Our Summer- Part 1: Glacier

 Our BIG vacation this year was to head west and take in the sights and multiple hugs from the best grandparents in the world. We met up at the lake and kyacked and painted nails and used our binoculars and hugged and hugged and hugged.

 A Good GB will take a few silly shots with you and paint your toenails- she may not however offer you a chair to sit in to do it so you'll need to be flexible.

 Oh and did I mention we saw a few glaciers? cause we did- even had a snowball fight in the summertime. :)

But the best part of all was just being together.

From FL With Love

We've been gone- now we are back. 

I vowed to take more photos with my 'actual' camera this summer so that my kids will not think that everything in the years 2011-2012 was pixelated like a cell phone photo. I think I did ok on this trip.

We saw some wildlife.

Went to the beach.

With the added bonus of a jelly fish encounter. (She's fine- and a complete trooper.)

We went to the pool,

 

 

and perfected our swimming. (more to come on this later)

 

 We ate (everything- as the scale tells me now). We even made our our own donuts

 We went to the Children's Museum of Naples and HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with a day or two to kill. We drove daddy's car and tried out some careers.

And of course we picked up just a few oranges.

 

We celebrated Grandma's Birthday.

And played with all her toys.

 

After all that fun it was time to fly home... 

It would be a complete lie if I said I wished we were still there, but if I said I wished we hadn't gone that would be a lie too.

A Cornicopia of Thanks

This week I am cleaning 'like a crazy lady' (that's how C described it) in preperation for Christmas' arrival this weekend. So I started with my camera card- and that reminded me that I never fully finished up Thanksgiving. I was at my Gram's for the holiday and I'll blame her lack of Internet for eating my other.... however many more things I needed to complete my list of 100 things I'm thankful for. I was simply thankful for every moment we had to spend with family this holiday season. It had been too long and I almost forgot just how fun they can be.
I am thankful for my Gram and Pap and that they are able to play around with my kids. (C and N are so lucky)
Pretty much I'm thankful for the whole crazy bunch of family we saw this year.

And even the ones we didn't see

We banked a lot of hugs to get us through to the next time we see them and stayed just long enough to remind us how truly crazy they are. In the end it was good to go and it was good to come home (to our sick daddy on the couch).

Now who's ready for Christmas!

Pulling Hair and Other Gram Reflections

Today I was looking at pictures with Claire. We came across some of my Grandma. I told Claire with all fondness that that was her great grandma. And she turned to me and said

"Is she the one that likes to pull hair?"

I guess we need to plan a trip to Gram's sometime soon. Claire says that because I always tell her in the midst of tearful hair brushing that 'your great grandma always says : If you wanna be pretty you gotta suffer'. It's sad to me that really that's what she'll probably take with her about her great grandma, it's sad because she really has a Great great grandma. Who loves her

and her brother.

Who loves family and a good time.

Even though sometimes she's not in the greatest mood, I still love her. And really miss being close by, or close enough to pop over for a bit. (to check if she's in a good mood or not) Or share some toast and tea in the morning at that great table that seats barely 5, or 12 depending on the day.

I don't know how to end this because it's getting kinda sappy, and I can hear her yelling 'For God's sake, I'm not dead yet'. So I'll just say that I love her and I miss her. I hope you have a great grandma who imparts great knowledge, or at least hugs and stability in your life.

*Grandma- if you ever go on the internet and somehow stumble across this I apologize for the pictures of you in your pajamas, and anything I may say that puts you in a bad mood. :)