One of the real highlights of our summer was having our grandson Nicholas stay with us in CR. Basically Bob had a playmate! To start things off Nick’s birthday is July 6th so we bought him a new full suspension mountain bike so he could ride the trails with us. When Nick arrived on July 12th with his Mom and grandparents Brian and
Patty he was ecstatic when he saw his new bike. Actually Bob couldn’t wait for Nick to see his bike and the minute Nick walked in the front door, Bob told him to go out the back to check out his birthday present. I think Bob was just as excited as Nick!

The bike seemed to be a bit big for Nick but within a couple of hours of practice riding on the back lawn Nick had no problem at all and was ready to hit the trails. We did a lot of trail riding and street riding which wasn’t always an easy task and a few injuries happened along the way. Often Nick and Bob would go for more than one ride a day but that was too much for me. There were a few challenges riding up or down steep hills but Nick always encouraged me and congratulated me with “Way to go Baba” and I would reply “Whose your Baba!”. Baba means grandmother in Ukrainian.

Nick spent some one on one time with both of us learning new things almost every day. He baked muffins from scratch, mixed raw burger then forming patties, made cookies and was a help cleaning in the kitchen with me. He helped Bob with making beef jerky, cut the lawn, loaded and help spread manure in the garden, learned how to read a measuring tape, went fishing and tubing. He liked to get a slurpy at the end of a hot or hard day of work.

One of his most memorable fun events I believe was when he had an outdoor water fight with Bob and Melissa using water guns. There was lots of shouting and laughing going on and I was happy to be just an observer. Another fun event was going to the Saratoga Race Track and riding the go carts on a real track. A very reasonable cost $10.00 for ten rounds on the track. He went twice, once with Bob and then the next time with Aunty Melissa. The second time he was able to go a little faster as they control how fast the car can go depending on your experience. It still wasn’t as fast as he would have liked to go but hopefully next time they will speed it up a bit more for him.

Nick was always very accommodating with giving up his bedroom when more guests came for a visit. No problem moving to the den and sleeping on the sofa. Oh and he always kept his bedroom clean and made the bed every day which is something he doesn’t do at home.

Nick stayed with us for 3 weeks in July, went home for a couple of weeks then came back for another 10 days in August. It was far too quiet for us when he left and tears were shed by all. We can’t wait to have Nick come stay with us again to keep our home alive with laughter and love. Miss you Nicholas and thanks for making us so proud to have you for a grandson. :)