This is a long trip saga. Feel free to skim it. I just want all the details in my future blog book before I forget anything!
The boys had a week long fall break in October, so we took advantage of the time off and flew to South Carolina to visit my grandparents (on my dad’s side) who were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. I hadn’t been there for 15 years and they had never seen Cason. Channing and Cameron met them about 4 years ago in Utah, but obviously it’s fair to say that they don’t know their great-grandparents.
This was definitely an adventure because we flew stand-by (thanks to Dacia) and there was no guarantee that we’d ever be able to make a flight. We got lucky though and made 3 of the 4 flights the first time. Plus we got to sit together every time except for one when Channing and Cameron were in the row in front of Cason and me. We got the last 4 seats on almost every flight, so it was really meant to be!
We flew from Phoenix to NY (JFK) and then to Jacksonville, Florida on Friday the 9th. The boys were all so excited to fly! They were too young to remember the last time we flew. JetBlue is awesome because everyone has their own TV and headset. Plus you can have all the snacks and drinks you want. So it makes for pretty happy kids. We arrived in JAX at 11:45pm, so we were totally beat. We spent the night in a nearby hotel and then played in the pool the next morning before renting a car and driving to South Carolina. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to drive there from Florida, so it wasn’t too bad.
It was pretty hot and muggy when we arrived in Sumter. My aunt Susan was surprised that we found our way there without calling (thank you GPS). Susan was awesome and she set up the whole upstairs room for us to stay in. It worked out great and the kids were excited to be in a new place. Grandpa and Grandma Spann were so excited to see us and we had lots of fun visiting with them for a week! The house had changed a lot since I saw it last. After hurricane Hugo hit several years ago, part of the house had to be redone when the chimney collapsed, so some looked the same and some looked different. The cotton barn in the backyard they recently moved from one side of the yard to the other. There are 70+ acres of woods out back. You don’t enter them if you value your life because you don’t know what lurks back there. Snakes, alligators, fire ants…. Best to not find out. There was lots of grassy land for the kids to roam though. It was nice that they could just run and play frisbee and football.
Sunday we tried to go to church, but they must have had Stake Conference because the building was empty. So we missed that day, but we had dinner with my grandparents and Susan & Al and then we sat out in the yard while the boys ran around and played with James (Patricia’s oldest) and Grandpa planted radishes and turnips (notice the interested Cason in the picture). We also watched Al, Michael and Brent put a roof on the cotton barn.
On Monday we planned on going to the beach, but it started raining and we bagged it. Good thing too! It rained over 2'” that day! It was insane. The boys played outside in the rain for a while (until they were cold), then they played with toys in the house). I made a big Mexican meal. That was fun and entertaining. It was hard to find all the stuff I needed. I had to go to 2 stores and I still had to change things up a little bit. It worked out in the end though. On Monday night, my dad flew in to Florence, SC and Marsha (my aunt) picked him up.
On Tuesday we decided to give the beach a try. On the way we stopped at Mayewood school where my dad went to school for 12 years while he was growing up. It’s completely changed now, but it was still fun to see it. 
It took about 2 hours to get to Myrtle Beach. We just went to drive by and see it and then we headed south to Huntington Beach. This is just a nice beach in a state park, so no hotels and smaller crowds. The weather was fantastic and we lucked out with a crystal clear day and 81 degrees. The water was surprisingly warm for October! The boys spent the day digging holes in the sand and sitting in them while the tide came in. We also collected lots of fun shells to bring home. I thought I would be worried about them around the water, but they really didn’t go in very far and the waves were small (and no undertow)! I had to force them in toward the end of the day so they could experience being blasted in the face by a wave! LOL! They loved it of course and Cameron wanted to do it again and again. Cason discovered this sweet little girl on the beach and they dug holes together and sat in them waiting for them to fill with water. It was pretty funny to watch them.
On Wednesday we went to lunch at Seasons with my dad and his cousins Donna and Merriam. We had a nice lunch together and they talked about genealogy and tried to fill in some gaps of missing information. It was raining again this day, so I don’t think we did much of anything else. The kids played games at my grandparents and we ate dinner and watched Wall-E. Then we went to my grandpa’s church for a dinner they were having. Cason slept through the whole thing.
On Thursday we went to Charleston. We lucked out again in the weather dept. and had a beautiful day! After going to the visitor’s center we went on a carriage ride though town. We figured this would be a great way to see a lot of the town without dragging the kids on foot. It was lots of fun and we did get to see quite a bit. The architecture and colors of the houses are really quite beautiful and interesting. There is so much history to learn when you go there. Our carriage guide told us crazy stories about the prison and the thousands of people that died there during the 1700-1800s. He also shared a story about a couple that ran a bed & breakfast and would kill the people that stayed there. They finally got caught and were set to be hanged but in those days they couldn’t hang a wife. So they hung the husband on Friday and then she was a widow. They hung her on Saturday. Crazy Charleston history!
Our fun carriage ride and some of the things we saw. Beautiful houses, cool doorknockers & the former Charleston prison!
At the diner. Yes that is Cason eating a whole packet of jelly off a knife! Silly boy!
