This is a picture (taken by my grandma) of when he won 'Lawn of the Month' late last year!

My grandparents live in Florida in the winter (because that's what grandparents do) and up until this year, spent their summers near Watkins Glen, NY. My grandpa turned 90 in November and so they decided driving from Florida to NY every year was too much, even though he still does all his own yard work, including mowing the lawn twice a week and occasionally dredging the canal they live on. Dredging is when Grandpa goes into the canal where the alligators live to pull up the encroaching weeds and other muck. One time, just a few years ago, he saw an alligator lounging in the sun near his dock on the canal. He marched over there with a shovel and bonked the gator on the head. The gator was so shocked that it retreated into the canal instead of eating my grandpa. Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of the alligator concussion, and I made Grandpa promise to never hit an alligator on the head again. Ever.

My husband and I visited my grandparents in February, right after they had their driveway paved. My grandfather was so proud of his newly paved driveway and excited about the big pile of dirt that was left from the excavation. I asked him why he didn't have the driveway contractors take the dirt away and he said, "Because I can use it!" And he did. Every last bit of that dirt ended up in the low places in his yard. He moved every bit, by hand, with a shovel. I was amazed.

This summer I've been using Kodak Gallery for posting pictures and emailing the links to friends and family, but my grandparents don't have email. I decided to send them a big stack of prints from the gallery, from several albums, so that they can keep up with all our adventures. I was able to send pictures from several of my gallery albums, like this one of me sailing on Green Bay. Well, I guess I wasn't actually doing the sailing. Getting prints shipped to my grandparents from the gallery was easier for me than making a CD and taking it to a store to get them printed, or trying to coax our inkjet printer at home to print without streaks.

My mom recently told me that my grandma loves her big stack of prints, and at every opportunity shows her friends and neighbors. She enjoys explaining all of our antics in the pictures. Summer without my grandparents close by has been difficult for me this year, but I'm glad I'm able to share my pictures with them.

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