Weekend at Grandma's

So I'm finally catching up on California and our weekend at Grandma Brockman's even if it was two months ago! We had such a lovely visit and I wanted to make sure I took a moment to document it.

 

Dan's grandmother, Alberta Brockman, is the dearest widow and lives all alone in Downey, CA at the ripe young age of 91! We have always loved visiting Grandma and tried to see her each year but when Dan's parents left on their mission we promised his mom that we'd get out to visit her more often since she wouldn't be able to. It was a great promise to make as each trip has been a sincere delight. We have had time to sit and enjoy hearing great stories about Grandma's life and her family as well as see her deep joy in watching Lydia and Emmett. We are happy they will have memories with her! While Dan did a lot of work cleaning up the yard, the kids and I mostly kept Grandma company, entertained and cooked good meals and yummy treats for her. Of course Grandma had her own treats ready and waiting for Dan; Klondike bars in the freezer and his favorite bear claws for breakfast! It is fun to hear Dan reminisce visits to Grandma's house as a young boy and sleeping in the pool room with his brothers or going out to the garage and seeing all of grandpa's tools! Now Lydia too is in love with Grandmas quaint little house and in addition to the infamous little red play house, she now loves to pick oranges from Grandma's orange tree. Here is Lydia and the Orange Tree!

 

Not long after Lydia discovered the massive oranges so perfectly ripe and ready for picking she decided to introduce little brother to them too! I love the vibrant colors of the tree and oranges. March sure is beautiful in California and so are my children!

 

Emmett really giving these oranges some thought!

 

One other great part about our visit was getting together with Dan's Uncle Dick (Marley's only sibling)and Aunt Renee and his Cousins. They all live in the Huntington Beach area and were so good to come share dinner and spend some time with us. Kelly and her little baby Cooper came out. He and Emmett are pretty close in age so it was a blast to see the boys crawling all over each other! But even more wonderful was to see how well little Lydia and Emma (Dan's cousin Staci's girl)took to each other. Emma is about five months older than Lydia but you would have thought these two were twins. Ok, so they look nothing alike but they were inseparable the entire evening. They had no interest in eating dinner, just in playing and being silly together. For Grandma, watching these two together was the highlight of our visit. At one point they were pounding on her organ and singing at the top of their lungs and she thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world! She kept talking about what darling friends they were the entire weekend and even said that after seeing these two together she could die happy tonight!

 

Lydia loved her new friend too and has repeatedly asked if she can come over and play tomorrow. If only a three year old could understand the six hours of driving it would require for her to come play tomorrow! In addition to Emma, Lydia loved grandma's house for the cartoons on her TV, the old children's stories and old toys (that smell it)! But her three favorite parts of Grandma's house were her flowers, her mailbox and her "pretty pink bathroom!" Grandma was kind and patient enough to let Lydia pick 90% of the flowers from her yard. Ok so 90% is probably an exaggeration, but she would have picked that many if we'd let her! Grandma let her use a basket and she would pick and pick to her hearts content. I think every vase (and plastic cup)she owned was filled with flowers and every room in her house had a lovely display! Grandma has the cool old fashioned mailbox that is a slot in her wall so when the mailman delivers her mail it falls right onto her entry way floor. Lydia thought this was the coolest thing ever and spent hours writing letters and making packages that she would then walk out the front door, put them through the mail slot and come back in acting totally surprised to find a mail delivery. Some packages included flowers shoved through the slot! I think all weekend Lydia was convinced she wanted to be a mail lady when she grew up!

 

Now my favorite of Lydia's favorites was her admiration of Grandma's bathroom. Every time she'd go in it she'd tell me what a pretty pink bathroom it is! She especially loved the pink stool with the pink shag seat that sat at a the vanity counter. I think this is so sweet to me because I remember a similar vanity with a blue shag rug and blue shag seated stool at my Grandma Bush's house growing up. I always thought it was so cool and dreamed of having one! Now I find it hilarious but completely understand my daughters infatuation with it! Besides that, her favorite color is Pink! What a perfectly pleasant visit. We are already looking forward to our next one.