No Kids Allowed! South Carolina Part 1: Hilton Head

We went on a true vacation. No children. I feel rejuvenated. It was relaxing and incredible. Very healing after going through a miscarriage the week before. Thank you to Andrew's work for having such an excellent perk--a vacation fund! We get $2,000 a year that has to be used for travel. Well shucks, we can do that. Major thanks to my parents for taking care of our youngsters so we could go on this escapade. Visiting South Carolina has been on our bucket list and we see why people love it! What a gorgeous place! We flew out of SLC on Saturday, October 11 and returned on Saturday, October 18. 

After taking a red-eye flight, we arrived in Charleston at 8:30am on Sunday, October 19. I had the day mapped out full of recommendations. We were pumped.

It was raining buckets when we arrived! Roads were flooding. The rental car hydroplaned a time or two. We heard downtown Charleston was closed due to the bad weather and that it had been pelting rain nonstop for a few days. We were disappointed to say the least. Lots of the things we intended to do required mother nature's cooperation. Thankfully, all the crummy weather left after day 1. We had ideal weather the rest of the time. The humidity we've heard complaints about wasn't really a thing. October is a nice time to visit.

We were still able to go to church in Charleston since that's indoors! I love wards outside of Utah! People were friendly and I relished the closeness felt amongst members and the vulnerability in relief society. Funny story... we landed not long before church. We changed out of our sweatpants/dirty airplane clothes in the car of the church parking lot right before the meeting. I used the visor mirror in my car to put on some makeup to hide the dark circles under my eyes. I don't sleep well on planes.

Giving up that the weather would turn, we made the 2 hour drive to our Airbnb condo on Hilton Head island. This post covers activities we did and the food we ate in Hilton Head!

Here are some things I learned about Hilton Head...

• There are butterflies all over the place! They're so pretty! I mostly saw orange and yellow butterflies.
• There are many signs that say beware of alligators. This one was right outside of our condo.

• There are miniature stop signs for bikers on bike trails. Well, on google maps, the tiny stop signs appear and show like they're stop signs for cars on the road. They're not. At first it was a little confusing when the maps would say, "At the stop sign, turn right." We didn't have a stop sign!

• Turtles like to hangout and bask in the sun! We saw several.

We spent 5 nights in Hilton Head. Our condo backed up to Folly beach. We spent our last night in Charleston.

Activities

• Beach. There was a quaint boardwalk that led us to the water. We tried to soak up as much time as we could near the ocean. We walked the shore at sunset, did a sunrise run, and basked in the rays of the sun while reading. We both managed to get sunburned. Just call Andrew Rudolph. I wasn't able to swim for most of our trip, but when I finally could I didn't spend much time in the salty water. It wasn't quite like the broiling showers I'm used to.

Important question.... What did I read at the beach??

"Everything is Tuberculosis" By: John Green

"Letters for Emily" By: Camron Wright

"The Poisonwood Bible" By: Barbara Kingsolver (Started this on the plane home and haven't finished yet.)

Would recommend them all!

Follow-up question... What did we read together?

"A Deadly Education" (The Scholomance #1) By: Naomi Novik

We like to read aloud together. Can you guess who picked this fantasy novel? Our tastes and interests don't overlap much. Jaw drop... Andrew didn't pick a Brandon Sanderson book. We aren't done with "A Deadly Education" yet, but will continue reading it.

Tangent but... What did we watch there?

We finished the show "Lincoln Lawyer" season 3. Unfortunately we have to wait a few months before the next season comes out. We also caught up on the latest episode of "The Great British Baking Show." Team Jasmine!

We didn't get to announce excitedly that we're having a baby on the beach. Instead, this a picture of the babies that aren't joining us. I was able to get over 35 pictures of my ultrasounds from the radiology department at the hospital and I'm so grateful I get to see and remember my babies.

• Kayaking to see dolphins. Lots of reviewers online suggested a dolphin tour and a friend who visited the island recently told us it was worth doing. We decided to take watching dolphins to the next level and do a kayaking dolphin tour. Andrew said that even if we didn't see dolphins, we could enjoy kayaking still. I think he jinxed us. The views were breathtaking. We were in a double kayak and are both tall. I'm surprised I didn't lose my oar after many collisions with Andrew's. The tour guide told us that only 5 out of 100 tours haven't seen dolphins. We beat the odds... After 2 hours we still hadn't seen anything! Right as we were almost back to the dock, we saw faraway fins. Unfortunately we couldn't follow them because it was nearly dark. Still a pleasant experience seeing these views. I woke up with sore arms the next morning. Andrew won the lottery and saw 3 dolphins on a beach run one morning without me. I got to see the video though.

• Sea Pines Forest Preserve. Seeing an alligator was high on Andrew's list and we got to! We strolled around a swamp. It was secluded, shady, and beautiful! We saw squirrels, a lizard, and the best part was when I spotted an alligator! The alligator was slow moving and lazy and didn't seem to want to show us much, but we watched it for awhile. We also saw moss on trees and so much algae covering the water.

