Sunday, March 7, 2010

Off Track with Grandma and Grandpa

Presidents' Day marked the beginning of a vacation for our grandsons, Nathan and Matthew. They attend school year round and were to be "off-track" for three weeks. Their mom and dad thought they might enjoy a change of scenery for a few days. Consequently, we brought them back home with us and had the pleasure of their company for one whole week!

The first night, for Family Home Evening, Jim taught the boys how to make cinnamon rolls and build a fire in the fireplace. Matthew won the privilege of lighting the fire after a rousing game of "rock, paper, scissors". Jim shared his childhood scrapbook and told stories from his youth in front of that toasty fire.


The boys built a giant tent in the family room and that's where they spent the night for the rest of the week. I don't think they got much sleep, though. They seemed to have a "sleep over" every night. The tent morphed into two tents later on in the week.

Exploring the backyard, checking on the chickens, collecting the eggs and night skiing in the fog seemed to be the highlights of the first day. The boys designed and then built their pinewood derby cars with Grandpa throughout the week.



"We are so going to win!" commented Matthew in the middle of the project.

The boys were so proud of their sleek, shiny cars.

Check out those painting frames!

Nathan found some time during the week to make some amazing Lego creations.

There was never a dull moment with video games to play.


We spent two fascinating hours exploring the Discovery Center (unfortunately without the camera). The tin can robot for sale in the gift shop inspired the boys to take seriously my offer to pay them a dollar for each hour that they read. Between the two of them, they read 17 hours over the next couple of days!

Nathan and Matthew joined the young men and women from church in an ice skating activity. Matthew thought it would be fun to try to figure skate. Both boys came home bruised and a little sore after all the falls. They agreed that skiing was much more fun because when you fall you have ski pants and the snow to soften the fall.

Our trip to the library to find books and movies, resulted in the discovery of the Video Game Challenge which was to take place the following afternoon. My video game maniacs couldn't wait to participate! We had our eyes on the clock all afternoon the next day to make sure we wouldn't miss it. It didn't fail to please.

We got the boys up early on Saturday to go skiing. The day got off to a rocky start when we stopped to pick up the equipment we had rented for the boys the day before and discovered it had been put away. It was hard to be patient as the order was refilled. It was a perfect day for skiing, though. We started out skiing together on cat tracks and blue runs until Nathan and Matthew got bored. They took off to ski some steep runs and through the trees on their own leaving Grandpa to deal with fearful Grandma. The boys could not figure out what Grandma was so scared about. After about two hours of skiing, exhausted Matthew (remember the nightly "sleep overs") took a nap on three chairs pushed together in the lodge while Nathan and Grandpa had the skiing time of their lives.




The boys were excited to see old friends at church on Sunday. They were not pleased with the no video game rule and let us know they were bored by wrestling each other for the rest of the day. They drove us crazy! We got some peace when Grandpa helped them assemble the robot (bought earlier in the week with the money they earned reading) Sunday afternoon. It was way cool.



Jim left for Japan early Monday morning. I spent the day preparing to make the return trip to Utah. As I was contemplating during my morning walk on how to get the boys involved in the preparations, off the video games and outside, the Scavenger Hunt idea came to mind. When they came to me an hour later looking for something to do, I was prepared with the Scavenger Hunt. I had a list of tasks that they were to perform--an indoor work task alternating with an outdoor quest. I had hidden a quarter in each "inside" job which they were to look for as they completed the task. I promised to pay them a quarter when they had accomplished the outdoor quest. Each time they finished an assignment, they were to come to me for the next one. They seemed to have a great time playing the game. By the time they were finished, they had all the messes cleaned up (including the tents), the packing done, some new treasures (collected outside), about three dollars in quarters, and bright eyes and rosy cheeks from all the exercise. Success! To celebrate our accomplishments, we went to dinner that evening at McDonald's, then to the movie "Planet 51" and back to McDonald's afterwards for ice cream.

The boys were happy to get back home with their family. Hopefully they'll have a few good memories of "off-track with Grandma and Grandpa". Grandma and Grandpa certainly do!:)

1 comment:

Dan and Dee said...

I love your activity ideas. I wish I had read some of them b/f I went to visit our grand kids (although, I Spy Go Fish kept us very busy). It is so fun being around the gkids!
It is sad that Jim goes to Japan and we are so close...Dan has a trip in April we are going for. Does Jim have plans to visit Japan anytime around the 7-16th of April?