To Grandmother’s House We Go

For the 4th.
For most of the 4ths of my adult life we have gone to visit my grandparents in Hot Springs Village.
There have been a few years where we tried some other venues and ideas, some good, some not so good. We loved having it at Jemimah and Adam’s house before they moved but after last years less-than-stellar party at my house, we have gone back to the good ol‘ tried and true 4th in the Village. After all, there you can go swimming at the pool, & fishing down at the lake, enjoy the lazy dazy porch swing, take in some Putt-Putt if you have the chance, sample some honest-to-goodness homemade fried chicken (thank you sweetie!) and homemade vanilla ice cream (thank you Maw and Dad!) go see some great fireworks with your kiddos, stay up late into the night reading a good book you found on the shelf, and (if you are lucky) get to eat some Maw waffles on your last morning. There is no where else like it on earth.

Here are some of my favorite memories (that I managed to take pictures of) from this weekend, that I thought I would share with you and especially with Jemimah and Adam who we missed so much!

Wylie’s first fish! Both Daddoe and Kiddoe were pretty proud of that…

It’s soooo faaaaarrrr… Can you find Miles?
Me looking up from the bottom of the stairs that lead from my grandparents back yard down to their dock…

A Conference of Chicken.
Hey we are in the South and this is the 4th, it’s the one day of the year we deep fry those puppies with no guilt, nor shame.

All ready for the fireworks…

Doin‘ his GQ pose. How do they even know to come up with this stuff?

Me and the boys… We forgot our lawn chairs, but made do anyway. You can’t have fun if you aren’t willing to risk getting a little dirty in the process…

I promise it was only Root Beer that they were drinking…

His favorite face to make every time I had the camera out…

My favorite face as he watched the fireworks.

My Maw is the original Recycling/Conserving Momma.
She still washes and re-uses her Ziplock bags for one thing. For another,
this is her waffle iron. It is at least as old as me and she has had it repaired at least twice.
Repaired. Can you imagine getting your waffle iron repaired? Where would you even go to get it worked on these days?
I aspire to be more like her in this (and many other) ways..

The boys with their (Great-) Paw. The connection these boys have with their Paw is so sweet. Miles especially has always had the most precious relationship with him, preferring him to almost any other extended family member as a baby. I think it is a kindred spirit between two tender hearted curmudgeons. Everyone morning Miles was so happy to find someone else besides him up with the sun and ready for breakfast. They are 2 peas in a pod, those two.

 

Even though the pool and the fishing and the fireworks are great, the thing I love most about weekends like these are watching my kids get to know their great-grandparents the way I know them…watching them experience the same magic that comes with screen porches and Great- GrandPaws’s on swings, and Great-GrandMaw’s that still know how to make ice cream from scratch.