Can you spot the gator? He didn't seem to like us..

• Legendary golf. Hilton Head takes mini golf seriously. There a few courses and they have 36 holes! We opted to do the 18 hole course. The ambiance was fun. At night, they light the course up and go all out with water features. Andrew got not only 1 but 2 holes in one! We clearly should have done the "championship course" instead of just the " professional" one. I learned my lesson... Stop betting. I lost by 11 points which resulted in me having to take the middle seat on the airplane ride home. The jokes on Andrew though because on our first flight the row only had 2 seats (no middle seat) and the second flight there was an empty seat by us. Phew, I dodged a bullet. The golf course had a bible verse at every hole which was unique. We saw several churches there! 

• Renting bikes. We could rent bikes where we stayed. We explored the island and rode a 15 mile route. The island is flat, but there is a bridge. The path we took required us to cross the bridge, and boy was it steep. I had hoped we'd have our own lane to cross the water, but we shared the road with cars whizzing by at 55mph. At least it was a wide bike lane, but there wasn't a large margin for making mistakes and we weren't wearing helmets. We always do at home, but the cheapskate in me couldn't justify $20 more than we already paid just for helmets. As we started the incline, I just went for it. No turning back now. Our rental bikes didn't have gears, but that didn't stop us. I didn't dare pause to take a picture at the top of the bridge of the gorgeous view. Couldn't risk it. We lived to tell the tale, and my butt felt that ride for a couple days.

• Pickleball. The complex we stayed in had pickleball courts! We had a great time competing with each other. Andrew is better than me much to my chagrin. I claim he's lucky. He did admit I make better shots than him. I did manage to beat him one game though! We played over 10 games and went to the courts a couple of times. There was "open play" each morning and a large group gathered to play doubles. After seeing us play for over an hour, another couple invited us to join the group the following morning. We were warned that "all levels are welcome from 2.0 to 5.0 and not to worry, pickleball players are pretty nice. Nobody would be mean to us." Clearly, we are professionals-not.  Almost everyone in the pickleball club were retirees. This little pep talk made us chuckle for days.

Food

• We went to the "Frozen Moo" ice cream shop TWICE. We couldn't resist. They have 91 flavors. The InstaGraham (graham cracker) and Savannah Bannah (peanut butter, banana, with chocolate chunks) were our favorites.

The "Sundown Saloon" impressed us. The burgers were to die for! It was a bar.

"Bella Italia" pizza was yummy but not knock your socks off good. We did get to eat the leftovers for a couple of days which was nice.

"Hudson's Seafood on the Docks" is famous at Hilton Head. A little more expensive, and very picturesque. Right on the water! They serve seafood and you guessed correctly if you predicted I passed. Andrew had the seafood pasta with fresh shrimp and clams.

SKIP "Cactus Street Cantina." Expensive and unimpressive. Not sure why it has such high reviews and not the Mexican food we were craving. I also had a bit of a breakdown while at the restaurant so just not a great experience overall. The staff was very cheery so I'll give them that.

One night we tried the new Oreo Reese's which was fun! Also sampled BBQ Doritos on the beach which made my nose run but I liked them enough to buy them back in Utah.

Still to come... Our daytrip to Savannah Georgia and our time in Charleston!!

Penelope Elise is 2!

Penny's birthday was yesterday, Friday, October 10. We narrowed down Penelope's birthday celebration to 2 things that she adores...

1) A hike to a waterfall in the hiking backpack

2) Swimming at the rec center pool

Swimming won! (due to darkness/rain) My parents and Jessica's family joined us. First we met at my house for cupcakes/presents and then we headed to the Herriman Rec Center pool. We will be hiking to a waterfall soon! 

Penelope is very into swimming and the water. In fact, when we talk about our day at the dinner table, she often says she went swimming, even though she didn't. All week she has been saying, "I'm turning 2 on Friday!" Sadly, as part of my recovery, I am unable to swim. I watched and took pictures at the pool which is not quite how I wanted to be celebrating my big girl's special day. I could hardly keep up with the big kids who are comfortable in the water. Isabelle is finally old enough to go down the slide and she went at least 10 times! The joy on her face was adorable. She also followed James and went off the high dive endlessly. 

Living her best life. Just look at her smile.

At daycare they celebrate birthdays. Penelope wasn't at daycare on her birthday, but we sent her her "birthday treat" the day before. Penelope brought chips. Give her all the chips and she's one happy girl. I let her have 3 bags of chips that day... Oops. She wanted another bag. Doritos seem to be here favorite, but Pringles are up there. She'll take any kid of chip. (She had Doritos, bbq chips, and Cheetos that day.)

