Early in the month I got a call from my granddaughter Jaelynn. She asked if I would participate in a school project with her. I immediately said yes! And then she told me about Oliver - she was going to send Oliver for a visit.

A special thank you to Jaelynn for asking me to participate and I hope you enjoy reading Oliver’s letter about all the things he learned hanging out with Papa and Grandma!

I’ve had a great time with Grandma and Papa in Laurel, Mississippi. If you watch HGTV you might know the show HomeTown! They live in that little town where Mr. Ben and Ms. Erin film the show. They fix up older homes for families to live in!

Ben & Erin are pretty famous around here and there are a lot of tourists that visit this little town just hoping to get to see them. But to everyone who live here…they’re just an awesome little family that lives here, who are dedicated in making Laurel a better place to live.

Now that you know where Grandma and Papa live…let’s get to the fun stuff!

I got to meet Maggie! She’s Grandma and Papa’s miniature BernDoodle and she sniffed me all over. But we became friends quickly and I think she is sad to see me go. She’s so funny! She follows Papa everywhere! And she loves to sit outside on the deck. Papa says that she thinks she’s queen of the entire neighborhood. The deck sits up high and she watches everything from her spot!

Laurel has lots of murals in their downtown and Grandma took a few pictures to show you three of them. My favorite was the one on the library. They have an amazing library downtown. The tourists love to get their pictures taken in front of the murals…it’s a pretty popular thing here!

I learned that Laurel, Mississippi is known as the Pine Belt region. It’s in the Southeast region of Mississippi. It was established in 1882! That’s a long time ago! I also learned that Laurel is known for its timber…there are tons of Pine Trees in Laurel! Look at this big one in Papa and Grandma’s yard…see me at the base of the tree?

Can you see how tall the tree is?

I learned that Papa works from home and has his very own office in their house. Grandma has her own paper shop and I got to go to work with her.

She told me all about her love for writing letters and sending cards to make people smile and help them be happy. Grandma also prints cards for people and I got to hang out with her to learn how she prints her special cards.

Grandma and Papa love to support local businesses in their community and one night after dinner we went to Betsy’s for ice cream. I love ice cream cones and Betsy’s had some amazing ice cream cones! Here’s a picture of me and Grandma - she shared her cone with me.

It’s almost time for my trip to Laurel to come to an end so we celebrated our fun together over the last few weeks by having lunch on the deck Sunday. I loved listening to the birds and the warm sunshine! Grandma loves listening to the birds…but Maggie barks at them.

Today is Monday, and I am sitting on the couch with Grandma as she types up my story for you. We’re putting the story on her blog, online so that everyone can read my story and know how much fun I had in Laurel, Mississippi and how much fun this project was for Grandma.

She is packing me up today to travel back to Florida. I am going to miss Grandma, Papa, and Maggie and this beautiful weather but I’m ready to get back to Jaelynn!

As they say in Mississippi…”see ya’ll soon!”

Oliver Comes for A Visit