Birthiversary Trip

 Trying to keep with tradition, it was the year for Kennedy, Nathan and I to all share our wedding anniversary/birthday - or as it has become known - our birthiversary! We shared our special day together on their first anniversary in 2017 and then again in 2019 so keeping with our every-other year joint celebration it was time to do so again in 2021! This year they are celebrating 5 years so they wanted to do something special and get away together. COVID definitely limited their travel options but they finally decided to head south to Miami and enjoy some time away from the kids and the sun. And this grandma was more than happy to fly out there and stay with the kids to make that happen. 

With Will only having school online due to COVID,  I decided to take him with me this time. Holland was super excited to see Uncle Will! And of course - Papaw couldn't stand the thought of missing out so he also booked a trip to join us for the last few days in Virginia.

Will is "double masked"

Holland was so excited to see us and of course the first thing she wants to do is show us all her toys and her room. She is really into drawing lately and just like her mommy when she was little, she can spend hours coloring. 

However, no one was more excited to see Will than Nala. Nala just thrived on all the attention she got from Will and really enjoyed sleeping at the foot of his bed each night. 

One of the reasons Scott couldn't come out sooner was we had our stake conference that first weekend of our trip. I hated to not be there for it but it was all virtual anyway so got to watch and hear him speak from Kennedy's. Holland thought was pretty cool to see Papaw on TV!

It was so fun for me to see in person how much Holland loves the various gifts I have given over the past few years. I love that she is creative and loves learning new things. She is so inquisitive about everything! She even told us that she wanted to learn how to tell time while we were there. Kennedy is so good and patient to try and help her learn all these new things. 

One of the favorite toys I have gotten the kids are these hand-knitted Cuddle and Kind dolls. I love them so much I am tempted to just buy a set of them all for me! I bought Holland and Turner the Polar Bears (Hudson and Stella - they come with birthdates and names) last year and Holland won't go anywhere with her Stella! So I brought them out a couple more this visit and as you can tell, Holland is already loving Henry the Bunny too!

Part of daily ritual was to walk (or if Nathan was home to help, Holland would "drive") to meet the bus at noon each day to pick up their free lunches. Since the pandemic hit, all the schools are offering free lunches to everyone - even the non-school aged children. We would come home with enough food to feed an entire family for the day! Unfortunately, not everyone in the family would want to eat that food! But Holland definitely enjoyed the chocolate milk each day.

Just before Kennedy and Nathan were taking off to Miami, Kennedy wanted to get a pedicure so of course I was willing to join her. Holland already loves going to the nail salon so that just left us talking Will into getting his first pedicure. He thought it was ok but a little ticklish - not sure we will get him back anytime soon. Holland told me I had to get blue on my toes - so blue it was!

This little Turner boy was a doll! He was a little timid around Will and Scott but he sure loved his grandma and this grandma sure loves him!

Will was such a good sport to play Holland's favorite songs (like Pancake Robot) over and over and over...and over again. They would sing and dance until they would literally collapse!

I have been wanting to introduce Holland to Shrinky Dinks and figured she was probably old enough that she could do them so I brought a pack of the special paper with me. She had a ton of fun coloring her own designs and watching them bake in oven. We made them in to magnets after they cooked so she could hang them on her fridge or coloring easel. 

These two came home with me! That is Grandma Heidi and Papaw! Everyone has extremely large ears and big buns on the top of their heads for hair!

One of Holland's favorite moments to spend with me was in the morning when it was time for me to get ready. She always wanted to with me in the bathroom, sit up on top of the sink and do make-up with grandma. How stinking cute is she?

And any down time we had or when I was tucking her into bed at night, she only wanted me phone to make "funny faces" - meaning she wanted to use the filters on snapchat. I hate to admit but I found it as entertaining as she did!

The night Kennedy and Nathan came home from Miami, Holland had made this "tree-house" in her room. She had basically taken every toy, stuffed animal and blanket from her room and put them inside her closet and then piled some of them up at the door and even made a walkway out of books leading to the tree-house. She was so proud of her work and she had spent about 3 hours on it - so there was no way I was going to make her clean it up! Oh the joys of being grandma! I just waited until Kennedy came home and made her be the bad guy!

The highlight of the trip for me was celebrating my birthday there with the kids! Scott, Will and I ventured out to a restaurant with the kids for dinner. How hard could it be? There were 3 of us and only 2 of them, right? Within 5 minutes I remembered why I hated taking little kids to restaurants. It is so much harder for them to sit still when they are somewhere new and the don't understand that you have to wait for you food. But we survived and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Scott was so cute involving Holland in the birthday planning. He took her to Wegman's to pick up birthday pie and ice cream (since grandma doesn't really like cake), and some birthday balloons (the heart one flew away at some point), and then to the Dollar Store and gave her $5 to pick out 5 presents for grandma and some party games! 

My mom found a massage place nearby Kennedy's house and purchased a gift certificate for me while I was there. While I was out getting my massage, Scott and the kids were busy decorating the house for my party. 

The main party event was "pin the nose on the clown". It took a few tries before Holland understood the rules and the point of the game. We put the blindfold on her and would spin her around and all she kept saying was "I can't see anything!" while trying to pull her blindfold off. She hit the clown right on the nose her fist time so guessing she managed to peak out somehow!

After games and pie and ice cream I got to open up all my dollar store presents chosen personally by Holland! It is a little scary that she is already this good at a shopping! Check out the loot I went home with...

Happy 52 to me!!!

Holland had a blast with Papaw and we were all so glad he could come out for a few days to join us. He had to head home a day before Will and I to get back for his Coordinating Council Meeting with Elder Blunk. 

For our last day there after Scott had gone home, we all went to one of the fancy malls near Kennedy to do some shopping. Will enjoys window shopping at some of the fancier upscale stores they have there. On our way back to the car, we spotted a sporting goods store that had some awesome jerseys. Will was in heaven! They had a BOGO sale on the basketball jerseys so he took his own sweet time trying to decide on which two to buy. Meanwhile, Holland was getting a little bored. That was until she found the window display! She  had a blast standing in the window with all the manequins and waving to the people walking by. That was until someone would ignore her and not wave back - then she would have a meltdown. 

Then it was off to the airport! Always so sad and hard to say goodbye to these kids! But this was the face I got to enjoy while sitting in the back seat with this boy all the way to the airport.