actually, there are no rivers or woods on our way to grandmother’s house. unless, you’re counting the Santa Ana river, which is kind of a river.

who are we kidding, not really. it’s more of a sewer river. ew.

instead, we take the 55 to the 91, exit Lakeview and head North.

when i was little i used to say we were going to the ‘country’ when we were headed to my grandmother’s.

she lives in Yorba Linda. it’s hardly country, but the properties are spacious and there’s a lot of dirt, so i guess in my mind that qualified for country.

it’s ‘the land of the gracious living.’ or so it says on the sign as you enter the city.

i think that is about accurate.

really, it’s everything a kid could ask for in a place to grow up, but when i was little, i thought it was kinda boring.

there were no friends to play Barbies with and the boys (my brother and his friends) never let me play on the tractors with them.

(i bet this boy would love to take his mama for a ride on the tractor!)

to entertain myself i would find the key to my grandma’s little shack and pretend it was my home (it used to be my dad and his brother’s playhouse when they were little).

i would sit inside with my dolls and think about how i would decorate it.

i loved how tiny it was.

when i was in my late teens, i would go over to my grandmother’s house two or three times a week. i loved hanging out with her.

we would pick lemons from her trees and make homemade lemonade.

i liked to wear my overalls (what? it was the 90’s. totally acceptable) and go into her grove

and pick avocados and make fresh guacamole.

(side note: they’re usually much bigger than this, but avocado season is over. these buds are just starting to grow for next years crop.)

sometimes, i would help deliver the avocados to the nearby restaurants.

(this is my grandma and step-grandpa’s old truck. isn’t that the cutest?!)

other times i would help my grandmother with her garden. (it’s a wonder i didn’t kill all of her flowers. i did not inherit her green thumb!)

through the years, there have always been two areas of my grandmother’s home that i love best.

the first is her red barn.

there are treasures both outside

(this used to be the water trough for the horses. waaaaaay before my day.)

and inside

and up in the loft of the barn.

my grandmother likes old stuff, too! (can you tell?)

she also likes to collect stuff (genetics are powerful, aren’t they! 😉

the second area i love is her basement (yes, this is in California and yes, that is rare). it was the mecca center for fun and is full of cool treasures!

whenever we had family gatherings here, we would head to the basement to play pool.

(this is a map my great-grandpa made and would mark off the places he traveled with little red pins.)

(my grandfather was a commercial pilot, so he and his family traveled often.)

i loved and still love to admire her collections.

she loves coffee. (yup, she’s definitely my grandma.)

and though she was never a smoker, she loves these colorful little tin cans.

yup. my grandma is pretty cool, if you ask me. she even has a directors chair that says, “hustler” on it.

i think out of all of her collections throughout her life though, her most favorite are her family.

we love you, GG.

kisses.