot and transfer your weight to your left foot.
14. Place your right foot back to the parallel position and transfer the weight back to your right foot.
15. Cross your left foot in front of your right foot.
16. Check out with your right foot.

I like jumping more than spinning. I supposed to learn how to do a one-foot spin, but I kept tripped up the left-edge entrance. As a result, I just focused on the jump and dance sequence.