Gracie

Of all the places and people Gracie could have gone to and been with on her Spring Break - she picked HERE and US!!  Yippeeee!  She flew from Utah by herself to come and spend some quality time with her little-kid cousins.

We had a plan for her to win over mama-boy Freddy and we stopped on the way home from the airport and bought a ball for Gracie to be casually playing with when he first met her. :)  A real basketball that he could dribble.  Once he associated her with that ball (and she was good at being breezy and aloof) - it worked like a charm.  Freddy was her buddy right off and the rest of the trip.

 Make-overs

Playing with Gracie's phone - switching faces

She was the perfect teenage cousin - they loved her.  (Shelby Farms playground)

When I was driving Gracie to the airport - I asked her what her top 10 were from her trip to Tennessee.  

1. Escape Room 
2 & 3. Adventures with Tom and Huck (fishing, exploring & mudding)
4. Mountain Biking
5.  Beale Street
6. Rockband
7. Zumba / kickboxing
8.  Mississippi River
9.  Mall Jumping
10.  . . . .

1. Escape Room

This was Gracie's absolute favorite thing - she was giddy this whole night.  It was the perfect end to a really fun day.  Thursday was Gracie's favorite day because we worked out, she went fishing with Tom and Huck for the first time, we ate deliciousness at Fat Larry's and then went to the NEW escape rooms that Joey and I hadn't been to before.  This was the Sherlock Holmes one.  Usually we are in groups of 7 and it was just the 3 of us.   We BARELY escaped --- which just made it all the more exciting.   Gracie is a clever and scrappy young one and I was really impressed with her abilities during this.   When we first went in ... let's just say Gracie and I had to totally be in sync to unlock the first clue and we kinda rocked it.  

 

I love our group name that Gracie came up with  - "We Sher-un-locked That". 

oh and here's our dessert at Fat Larry's - fried apple pie and ice cream.  Probably the reason we brought our A game.

2 & 3 Adventures with Tom and Huck

Ok, so their names are actually Gabriel and Gavin but Gabriel never wears a shirt and they are always fishing or going down some river --- so that's what  Gracie and I called them.   Before Gracie got here I was telling my friend Cori about her visit and she said her boys would love to take her fishing.  Gracie wasn't shy at all and went fishing with these boys and they really hit it off.  And she basically saw them every day until she left.  

2. Fishing

She caught THREE fish!!

3.  Mudding and exploring

There she goes along the flooded road that meets up with the Loosahatchie river.  She had a rock poised ready to throw at the head of an unsuspecting snake.  (Yes, they saw a cottonmouth!  Sorry Jake and Rebekah!)

 The magical muddy river spot discovered by Gracie and the boys.  It's got it all: mud to throw at each other, quicksand to see how stuck you can get, a sand cliff to jump off and scary snakes to keep ya comp'ny.

"know what i mean"

4. Mountain Biking

We took her to Herb Parson's Lake - it's gorgeous and so fun.  Gracie is not faint of heart.  She rode as fast as we did and wasn't afraid to go down the bumpy, rooty, steep parts.  She said some good "wahoos" down the dippedydoos.  That's the mark of a good mountain biker I think.

testing out her bike

  

It was all fun and games until Gracie suggested doing some "as you wishes"  (that's princess bride for rolling down a hill) down this terrible hill that looked normal but had hidden pokey branches to scrape every part of you. 

5. Beale Street

Gracie's Beale Street pictures - she's got an artistic eye.  I love them.

6. Beatles Rockband

7.  Zumba / kickboxing

 Gracie really wanted to go to Zumba so I took her.... to kickboxing.  Woopsie!  We got to zumba (after a lot of rearranging things with kids etc.)  and there was a lot of kicking and punching and I was thinking - hmmmm, this doesn't seem like zumba....?  Hahaha.   But Gracie actually loved it because she's the fighting type ya know. :)  And we did a lot of core strengthening for her new years resolution.  And then we stayed for part of zumba too.  So we got a major workout!

 

 8. Mississippi River

9. Mall Jumping

 10...

 So I don't think she got quite to 10 but I'd like to add my own favorite.  I just loved getting to know Gracie better.  She taught me so much like - a cup can be a speaker if you put your phone in it, Damien Rice, Alt-J and The Paper Kites have hecka good songs, how to talk about the holocaust, whole wheat paper towels, "brown roads, brown roads what is your secret?" and how to use our iphones. :)  

 It was fun having you be part of our family Gracie!

We had fun.  My other favorite thing was that Gracie was always saying stuff like "that was the funnest thing I've ever done in my life" which was fun for me to hear. 

I know Tom and Huck miss you.  And we do too!

Thanks for the visit!