For Grandma’s birthday, we drove down to South Carolina.  It was nice timing with both of Jacob’s parents coming off of a lot of overtime to a little bit of a break for the new year.  So both of them had tons of Anna time.

Anna and their beagle, Daisy, were much better with each other this visit.  Anna was the only one in the house who would ever say the word “walk” and that is Daisy’s favorite word.  In fact, Anna loved holding Daisy’s leash on the walks and both had the best time together.  Sometimes we would all go out with them, sometimes it was only one of us walking them to the park and back.  We would chase the dog all over and try to play fetch with her but more often than not Anna would be the retriever.  Daisy is really just a sniffer.  Anna walked so much, she even walked Daisy all the way around the local little pond.  And she picked up quick on the bossy tone Linda and I usually took with the dog; Anna would repeat “Daisy” and click her tongue if the dog stopped too long or went off the trail.

We all went to visit the local children’s museum called Edventure.  Anna found plenty to do there including driving a fire truck, picking wooden eggs, cooking food for her grandparents, steering a fishing boat, descending tree slides and snow slides, and crawling through tunnels.  Being a kid is awesome.  The place was a little crowded since it was a Saturday but Anna was very patient and willing to wait her turn and she somehow is good at finding abandoned niches to enjoy (oh, genes).  Needless to say, she was almost too tired to eat her Chick-fil-a lunch, but she persevered for the ice cream.

Anna was also spoiled with plenty of fun toys at “second Christmas.”  She really liked her new books that come with a doggy that reads to her and sings songs too.  While in South Carolina, she mainly just enjoyed hearing the stories from Grandpa while sitting on his lap.  He does great voices.  But since we’ve been home she has found more control and likes using the dog. She also opened a book which folds out to be a car she can sit in.  She loved opening the door and shutting it.  She would put her booster seat in it for a chair and pack up her diaper bag full of milk for her baby then they would go for a “drive.”  She didn’t like the windshield very much but she did end up at the drive-in once.  She pointed her car towards the television when it came on and watched Despicable Me with a bowl of popcorn in her cardboard Jeep.We made an excursion to Charleston.   Anna loves the beach so very much that we even go in December (or is that Becca, oh well I forget).  We played on the beach for a while, about until my toes went numb.  Anna was confused at first.  Why were her shoes off?  What was this stuff touching her toes.  But then we found shells!  And then we found water!  There was a nice stream from the higher tide that sucked our toes into the muddy sand.  Anna and I giggled when our toes disappeared and we had to wiggle them to find them again.  She is so amazing and full of joy.  Even barefoot on the beach in December.

I spent New Year’s Eve putting the finishing touches on Emily’s new Chromebook cover.  She thought my iPad cover was cute and useful so we made one for her.  Then I taught her some beginner tips on using a sewing machine and she started off at full speed on her own project of making dog bandanas.  We played our new Creationary lego game with them and also played some Taboo.  The Grandparents whipped up a lovely meal for New Year’s Day.  We are so blessed to have family to be with.  We had a really great time visiting the Allreds and hanging out with the younger Allreds.