Great, Great Grandma

I only knew one of my great-grandparents. She loved me and would always say "Bless your heart." She gave us honeycomb and applesauce cookies. She was very old and frail and we had to yell when we talked to her. I loved her, but never got to do much with her.

I love that my kids have a great-grandma and that she's young and fun. As soon as we found out that Gigi (formerly called Mamaw by David, but now known as Gigi) was coming to visit, Baylie would say "I just LOVE my great grandma" or "I can't WAIT to see my great grandma." When I said I was excited to see her too, the reply was "She's not YOUR great grandma, she's MY great grandma." Gigi lives in Dallas and we don't get to see her nearly enough. We had such a fun visit.

We went to the zoo. The birds were eating again. They've been kind of slow lately. (I took the picture behind glass because Baylie freaks out about the birds, so my shirt is reflected in the glass.)

We rode the carousel (I love this picture).

Jalen isn't old enough to ride the ponies, but the zoo employee thought Jalen was so cute he should get to wear a helmet.

We fed the giraffes (how cool is that?).

We went to Charleston and I drug everyone to Fort Sumter. Here we are waiting for the ferry.

Here Baylie is waiting for the ferry.

I was surprised at how small the fort was. It was very cool to be in the place where the Civil War started. I was disappointed that there wasn't any kind of a monument to the slaves who had to sacrifice their lives to rebuilt the walls as they were blown down.

Baylie kept us informed of important facts.

I think everyone's favorite part was the ferry ride.

Especially the on-board entertainment.

Afterwards we went to Maurice's for some awesome South Carolina (mustard based) barbecue.

After we dropped Gigi off at the airport today, we went to the Reed Gold Mine, site of the first documented gold find in the U.S.

They taught us how to pan for gold.

You start with a big pan full of dirt and rocks. You wash all the mud out, pick out the big rocks and then wash out as much of the remaining small rocks as possible.

Jalen mostly just played in the water.

At the end, if there is any gold, it will show up at the very end. Not everyone finds gold, but - EUREKA - Baylie did!!
It was teeny tiny and we were amazed that you could find a little speck of gold in such a big pan with all those big rocks, little rocks and mud. Even though it's small, it's heavy and moves through the water from end to end so quickly that it makes a little noise when it hits bottom. Very cool.

David and I had already struck gold.

We will miss Gigi. It was so fun to spend time with her and not have to share her with anyone.