Grannie Camp: the Beach!

(Yes, I am still catching up on our blog posts from November- the rest of our trip to my grandparents' house, Thanksgiving, and two birthdays!)

The weather was just warm enough to enjoy walks on the beach during the day and after dark! That's another big plus about grandparents- parents are encouraged to take romantic walks on the beach while the kiddo sleeps! Leaving through the back gate:
Grannie was so sweet to rent a really nice jogging stroller while we were there and this is how it got used most:
It was beautiful, sunny beach weather! We enjoyed the sand even though the water was freezing. Kenna loves the beach and we had so much fun taking some really sweet pictures of our family, and some of my all-time favorites of Kenna!

We loved seeing Kenna play on the beach, and especially chasing the seagulls. She kept saying "hug bird" over and over- she is such an animal lover already. She was so sad when she couldn't catch one!

"Bird" was a new word for her, as was "shell" which she discovered plenty of to explore in behind Pop Pop's big chair.

Later in the day we went for lunch at a restaurant called the Palm Pavilion which is right on the beach with a big porch overlooking the water! When I was little, it was a place that you would walk in right off the beach, still in your bathing suit, and sit at the "bar" and have a coke and a burger. Over the years it has become much fancier with nice seafood and very few people wearing bathing suits. But the burgers were still delicious!

One afternoon we drove out across the bridge to the town of Dunedin, which is kind of like a little mountain town right beside an ocean. Matt and I both thought it reminded us of Boone. The whole main street was closed off for the weekend for a craft show and street festival which we walked through and did a little early Christmas shopping. Matt took this completely precious picture of Kenna that shows not only her little stage of learning by imitation, but how immediately she took to Grannie and just loves being around her:

Our fearless one had to stop and meet every dog she saw.
We walked around and bought a few early Christmas presents. And of course, an ice cream stop was necessary!
We had to laugh when we saw this booth at the very end. Grannie didn't know she was active on the craft show circuit! The fine print says "for the discriminating Grannie- too funny!
Ready for more adventures!

Shutterfly for Christmas!

We use Shutterfly so much, I was surprised when I did a search on our blog I couldn't find a single post about it! What I love them best for is their quickie photo books. I absolutely love the way they turn out, how quick they are to put together (as long as you have a little uninterrupted time), and they offer lots of coupon and promo codes. For example, I've gotten a free photobook from saving up my Pampers points (which accumulate quickly with all the diapers around here) and I've even had a free one and a 50% off one print out from the checkout at Harris Teeter.

Thanks to the ease of Shutterfly, I am caught up with Kenna's baby books up to her first year, including a little flip book of all her "firsts." Kenna loves to sit and look at the books- she loves pictures of herself and her family! I've also used them to make a photo memory book of my mom and several Christmas cards over the years. They also have other holiday cards and some really cute birthday cards that I'd love to use for invitations sometime if I can get my act together in time.
The exciting thing is that this year they are offering a special promotion for people with any kind of blog. I think a card with a family photo (or your kid's photo if it's a birthday card, etc.) is such a sweet way to keep in contact with family, and also to look back at over the years. You could even upload each year's Christmas card into a little book so that the kids can flip back through when they get bigger (I'm currently working on making one of these!). It's also crazy easy, once you've made a photobook, to order more copies of it which make perfect Christmas gifts, especially for grandmas who never tire of grandkid pictures!

For this year, I really like this one because there is space for sort of a mini Christmas letter off to the side:
And this one because you could use so many pictures! (That was an especially useful feature the year Kenna was born in November, so we combined her birth announcement with our Christmas card- LOTS of photos we wanted to use!)
So if you're a blogger and would like to try out Shutterfly's products for free (and get a headstart on your Christmas cards for free!) check out this promotion, it's easy as pie. We love Shutterfly!

Wordless Wednesday: Last Year & This Year

Grannie Camp: Family Legacies

We were really proud of Kenna's adventurous spirit during the whole trip, and especially how it didn't take her a second to warm up to Grannie and Pop Pop right away even though we don't get to see them nearly as often as we want! It's so precious to me to see my grandparents become great-grandparents and share in my children's lives. I'm so thankful the Lord has kept them healthy and strong, and blessed them with long years!

Sometime during this trip, I especially wanted to take Kenna to a smaller park closer to Grannie and Pop Pop's house, called McKay park. It is named after Grannie's father/my Mom's grandfather/my great-grandfather/Kenna's great-great-grandfather! He was instrumental in developing many of the family-centered (non-commercial or touristy) things to enjoy on Clearwater Beach, and Grannie has been instrumental in keeping them from being cut out of the city budget in favor of motels and parking garages over the many years. My Mom's side of the family is where Kenna gets her middle name McKay.

This park, and the pram sailboats available to sail in the bay (a small child-sized sailboat that I grew up learning to sail in) are his legacy... I'm sure he would be very pleased to know his great-great-granddaughter enjoyed them so much!

Kenna in a pram at the Sailing Center (they are so small, my cousins and brother and I literally grew out of them by the age of 13 or 14!):

And exploring the bigger Hobie Cat sailboats (the kind Papa likes to sail when he is in Clearwater!)

