South Carolina

Warning-this may be a long post..



My grandma Reeder grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. Growing up she has always told us stories of her growing up and I always loved hearing them from her. When I was 15 my grandparent's used money they earned from the farm that year to rent a beach house for all their kids and grand kids to go to on Folly Beach. Most of my dad's 8 brothers and sisters and their families went. It was a blast. We went again when I was 19 a lot of my dad's siblings and their families went. My uncle Kindall's family had not been to either of trips and wanted to go, so my grams decided to have one more family trip back. This time we had 2 beach houses and a condo. We left on the evening of the last day of school and stayed a week. It was such a relaxing and fun trip. When my grams grew up Folly Beach was the most popular beach in the Charleston area. There was a big dance hall that was very popular. There was also a Ferris wheel and a lot of fun shops. The hurricanes since my grandma grew up have taken at least 2 streets away and so a lot of the things are not still there from when my grams grew up. Folly Beach is not the most popular beach now but I love it!! It is not crowded and not commercialized, it is wonderful! It has some fun shops and places to eat. My uncles and brother found a bunch of sand dollars right by our beach house.

Alexis and some of the family on our back porch after dinner.

Sue, Dale, Emily, Mckell, and Morgan at dinner.




A bunch of us at dinner.

There is the pier by our beach house. We loved to go and walk on it. There were always people fishing off it. One night when my mom, grams, and I were on the pier 2 people caught baby sharks! We were able to touch them and they sure are ugly creatures. Needless to say it made me nervous to go too deep in the ocean after that... if there were baby sharks then there were big sharks!!!



Since our family would take up a lot of room my dad rented us our own beach house. It was very nice. All 3 times my grandma rented the same beach house and we were happy that this one was next door so we were close to the rest of the family.

This is the front of the house.

This is the back of the house, it went right to the beach.


Me back by the beach

Dave was selling in Lynchburg, VA at the time and was able to rent a car and come down Saturday night after work and left Tuesday night. It was a long drive and quick trip but I was happy he was able to come and enjoy at least a few days. It is fun to have him see the place where my grams grew up and meet some of her family. On Sunday Dave, Mckell, Mindy, Nate, and I went to the Morris Island Lighthouse. I LOVE lighthouses.

On Monday we went crab fishing. My cousin Raymond usually takes us but he had a bad foot this time and was unable to go but he helped set us all up to go. It is a little gross but very fun. You tie a string on stick and put RAW chicken on the end of the string. You throw the chicken in the water during low tide and when it starts tugging you slowly bring it in and then catch it with a net. We all had a blast! We caught probably 30.

Mindy, Me, Mckell, and Dallin

Emily, mom, Nate, Dale, and Sue

Elizabeth is such a daredevil, she just picked the crab up without thinking twice. Alan and Nate were pinched pretty good.

Dave, James, Cameron

On Tuesday we went into town. We went to the Markets and bought some fun things. We walked around the Battery. They have HUGE BEAUTIFUL houses!! I love looking at the houses. It is such a neat place. This is a picture of Dave and I in front of one of the houses.

We stopped at a park for a bit and grams ran through the fountain, ha ha. I have the best grams!

We spent a lot of time at the beach.

Grams, dad, Mckell, Jarrett. Grams is so funny.

Grams and I

J on beach chillin. Isn't he adorable!!
J relaxin

My grams and her sister Yvonne. They are so funny together. My grams is such an amazing woman. She left her family, her home, and everything she knew and moved to Utah when she and my grandpa got married. The plan was to move back to Charleston when my grandpa got done with his schooling but it didn't work out that way. She was not able to make it back to visit her family but every 10 years or so until she raised her children and has been able to go back more frequently. Charleston is so beautiful and has so much to do and Perry Utah is nothing compared to that, especially 50 some years ago. I am so grateful to my grandma for her sacrifices. My grams has such amazing family history, her family fought in the wars and helped a lot of the things that happened in history.

When my grams grew up the Christmas tree was always an exciting event. Her mom would spend days decorating the tree and hid it under a sheet. On Christmas morning it would be lit and beautiful when they woke up. My Aunt Yvonne's got tired of decorating it every year so she has a curtain to put around the tree to keep it up all year. The tree is amazing!

At the end of our trip I drove with my Aunt Sandy's family to Charlotte, NC and Dave came down and got me. It was Maddie's birthday the next day so the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to her. She was VERY embarrassed!




Cute Maddie!!