A visit from grandma!

A couple weeks ago my mom came out to visit us. It was SO great to have her here! My only regrets are 1. that I did not take more pictures of her, and 2. that we did not make it to Fabric World together. Alas! We had a blast, and those are very small regrets. When we were preparing for Grammy Cami to arrive I said to Jacob, "This is just so exciting! It is her first time here and everything will be new to her!" I was anticipating showing her around our new house and our new town and just spending some great quality time with one of my best friends -- my mom!

Levi at the zoo

Jubilee at the zoo

Grammy Cami and Baby Jubi, outside the warthog exhibit. 

This picture reminds me that I gave my mom a haircut while she was here. This photo is a "before" picture. I can't believe I didn't get an "after"! The only time I've cut long hair is on my mom. Once when I was in high school (and she ended up fixing a lot of that one) and then again this month. We did great! She told me everything to do, and I did it. Very, very slowly. Sorry mom! Haha we both had to take a break to stretch a little bit. But it turned out great. It ended up being a cute bob that, if you look at the photo above, follows the line of the blue scarf. Just past her ears or so. Send me a pic, ok mom?

Levi and cutie Charlotte at the zoo

 We went to the zoo with our friends Amy and Charlotte. They're great! They are real pro's at the zoo. Also I had a delicious black bean burger at the zoo restaurant. So did my mom. Her quotable quote was "meh. I miss my animal fats." but I thought it was delicious!!! To each his own.

Benjamin and Levi at Stone Mountain.

 After school got out on the last day of grandma's visit, we went to Stone Mountain. It is a pretty amazing carving. It's huge! The biggest of its kind. If you come and visit us in Atlanta, we will take you there. And please, do come and visit us. We would love to have you! Seriously. Email me. ;)

The boys at Chuck E. Cheese's

Grandma treated us all to Chuck E Cheese that night and we had a great time. The boys ran all over the place, trying out games. Ski-ball was a favorite, since they've played it before. Benjamin's favorite was probably the little machine where you could print out different kinds of ID cards -- you as a police officer, you as a secret service agent, you as a race car driver, etc. There was a squirt-gun game that Levi really loved.

And I'm just so sad to say that many of the funnest things we did with grandma are not photographically represented here. Are 1,000 words worth a picture? I'll tell you some of our other favorites:

Watching the Olympics! -- A Smith family tradition and I loved watching with my mom again. We both adore the skating events. I must say some of the new snowboarding events were awesome, too! And, to his great credit, Jacob got invested in the ice dancing competition this year (how could you not, with such great music and performances?!). In fact we played charades tonight with the boys and Jacob and I were Davis and White. It was epic. Levi guessed it, eventually.

Shopping spree! -- My mom has great taste in clothes and it just so happens we had a fabulous time shopping on the Saturday she was here. We left the boys at home and shopped until we dropped (by which time Jubilee had dropped several times over -- little cutie).

Building fires! -- We have a wood-burning stove here (that is what our fireplace is actually called, apparently) and though Jacob and I had used it for a few fires, it took a visit from Grandma to show us how it is really done.  What can I say? Shutting the doors of the fireplace (stove) is a little counter-intuitive! But that is how you really heat things up.

Just hanging out! -- It was so fun to just be able to chat with my mom whenever a thought occured to me. "What are you most looking forward to about my mom's visit?" I asked Jacob. "The fact that you'll have an adult to talk to during the day." he said. Ha! He knows me so well. And we both were so excited for mom to get to know Jubilee better and just have a great time with her grandkids. Mission accomplished, I think! :D

Anyway, I just had to record this visit, so that I could look back on it fondly in the future. What am I forgetting to mention, mom?