Christmas- Cruise and Chicago

For Christmas this year we went on a cruise with Dave's parents and brothers. It was different to not have a traditional Christmas but it was a lot of fun. We took off out of Florida and went to the Princess Cays, Bahamas, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and The Grand Turks. It was the first cruise I have ever been on. The food was AMAZING and the ship was beautiful. We did have some pretty high waves for a few days and I got a little sea sick but I have forgotten about that now and am ready for my next cruise!! :)

We spent 3 days in Florida before our cruise. We had a lot of fun eating at some of our favorite restaurants from when we lived there a few summers ago. There are so many yummy places there! It was pretty chilly out but we were able to hang out at the beach a few of the days.

(Not sure why it is underlining now, oh well) There wasn't a port in the Bahamas where we went so the cruise ship stayed a bit from shore and we took a small boat to the island....let me just say this was freaky!! Dave thought it was so fun of course.

The Princess Cays, Bahamas. The Princess cruise line owns this island. There wasn't any shopping or anything but the beach was pretty and relaxing. The ship catered a BBQ on the beach so it was free and yummy!

This was my favorite thing to do in the evenings, "Movies Under the Stars." It was on the top level of the ship and you could just watch it under the stars. They had different movies playing each night. Some were lame but who cares! The pizza and ice cream shop was right around the corner, how much better can that get!!
Getting ready for the movie to start, I was already done with my ice cream and ready for another!

Formal night
Dave's parents, my awesome in-laws!

This is in St. Maarten's. We heard about this beach and thought we would try it out. We are standing at the top of the beach which is not too long before you get to the ocean. Right behind us is a 2 lane road and behind the fence is the airport. We saw this sign and thought it was funny and got a picture by it... well, little did we know that there was a good reason for this sign. When the big jets are about to take off they turn right by this fence and when they gun the engine, the force is sooo powerful and loud. When the first one took off I don't think anyone knew what to expect, little kids were blown into the ocean (at the beach these waves were huge, probably 7 feet or so high right when they hit the sand, and very powerful. Dave's brother Danny has messed up his back there and there isn't anything the doctors can do for him), the powerful waves were pushed back, and someone held on the the fence for dear life. I haven't ever seen anything like it. Of course the guys thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Dave's parents rented these dune buggies as our Christmas present to explore St. Maarten. It was a lot of fun.
In St. Thomas we took a tour and this is one of the stops.
Dan and CoryAfter our cruise we spent a few days in Chicago. This is Dave and Opa.
Dave and Oma. I love Oma and Opa!!
I had a princess party with Dave's mom, sister, and niece Lydia.
Lydia knows all the princess rules and made sure we did things correctly. We dressed up, read a princess book, frosted cupcakes and drank rootbeer like princesses. I am lucky to have married into such an amazing family who accepts me and is so much fun to be around!

August to 1st of December

Mindy had a sweet baby girl. This is us girls at her shower.

The family I nannied for came and visited. I had so much fun with them. I had some work things come up so I wasn't able to go to all the places they did but I loved the time I was able to spend with them. They are amazing people.

I took them to temple square. It was beautiful. I am not sure what they thought though...

Dave got a new car!

Dave's friends helped us celebrate his birthday at Le Nonne.

Us

Dave's creation this year. A trailer gingerbread house. He is always so creative.

I think it is time to update the blog.... After we went to South Carolina I met up with Dave in Lynchburg Virginia for a week. We then moved to Charleston, West Virginia. We lived in a Residence Inn for the rest of the summer. It ended up being a great summer! I worried about living in a hotel for so long but it had so many perks that out weighed the bad!

1. A maid to clean our room
2. There was a nice breakfast every morning
3. They had dinner for us every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the lobby
4. A pool
5. Free internet and cable

There was a lot of fun wives to hang out with. I didn't have a car so I stayed at the hotel everyday unless others were doing something. My day consisted of watching TV, reading books (I read 15), preparing for the school year, or going to the pool (I wasn't as faithful as the other girls). My nights consisted of eating in the lobby, playing games, and Monday night watching the Bachelorett!

It was a relaxing summer and I really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures of the summer.

Dave's Parents came to visit during the 4th of July. We watched the fireworks over the river. It was fun!

I woke to a nice surprise for my birthday! The girls also threw me a little birthday that afternoon. It was so nice of them.

Most of the girls on our night on the town to see the Twilight movie.

Some of us at the children's museum

Learning to play poker! One of the many games we played this summer

I hope this summer is as fun as last! I met some great people and was able to relax and enjoy life.

Poor Dave, he worked all the time. I really appreciate his hard work

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!!

I survived!

I finished the last day of school today!!! It is great to have my 1st year of teaching behind me. I have learned a lot this year. I had great students and I will miss the ones that will be moving onto 8th grade. I am also excited for a break (well working at home...). I have made some good friends and had interesting experiences with others but overall it has been a good year!

Now onto South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. It will be an interesting summer!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

My mom's birthday yesterday. She threw herself a birthday party, ha ha. She sure is funny. Mom and I went and got pedicures so that we have cute feet for the summer.

Mom made dinner and then we played the candy bar game.

Then she made sure we all sang Happy Birthday to her.

It was fun being around people! It has been a little lonely at my house lately. A few of my cousins came and spent the night a few weeks ago. We had fun! We went to the park, yougurt factory, ate lots of treats, and watched Savana Smiles!