Since this was Grace's last summer before she started public school, I really wanted to soak up as much time as I could with her. I was excited to take her school clothes shopping and really get her excited for kindergarten. However, with the baby coming in August or possibly before, I knew there would not be a lot of time close to school starting. So, Vic and I decided I would take her on a little Mommy & Grace shopping weekend trip. We loaded up with games, snacks, and swimsuits on Saturday morning of Father's Day Weekend and drove 45 minutes down the road towards Houston to a Holiday Inn next to the Cypress Outlet Mall. On the way, we stopped at Buccee's and then shopped a couple of hours at the mall before we checked into our room. Grace was so excited. It was a new hotel and everything was clean and new. She was excited about each and every amenity. She had been talking about our girls trip for a couple of weeks (and ended up talking about it for weeks and months afterwards). I had stocked up on some LOL surprise dolls for her to open too. We swam in the pool at the hotel both nights. And, we shopped both days. We hit up the major places like Carters, Osh Kosh, and Gymboree at the mall. But, on Sunday (which also happened to be Father's Day - thanks Vic for letting us be gone), we also went to Old Navy, at Grace's request. She was SO fun and cute to shop with at Old Navy. She picked out all kinds of clothes and loved trying on things. We went to HomeGoods where she loved shopping. We ate our favorite foods (included ordering stuffed crust pizza to our hotel room which she thought was so fun!) and just spent so much time together. That's what is fun with Grace; she really likes to just be with me and do things with me that are easy and she's sweet and funny. Also, with just Grace, it was easy to see when her attention span for shopping was ending and because she was so easy to shop for, we could be productive in a short amount of time. We played games and did puzzles and watched movies and swam and ate in the hotel lobby for breakfast. I watched her sleep and snuggle up next to me. And, honestly, it was such a nice relaxing weekend for me. Summer pregnancy is no easy task and I was hot and tired all the time. So, having only one, easy kid to take care of and putting my feet up so much was really nice. It was one of the most special trips I have ever taken. Grace has just grown so much the last 5 years and is so ready for kindergarten, but she is still my little shy, reserved girl. I know she will do so great in Kindergarten but in so many ways, I don't want to let her go. I hope we have 100 more girls trips in our future together! Oh and at the end, the funniest thing was (and this is sooo Grace--always thoughtful and wanting to include others) was that she couldn't wait to go on another girls trip but take Atticus with us! Here are photos from our precious weekend and a video. And there are some photos of Vic and Atticus and Everly interspersed when they sent us photos!
Video is here:
https://youtu.be/S3WQH2r5VOs
Day Two:
Back at home, they were taking a good long walk for Father's Day. Atticus crashed and burned at one point.
It was our last morning of our trip. What a great time!
And, she was so glad to be back home to her big brother! (and Everly too of course)
