A Week with Alexander

How often do you get to spend an entire week with just one grandchild? Not very often, so we felt very happy for the opportunity to spend some "one-on-one" time with our 6-year old grandson, Alexander. (Alexander is our oldest son Michael's oldest son.) He got to fly on an airplane all by himself, from Salt Lake City, Utah. As he disembarked the plane, he came bounding out of the hallway from the plane all by himself......I got a little worried and asked him if the flight attendent let him get off all by himself. Five seconds later a panting flight attending ran up to us, saying "I'm with him!!" Our walk through the airport back to our car was similar........grandpa and I walking as fast as we could just to keep up with him! We looked at each other with a grin and said "Hmmmmm, we're going to be worn out by the end of the week!"

On the way home from the airport, we stopped at our daughter's home, (Jenni and Will Thomas) and spent about 4 hours playing with another grandson, 18 month old cousin, Preston. Jenni had to go to a meeting, and grandpa had an insurance appointment close to Jenni's house, so Alexander and I had fun playing ball with Preston. We also tried to count all the tiny crabs in Uncle Will's aquarium, watched a Winnie the Pooh movie, and shot basket balls into Preston's new hoop. Both boys were totally entertained and had a great time together, despite the difference in their ages. Except Aunt Jenni was unhappy with grandma for not putting Preston down for a nap . . . . . . .but we were having too much fun!

It didn't take us long to figure out that Alexander LOVES Legos . . . . . . . .actually "loves" is even an understatement! At 6 years old he already has the brain of a mechanical engineer! We got Uncle Stephen's old Lego set down from the storage closet, and turned him loose. The set consists of a helicopter and an 18 wheel truck and trailer. . . . . . . very complicated to say the least. (it's rated for ages 10 -16) He was entertained for hours on end trying to figure it out. He was very good about following the directions in the diagrams. He was SO proud of himself when he finally completed the set, after three days.

He only had to ask grandpa for help once or twice. (It's a good thing that grandpa is good at building things, because I would be a total loss!)

When he finally got the set completed, grandpa had to take his picture so he could remember what he had so much fun building. Grandpa did it up right . . . . .set up the backdrop and got out the studio lighting and everything. The photos below were just my snapshots of grandpa taking Alexander's picture.

Our dining room was the photograhy studio.

On Tuesday, we went to the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2", which we all enjoyed and had a good time laughing. (it was better than the first movie.) We tried a couple of times to go to the beach to find baby crabs, but the tide was extremely high this week, so we were never able to get down to the rocks where they hide. But it was fun anyway. The photo below was taken at English Boom Preseve on the north end of Camano Island.

Durng the week, I had my regular violin and piano students, and Alexander kept himself totally busy working on the lego set while I taught. Grandpa had some church meetings in the evening, so Alexander and I had a couple of "movie nights", and made cinnamon rolls.

On Friday, it was raining and very windy . . . . .that's really an understatement too. It was really windy! But we decided to go on an adventure anyway. We put together a picnic of fried chicken, corn dogs, potato salad and fruit salad and set off to see the sights. Our first stop was at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island to eat our picnic. Alexander hadn't had two bites of his corn dog, when his front tooth fell out! We wrapped it up to he could take it home and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy.

By then it had stopped raining, but the wind was still howling like crazy. We drove down to Oak Harbor (on Whidbey Island) and found our way to a little boat launch area on the west coast. Grandpa and Alexander had a blast getting chased by the huge incoming breakers. Between waves, Alexander would jump down to the beach and turn over a rock, looking for baby crabs, and then race back to the high ground as the incoming waves nipped at his heels. No crabs. . . . . . .but lots of fun! I think that grandpa had as much fun as Alexander . . . . . . . hmmmmmm, wonder who's the "kid" ?

We then worked our way down the coast a bit . . . . . . . . to Fort Ebey State Park. We had originally planned to go to Fort Casy (because we had taken Alexander's older sister Elena there before) but we decided to explore a new area and went to Fort Ebey instead. It was a beautiful place for a picnic, because it was protected by the trees. We explored the ammunition storage bunker that went clear through the hillside. . . . . . . . . . . total blackness, except for a faint glimmer of light at the other side of the hill. Grandpa would yell "hello! anyone in here?" and it would echo and echo. Alexander held grandpa's hand through the entire tunnel. The Fort used to have bug gun batteries, but they have removed the guns. Below, Alexander and I were sitting in the place where the cannons used to be mounted.

We had promised Alexander a ferry ride, so we continued driving south on Whidbey Island, until we reached the little town of Clinton. We were the second car in line to get on the ferry which crosses over to Mukilteo on the Washington mainland. Alexander had to explore the ferry from one end to the other. It was too cold on the bow of the ferry, so we spend most of the time on the rear deck.

Grandpa and Alexander, as we are leaving the port of Clinton. (notice the missing tooth?)

It was smooth sailing over to Mukilteo. We played the game "Rubberneckers" in the car on the way home, until it got too dark to see our playing cards anymore. We had fun showing Alexander around the area in which we live. There's so much to see and do here in this beautiful area . . . . . . . . and if it rains, you just do it anyway and put a raincoat on!

Thank you, Alexander, for coming to visit grandpa and grandma this past week! We love you! We hope that you had fun too!