A Day Just for Will

There are six kids in our family, which means most of our adventures involve a lot of people.

A lot of snacks. A lot of shoes. A lot of opinions. And usually at least one person who needs something at the exact moment someone else has finally stopped needing something.

So every once in a while, it feels really special to do something completely different: take just one kid.

This time, it was Will.

At seven, Will is at such a fun age for an adventure. He's old enough to have very definite ideas about what he wants to do, but young enough that everything can still feel genuinely AMAZING.

And for Will, a day filled with rides and building things is basically perfection.

The best part was watching him take the lead.

He wanted to see everything. He wanted to tell us everything. He'd spot something in the distance and immediately point: LOOK!

So we looked.

We followed him around. We rode the rides he wanted to ride. We stopped when he wanted to build something. We let him explain things to us in enormous detail.

And without the usual logistics of moving our entire family from Point A to Point B, Chet and I actually got to experience the day at Will-speed.

It was adorable.

Seven feels like this wonderful little middle ground.

Will can run around all day and keep up with us. He's independent and curious and increasingly capable of doing big-kid things.

But he's still little enough to grab our hands.

Still little enough to light up when something surprises him.

Still little enough that spending an entire day with Mom and Dad feels like a big deal.

I know that part doesn't last forever.

Building is still very high on Will's list.

He can sit down with a pile of bricks and disappear into his own little world, creating vehicles and buildings and elaborate inventions that make perfect sense to him.

It's one of the reasons a building-focused amusement park was such an obvious choice for his special day.

And naturally, we didn't leave his building obsession at the park.

This is exactly the kind of set I like for Will because it isn't just one model that gets built and forgotten. It gives kids ideas for vehicles and then lets them take everything apart, change them, combine them and invent their own versions.

For a seven-year-old who loves LEGO and has a huge imagination, that's much more fun than something that only has one “right” finished product.

The rides were fun. The park was fun. Watching Will build things was fun.

But my favorite part wasn't really any of that.

It was walking between everything with Will holding our hands, talking approximately a mile a minute, completely delighted that this was his day.

With a big family, I love the chaos of all of us together.

But I want to remember to do this, too.

One kid. Two parents. No agenda beyond following them around for a while and remembering how much fun it is to see the world at seven years old.