grandpa & a girls trip

i whisper in her ear.
he is the friendliest man in all of florida.
she says back
how do you know, momma, how do you know he is the most friendly?

i've watched as my grandpa talks and engages others my whole life.  there is no such thing as a stranger when he is around.  there has never been a waitress he couldn't make smile.  a conversation he couldn't have with any kind of person.  he is a wealth of random information and he happens to know the fight songs of about 10 different universities by heart.
he's hilarious.  i think i was 7 and my younger brother was 4.  he came to visit and he loaded the 2 of us up in his rental car to go to vicksburg, ms.  a town 45 minutes from the one i grew up in.  vicksburg was a significant location in the civil war and you can tour antebellum homes and the national military park.  somehow we ended up at the mississippi state fair in jackson, ms.  we stayed so late, he just got a hotel room and the 3 of us stayed in what he told us was "the highest building in all of mississippi".  i remember him buying toothbrushes and doing exercises in the hotel room.
as hazel is 4 now, the same age my brother was on our mississippi adventure, i try to imagine that phone call from my grandpa to my mom.  wild.
he loves to say controversial things in a light-hearted nonchalant manner just to see folks' feathers ruffled.  if you don't know him, you think he doesn't know what he's doing.  he totally knows what he's doing.  religion, politics, any topic most people avoid in light conversation, he dives right in just to be funny.  i think he secretly keeps count of how many eyes have rolled at his statements.

he is kind. he is friendly.  and last week i introduced hazel to him.  they have met before but never spent any time together.  as he has shown his age more in the last few years, i have wanted to go see him.  i have crossed paths with him the last few summers in michigan, however most of my time had been spent chasing rascals and not getting any time with grandpa.  also, all of my cousins are also trying to spend time with him.  he is loved by his 4 children and his 14 grandchildren and now in hazel, one of his 10 great-grandchildren.

so, on a saturday morning, long before sunrise i crept into hazel's room.  i woke her up and off we went on an adventure to florida to spend time with my grandpa.

this picture was at 6am and she was ready to go.

and even though we had been through airports & been up since 5am, she was so excited to be in a hotel room & made a super quick outfit change because she was ready to hit the beach & pool.

my grandfather & grandmother had what they said were bad colds.  they really didn't feel well enough to get out the first day & didn't want us exposed to their germs, so we just hung by the pool and then got dressed & went to dinner in old naples.  this is the older downtown shopping area of naples & my grandfather owns a store there.  his grandmother began selling laces & linens door to door around cincinnati, ohio.  this eventually became a brick and mortar that my great-grandfather otto, then my grandfather owned and ran.  at one time my grandfather owned quite a few fine linen stores nation wide.  today, the only one he still is a part of is the naples store.  so i took hazel and showed her around the Gattles in old naples. 

 

our second day there was a sunday and grandpa had made reservations for brunch at his country club.  most meals were like this...pretty grown up places to eat and hazel did amazing.  she had her coloring activity to pull out if everyone was done eating, but she behaved like such a sweet little lady and was completely content doing so.  i was so proud of her.  

the dessert table at brunch was her favorite.  she had some eggs, but mainly waffles with whipped cream for her brunch so she essentially had 2 desserts & was juuust fine with that:)

even though she did so wonderful, we had been at brunch with my aunt, my mom & my grandfather for about 2 hours & she was antsy...so we walked around some of the golf course & a sweet couple offered to take our picture.

my grandpa, my aunt, who i dearly love, & my wonderful mom leaving the country club brunch & hazel sporting her new sun hat.

while grandpa was resting or really just between meals we hung out at the pool and beach by the hotel. and my sweet hazel, who for the last 2 summers has despised getting her face wet (diva), decided to go on under and swim.  

this is her victory dance.  she was so pumped about it and if you ask her about her special trip with mom she says nothing of how much we bonded or how wonderful it was to spend time with grandpa, she only says "i learned to swim with my face underwater!!"

searching for seashells

she loved making sand angels.

4 generations.

my dad had been turkey hunting with friends the first few days & joined us for the last day.  we swam with him then all went shopping before our last night with grandpa.  dad and hazel left for a few minutes while mom & i shopped and when they returned only moments later, hazel donned a new tutu and a chocolate milk mustache.  my kids have the best grandparents...and so do i!