The kids all came up to Montana for a summer visit. Their work and school schedules aligned perfectly, and we were excited to see them all together. Zack’s never been here in the summer, other than a few days before we’d actually moved in, so it was an added bonus to finally show him all that Montana offers in the warm months. We also invited our nephew Julian.
We did a lot during their visit, so I’m actually going to break up my blog posts into a few sections. This first one will be dedicated to Ollie. He’s two and a half now, and has the energy and curiosity that all two-and-a-half-year-olds seem to have. I think he enjoyed the lake, but it was hard to tell because he’s kind of a stoic little kid. For example, here he sits with me on the jet ski:
Part of the problem might be that he needs to wear a life vest, and it’s a little big for him so it limits his body and head movement. I can see how that might be frustrating. I even let him drive a bit, but unlike most kids who visit us, he didn’t scream with glee.
Maybe Uncle Zack is more fun than Grandpa? Nope, Ollie still didn’t show much enthusiasm.
Grandma took a run at it, with the same results.
Wow, look at that excitement!
Okay, so maybe riding the jet ski isn’t his cup of tea. How about riding in a tube with Mom while they’re towed by the jet ski?
Ooh, a little smile there!
It turns out what he really enjoyed was running up and down the dock! He’d race Dad and Grandpa to the end of the dock (Grandpa didn’t try very hard)…
We did that for about half an hour, and then he discovered the fun game called Push Dad off the Dock. He’d come roaring down the dock toward Alex, who was standing at the end, and give him a little shove. Alex would dramatically scream and fall into the water. Ollie would laugh and laugh.
Another favorite activity, we learned, was playing with our ancient Fisher-Price village. This is one of those toys our kids played with (in fact, we’ve saved it all these years). And when I was a wee lad, I had the same things: the barn, the house, the cars and school bus and so on.
Fisher-Price also makes a train set with tracks you can customize, and he’d literally play with it for hours.
Alex built a little treasure chest with wheels (long story) and Ollie would load it up with toys and just run around pushing it everywhere. Who knew kids could be entertained with such simple things? Who needs jet skis when you have a box with wheels, right?
During the course of the week, it was great fun to spend time with our only grandson. He may not look excited about much, but when he smiles it just lights up the place.
We treasure our time with him and love seeing him learn to talk, and start figuring out how the world works. Little kids are great.