The same evening that all these photos were taken, we went back to Pier 60 for the craft show/festival (and playground!) since it had been chilly and not fully open the night before. I wanted to see a friend of mine named Suzanne who has been selling beautiful handmade jewelry on the beach for many years now. I helped her "man her booth" one summer for about two weeks, and credit her with much of my interest in doing craft shows and having a creative business! And it was fun to introduce her to Matt and Kenna!

And what is a night at the pier without a little ice cream to end the day? Kenna decided she needed to eat hers and mine too!

Grannie Camp: The Florida Aquarium

I can't imagine anything being more perfect for Kenna at this stage than a big huge aquarium. You could practically chronicle the trip according to the new words she learned: beach, fish, shell, boat, and bird! The pictures all pretty much speak for themselves: we had such a good time!

The fearless troops waiting for their leader (in the backyard at Grannie's):

Grannie, Matt and I had so much fun watching her enjoy everything the aquarium had to offer (and enjoying it ourselves!) and Matt and I also fell in love with our camera again, with so many fun things to take pictures of!

The Florida Aquarium in Tampa

...leaning over the sting ray touch tank! Kenna couldn't quite lean far enough to touch them without feeling like she was falling in, but she wanted to.

Lots of really, really big fish!

She was not so crazy about the fish tanks you can walk across (neither was Mommy!). She was making these hilarious freaked-out faces and scootching as closely to the wall as she could possibly get, so what did I do instead of comforting my child? Whip out the camera quickly, of course!

Resting a minute in the big chairs with Grannie.

I love Matt and Grannie's matching faces:

And my absolute favorite was when she saw the ducks. These ducks were the most calm, tame, friendly animals you can imagine, even though we were only about a foot away from them! Kenna kept shouting "hi duck!" and "bath!" and loved watching them dip and swim in the water.

We even met a little penguin on the way out the door!

We stayed all morning until after lunchtime. You know it's a fun time when this happens on the way home:

What a good time seeing all the "psssssh!" (fish!)

Grannie Camp!

As I briefly mentioned back in October, we've had lots and lots going on in November- the month went by so quickly! The first weekend in November I participated in a craft show, then we went to my grandparents' house in Florida for five days, and it was birthday, Thanksgiving, birthday, family in town, parties, and a snow day from there! So we're working backwards now trying to play "catch up" since I make our family albums from this blog!

My brother and I grew up thinking our Grannie Annie (my mom's mom) was magic. She had green lipstick that turned red as soon as she put it on... a jar of river rocks on her windowsill turned out to be candy... she knew every funny song there was and had a knack for picking out the perfect toys to bring us out of her magic bag. Anything and everything we wanted to do or try somehow became possible in the summers we spent at Grannie and Pop Pop's house in Clearwater, Florida at "Grannie Camp."

Ever since (probably even before) we were married, Matt has heard these stories but has not been able to take a trip to Grannie Camp. And other than a brief trip at 3 months old (which was not a "fun" trip!), neither had Kenna! The summers and Christmases I spent in Clearwater with my big brother and my two cousins are some of the best childhood memories, and I couldn't wait for Matt to come experience them. We had a long "to do" list, starting with taking our days-away-from-turning 2 year old on the plane!

Kenna actually did really well and loved flying. Despite a really early flight on the way down, she mostly sat still between the two of us and waited for the stewardesses to bring her a snack. Luckily, the Lord blessed us with an almost-empty flight which meant her little squeals and wiggles went almost completely unnoticed, and my "lap baby" had her own seat! We flew Southwest Airlines, which we love for their friendly staff and generosity- the stewardesses gave Kenna about six little bags of pretzels!
Watching the rest of the passengers board the plane.
Eating an airplane snack like a big girl!

Grannie was waiting expectantly for us the minute we stepped off the plane (as always!) and drove us the hour back to Clearwater from Tampa, which gave us lots of time to chat and catch up! When we got to the house (with Pop Pop waiting), despite having the beach within walking distance and the weather nice enough to go walk on it, we mostly visited all afternoon. For dinner, we ate at the first spot on our list of Grannie camp memories- a Greek pizza place called Post Corner Pizza that my grandparents have been eating at since it opened on the beach over 30 years ago! The owners are a fun Greek family who always send over free dessert when they're there. And the pizza is delicious! I've never had anything else off the menu- Pop Pop has ordered the same pizza and Greek salad for the table since before I can remember.

After dinner, we headed right across the street to the pier where there is a craft show/street festival on the weekends. It is also the home of a really big, really fun playground that Kenna loved. In fact, I'm not sure who liked it more, Matt or Kenna, since Matt asked almost each night if we could take Kenna back to let her play! See what I mean?

I liked this blurry "real life" photo of my girl trying out some pretty big slides:

We loved enjoying time with him without him having to be at work in the evenings! We love this Daddy:

Then it was time for jammies and books and rocking Kenna in some of the same chairs I was rocked in as a wee one. The whole week was like a hug from extended family- for example, when we set up Kenna's pack and play, Grannie pulled an afghan off the rocking chair to put in the bed, telling us it was one my great-grandmother (who taught me to crochet!) made. Matt and I slept under a quilt my Mom had made for Grannie's birthday, and there were pictures of her everywhere, which was familiar and comforting.

Telling Momma secrets:

Kenna didn't sleep much during this trip, and barely napped at all- there was too much fun going on that she thought she might miss out on! But when she conked out for the night she was pretty well out!