Family Vacation Begins

Saturday Morning we left Columbia SC and headed for Myrtle Beach SC for another three hours in the car.  Again Sophie was very good and sat back and enjoyed Curious George and a good nap.

We arrived at the Dunes Village Resort about 2:30 pm and checked into our new home for the next four days.   Our suite had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and had a nice living room and kitchen.  Out of the 12 floors we could have been placed on, we were thrilled to find out we were on the first floor.  This meant a shorter walk to the beach and to the inside water park.

Once we had unloaded the cars and were settled, we decided to take a walk down to the beach.  Sophie spotted the sand and the ocean...and she said "wa wa."  my response was yes honey that's a lot of water.  She was so excited to have the sand between her toes and the breeze in her hair.  We then continued to walk around the resort to see what all there was to do.

That night Mam-maw and Papaw agreed to stay with Sophie so that Uncle Michael, Aunt Lisa, Mommy, and Daddy could have an adult evening out.


We headed out to the House of Blues for a Murder Mystery Dinner, while they stayed back and ate Pizza and watched a little TV.

The Murder Mystery was awesome.  To say the least only two of us would make good detectives...the other two were clueless.  However, the food was great especially the dessert and we had a good time just the four of us catching up on the last six months.









After dinner we went to the grocery store to stock up on stuff for breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the next four days.  We also went to a few of the stores along the strip to see if we could find Sophie a kite/bubbles and Mamaw some flip flops.

The Girls

Friday afternoon after the Graduation ceremony Aunt Lisa and Uncle Michael had everyone over to their apartment for lunch.  After lunch they asked us to watch Scarlet and Gray for them so they could go out with her family to celebrate her brother's 30th birthday.


Sophie had so much fun playing with them...she would run and they would chase her.  She was eating a snack and they were both at her feet ready for her to drop anything.  They were even interested in her putting stickers on a piece of paper and coloring with markers.

Later when it was time for the girls to eat dinner, mam-maw put their bowls down on the floor and Gray woofed hers down..definitely not a picky eater.


Then Scarlet did not really seem interested in eating...no worries.   Sophie being the little helper that she is decided to help by hand feeding Scarlet.

Scarlet ate almost her entire bowl of food with the help of Sophie...hopefully we did not turn her into a high maintenance dog.

Sophie received lots of kisses from the girls both days we went to visit.  I think we will have to get her a dog in a few years.

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LTSS Graduation

On the morning of Friday the 13th we all gathered at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in downtown Columbia SC to celebrate Uncle Michael and Aunt Lisa's graduation from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.


Here are some of the photos before the commencement....

The soon to be graduates...

The happy parents 

Mommy and Sophie

The Beerys

A Herbert stuck between two Beerys

The Blackorby Family

The Beery Family

The Siblings

One Niece..the other refused to take a picture..

Yeah they finally have diplomas in hand....Congratulations!!

Still trying to win Sophie over

Big Smiles for Mamaw

Tears in the old man's eyes..he's so proud.

LTSS BBQ and Baccalaureate

Thursday Evening we joined Michael and Lisa, along with Lisa's parents and Aunt and Uncle and the rest of the class of 2011 for a wonderful picnic right outside the chapel on campus.  We had some amazing BBQ chicken, potato salad, and baked beans.   After we were done eating.  Sophie ran around with another little girl her age Abby.  They had a blast and were pretty hot and sweaty.  After the picnic was the Baccalaureate in the chapel, neither of the girls wanted to sit still so Daddy took Sophie outside and for over an hour Abby and Sophie ran and played while we sat inside the chapel and enjoyed the service.

When the service was over it was nearly 8:30 and way past Sophie's bedtime.  So we headed back to the hotel and let her wind down with Grandpa.   By 9 pm she was sound asleep and not a peep out of her until 7am the next morning.

Riverbanks Zoo

Thursday morning Uncle Michael and Aunt Lisa had things they needed to get done so we decided to check out the Zoo in Columbia.

While we were at the zoo, we had the opportunity to feed the Giraffes.  Sophie was still too little to understand how to keep her hand flat so Mommy feed both the baby and mommy Giraffes, what a totally cool experience...I'm not sure who was more excited me or Sophie.

In addition to the Giraffes they have some really awesome monkeys that you can get right up to the glass and interact with.  Unfortunately it was nap time for them, but Sophie thought they were interesting and was very intrigued by the fact they have hands and feet just like us.  So she kept pointing out their toes.


We also saw a brown bear just chilling...
















An elephant...

or two...

Some Zebras....

We also saw a crocodile..both at the zoo and at dinner one night.

We got to walk through a kangaroo path that allows you to be within feet of them.

We saw a lot of fish and birds too.

 Overall it was a good time.

We then went to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and then headed over to Michael and Lisa's.