For Canadian Thanksgiving this year Scotty and I took advantage of the long weekend to go down and visit his Montana cousins. It was a short visit, but we fully enjoyed the beautiful surroundings of Flathead lake. I took a quick swim off the dock and decided that was enough for me -- the kids didn't seem to mind the "invigorating" water temperatures at all, and flitted about the dock and beach from dusk until dawn. Scott was in heaven amongst so many playmates and I was content to sit back and photograph the proceedings... and eat processed cheese product from a can.
As would be expected, Scott continued to idolize older cousin C, and tried his best to do the things that C was doing -- especially when that involved throwing pine cones into the fire.
One of my favourite things about the trip was watching Scott help his younger Cousin C with his life jacket: there is a strict life-jacket policy for the dock and the beach. Typically, Scott's approach has been to openly shun his younger cousins in favour of the older kids, but he was really looking out for little C when he saw he needed some help. Hopefully, that kindness will be more regularly extended to Scott's younger sister, as well.
Scott learned an interesting lesson about reality when we were there: He learned that he is not the fastest person on the planet (he has often compared himself to Dash from the Incredibles movie). This shocking realization came when we held several foot races across the yard between him and some of his cousins, and he was unable to beat anyone older than him. Eventually, he accepted my argument that people get faster as they get older and he is still not as fast as he will be when he's older. The empirical data bore me out, as race success continually showed high correlation to the competitor's age.
Speaking of empirical evidence, Scott also witnessed firsthand that the Police stop people if they drive too fast and also make them pay money. This concept has frequently been discussed in our car when Scott begged us to drive faster. He has even caught the occasional glimpse out his window of cars that have been stopped; however, on this trip, he got to see the Montana state trooper up close and hear a short lecture about watching carefully for warning signs about construction zones that might be lurking below the crest of the various hills. I know the experience made an impression on Scott, because he has brought it up a few times already.