After the carriage ride we ate lunch at a small diner. The kids ate breakfast for lunch! It was a big hit! We then walked through the marketplace and bought some T-shirts and the kids bought some treats. Most people think the marketplace was used to sell slaves, but it was actually a slave market where they could buy things. It was interesting to see all the different things that they sell there and to watch the basket weavers make baskets from sweet grass. I bought a basket in Charleston from a street vendor for bread. I wanted to have something that was made there, not somewhere else in the world.
Shopping at the marketplace.
After the marketplace we went to the Heyward-Washington house for a tour. It was a very small house and we only got to see 6 rooms in it, but it was beautiful and it was fun to see a place where George Washington stayed for a few weeks. They had huge bookcases and trunks that were stacked and used as dressers. There was a really old piano (1600s) – it wasn’t even a piano. It only had 3 octaves. There were stunning dishes in the dining room and beautiful furniture throughout. The feather bed was really a feather bed, but was only called a feather bed due to the ornate feathers carved on the bed posts. The backyard had beautiful sculpted gardens and was much larger than I would have anticipated for a backyard in Charleston. There was also a kitchen and washing room in a separate building in the backyard (kept apart from the main house in case a kitchen fire broke out). Cason was curious about a chair they had hanging on the wall in the washing room. i don’t know what it was for, but he said it was the time-out chair. LOL!
The gardens were beautiful and green and had a fantastic view of St. Michael’s church.
After visiting the Heyward-Washington house we went to the battery and viewed Fort Sumter from a very far distance. You can barely see it. It’s WAY out there. Lots of beautiful homes line the battery. They are so well kept and have beautiful architecture. After leaving the battery we went to a cemetery. We tried to locate the graves of some relatives but there was no one to help us at nearly 5pm, so we struck out.
We ate at Cracker Barrel for dinner and then headed back to Grandpa and Grandmas. It was a full day and it was lots of fun!
On Friday we helped clean and get ready for the 60th anniversary party for my grandparents. Susan made a scarecrow to put in the garden (I helped a little as did Cason). Channing used the leaf blower and Cameron and my dad swept out the cotton barn. The boys and I cleaned the back white railing and ramp with bleach and water – mildew….not a problem we have to really deal with in Phoenix! It took quite a while to clean it off and it still wasn’t great by the time we were done (well, I finished. The boys deserted me at some point).
Friday night we went to Chuck-e-Cheese with my grandparents, Susan & Al, Patricia & Brent and Joseph and James, Marcia & Jon, and my dad. The kids had a great time running around and playing games. Several people got in on playing air hockey and it was fun to watch. The mouse came out at one point and we took pictures of the kids with him.
On Saturday we got ready for the party! It started at 3pm which was nice because it gave me time to pack things up and get ready. It was pretty cold and windy that day, unfortunately, but we braved it for several hours. Patricia and Brent made all the food and they served a true southern meal. BBQ Poussin (young chicken), shrimp & grits, green beans, & garlic bread. There was a delicious cake and pie for dessert. The kids got to take a little hay ride pulled by the lawn mower. We started small bonfire to roast marshmallows as it started to get dark. Then it started to rain so we pretty much called it a night. We got to meet and see lots of family. Some of them I remembered, like my aunt Darlene, Johnny and Marina and some of their kids (all grown and married), and my great-aunt Janice. It was fun to get to see everyone and see how the family has grown. There was a girl named Cason that was 11 or so and we found it amusing that we had a boy and girl Cason in the family!
Sunday we went to church and then ate dinner with everyone afterward. Michael and Kristine and Patricia came with James and Joseph. Darlene was still there but left shortly afterward to go back to N.C.
Ok, we just thought it was funny to see a sign with Cameron and cousin Holly’s name on it.
The kids were so fun to watch in a new place. They were enthralled about many simple things like the cuckoo clock in the kitchen. They’d run to see it cuckoo every hour. They also loved the 3 pianos and small organ in the house. One piano is over 100 years old and it’s a rectangle in shape. It was out of tune so every time the kids played the Harry Potter theme on it, it sounded appropriately spooky! Cason had fun chasing the 2 cats in the backyard. I don’t think either one ever let him touch them (smart cats). Cason also loved the toggling board that was on front screened-in porch. He sat and bounced on that thing quite a bit. It’s been there as long as I remember!
It was funny to watch Grandpa Spann make his meals. He’d overcook everything and eat it anyway. He’d go to the store everyday even though there was a ton of food in the house. I think he just liked to get out once a day to have his freedom. He is 92! Grandma taught a few piano lessons while we were there, but at 85, it’s getting hard for her to keep doing it.
We had an eventful time getting back to Phoenix. We had to wait an extra day (read…extra $ for car rental) because the Sunday plane was full. We were able to fly from JAX on Monday afternoon, but the NY to PHX flight was full and we had to spend the night in NY. I was pretty sure this was going to be an issue, so I had the name of a near-by hotel with a shuttle from the airport on hand. We were able to make the Tues. morning (Oct. 19) flight from NY to PHX.
Cason was so exhausted after driving and then taking 2 planes to get home to Phoenix!
So we did it! It was great fun! A little stressful at times since we didn’t know what flights we would be able to get on (especially with 4 of us travelling), but everything seemed to work out pretty well because we were flexible. The kids missed a few days of school, but I felt it was worth it for them to spend a week getting to see their great-grandparents. Kids should know where they came from! Most of all I loved getting to see them again! :)
