To Grandmama's House We Go

Morgan and I have had several reunions this year, if you hadn't been paying attention. She came to Cleveland, I went to Ocala, she came to Tallahassee... and then very recently we embarked on a trip together - to Grandmama and Granddaddy's house! 

Morgan had a conference in Jacksonville and asked if I could meet her there for a long weekend (beginning of week, actually) trip up to Beaufort. We stayed the first night with my parents, and the next three with Granddaddy and Grandmama. As with anything we do with the Norman side of the family, it was well-documented. And as per usual, you're going to be subjected to viewing those photos, because what's the point of taking them if there's no one to see?

We didn't take pictures on our drive on Saturday night or at church the next morning, but we went straight out to Grandmama's from church and she suggested a picture with her oldest two grandchildren. I am wearing heels in these pictures and Morgan is slouching, just in case you wondered "How accurately are these people portrayed, anyway?"

My dad came out too. It's one of his Sunday afternoon things, to enjoy lunch with his parents. Plus he was key in getting the boat in the water later, as Morgan and I demanded requested kindly.

So the boat was put in the water, despite it's best wishes. It clung to the trailer with all it's might, but Granddaddy and I put some muscle in. It ended with a little struggle that involved me sitting on the end of the boat and pushing with my feet with all my might on the boat trailer to get that thing off. I mean, the engine on the boat was going too, so I guess I can't brag.

It was a beautiful day (you can go ahead and be thankful that I didn't post the 40 other pictures of the water this day and only included these 20 or so :) 

Dad drove back to the house and was waiting at the dock when we got there.

We didn't mean to match, but you'll see throughout this post that somehow we managed to coordinate a lot of our outfits by accident.

 We puttered around, mostly looking at other people's yards and docks from the vantage point of a dock. It's like snooping, but you're not trespassing at all.

It was really hot, so Morgan improvised by fanning herself with a shoe.

We saw a couple of dolphins, but I didn't get good pictures of them. The water was so pretty!

We were going to have crabs at some point, but only two crabs wandered into the crab trap (or however they get in there... we continued to check it just in case.

I'm not sure how long these cups have been around, but Morgan, my sister Becca and I all have cups like these with our names on them. There's one other cup like this, and it has all the other grandchildren's names on it. That's because we are the best ;)

That night, we had brownies and ice cream and looked through our old folders full of pictures we'd drawn and crafts we made. Once upon a time, we held "art galleries" in the house where doting uncles and aunts could purchase our one-of-a-kind works of art using paper tickets we made. I'm pretty sure the whole collection is now housed in a folder... and we were such terrible artists. Cute, but terrible.

After the walk down memory lane, we played Life. Grandmama has a newer version than the one I have, and it had been awhile for all three of us. It was the best game of Life I've ever played. We laughed so hard, we cried. 

We went to the beach the next day. It wasn't sunny, as we'd hoped, so we put rain jackets on and headed out anyway. Morgan got this shot of me locking the gate on the way out. 

Sun would have been nice, but it was still a beautiful day out there.

One of our goals was to find wood to make some sort of project with. We succeeded.

Stopped by Barefoot Bubba's on the way back because it's so colorful and beachy. Purchased nothing.

Monday evening ended with a round of home videos, where we questioned all the adults' fashion choices (oh, the 90s) and laughed at our squeaky voices.

That night, Morgan suggested a walk out to the dock, but chickened out at the bottom of the stairs. Granddaddy got his big flashlight and the three of us ventured out.

We began a game of Scrabble that night, which I ended up winning (the following night). None of us are great at Scrabble, so it was fun.

 The next day, Morgan met up with her other grandma in town for the day, while I went to coffee with Nana and then on to shopping in Bluffton with Mom.


On our last morning, we went for a boat ride. This would have been a better beach day, but alas, we were leaving. It was a short ride, but we spotted dolphins, which teased us by circling the boat and popping up where we least expected.

See the tails of the dolphins?

After lunch at Alvin Ord's, Morgan and I hit the road. We met up with Carson on I-10 and he took this stunning wonder of a picture. And we were very sad to part and return to the realities of going to work and cooking for ourselves. Oh, the tragedy!