Presents: We got Penelope a stroller for her dolls. She is very interested in babies and carries them around. She likes to sing "Rock-a-bye baby" and pretend to put the babies to sleep. She got 2 new babies/dolls and one of them is Ms. Rachel which she is thrilled about. Ms. Rachel sings. Penelope also got a Stitch stuffy, another stuffed animal, a princess dress, a book, and a scooter.

BIO

One of the birthday texts I got about Penelope said this: "Happy birthday to cute Penelope!! She is a burst of sunshine! Love her so much!" This sums up Penny perfectly.

Penelope is the best talker! She talks in full sentences and people are astounded by her vocabulary, especially at daycare. Andrew works from home and when he comes up to join us for lunch she usually says, "Dad, how is work going?" She often says these phrases to me: "Mom, are you making cookies?" "Mom, you're making dinner." "Mom, can I sit on the counter?" "Will you turn on a show mom?" "Isabelle is sad." "James is at volleyball practice."

Penelope knows a lot of her colors! Pink seems to be one she's sure of. She can sing "I Am A Child of God" and knows her ABCs and can count to 10. Though she sometimes skips a number.

She has lots of opinions and makes them known! Some have said she is the most opinionated 2 year old they have ever seen and I agree. She is a spitfire! She prefers Andrew to me and is sorely disappointed on the daily when she wakes up and gets me instead of Andrew (who is usually at the gym). 

Penelope knows what she likes, "Let's go to the library." "I want to go to Jessica's house." "Let's go swimming at the pool." "I want to go to nursery!" Penelope wanders around during church and sits with random people sometimes during sacrament meeting. She is well loved. She is very independent and wants to do everything herself including getting dressed, putting on her shoes/socks, etc. After we go somewhere, she has to close the garage even though she can't reach it. I hold her up to push the garage button. If I close the garage, the fit that results can last indefinitely. Penelope also has to close the door to the garage! Not anyone else.

Penelope is ready to be potty trained! She had a babysitter last week and apparently pulled out her little potty and made the babysitter help her use the potty multiple times. She also went on the potty while I was at the ER and my dad was babysitting her. Hoping to potty train later this month but it's complicated with daycare and travel plans.

Penelope is cuddly and I adore it. She asks to give me snuggles and gives the biggest hugs and kisses. She is a social butterfly and would like to be at school at every second. As soon as we leave daycare, she asks if she can go back.

She sometimes asks to go to timeout and gets a naughty look on her face. Pulling Isabelle's hair will surely get her there and she knows that. If you want to see the cutest thing in the world, turn on the song "Hop Little Bunny." Penelope can jump and it's precious how into it she is.

Penelope's 2 year old appointment stats!

Appointment date: October 20, 2025

Weight: 25 pounds (32%) Her weight has gone up! Must be all those chips!

Height: 32.4 (16%)

Head: 93% (Typical for all our children)

2 is such a fun, but busy age! Penelope can open our fridge! None of our other kids attempted this. She pulls a stool into the pantry to get snacks she wants that are out of reach. And eating dirt still isn't a thing of a past. Watch out world! Penelope for president! I could not love this girl or her spunky personality more!!

Foreseen and Unforeseen Events

Life is unpredictable! I never would have guessed 6 months ago that I would be on the program at stake conference! I didn't anticipate being in the emergency room either, but I once again found myself there. I'm a planner and volleyball, camping, a piano recital, kid updates, and general conference have been on my calendar for awhile. So has my couples trip with Andrew! A trip to Texas this month wasn't on my radar either but I'm thrilled to be going.

Stake Conference

I got asked to speak in the adult session of Stake Conference which was a real dream come true for me. Said no one ever. My topic was missionary work and I'm glad the talk is behind me. I had a really neat experience in the temple as I was seeking guidance for my talk. I felt inspired to change the whole thing. I later learned the speaker after me and the stake president's talk were on "love, share, and invite" which was my original talk. I've never had such clear direction and it was neat to see why I felt so strongly to change it. My parent's treated us to dinner before stake conference at Mi Ranchito which was generous. Jessica came to hear me speak too but left before we took the picture. My grandparents were also there which was so sweet! I have the best family!

Saturday, September 20

Volleyball

I've been anxiously awaiting the day James can play volleyball and that day has come. Our local rec center offers volleyball starting in 3rd grade. The beginning of the season was was painful. The first game was a big letdown. The kids played 3 sets. Nobody returned a serve. Not joking. It was just a game of serving. As the season progressed, things thankfully improved. There's still plenty of room for growth and I look forward to more rallies!

James can serve it deep and he is able to bump the ball back. He was disappointed to hear that volleyball is ending this week (some of us have been counting down). His pal and close friend Taft was on his team which meant for a good time. He also knew a couple others from school. James' coaches weren't very experienced which made things tricky.

Piano Recital

James started piano lessons in June. He takes from Sandra Peterson who lives on our street and is in our ward. Her husband is the stake patriarch. She is phenomenal! She has multiple master's degrees in piano performance and man can she play. I feel lucky that James gets to take from her and better yet he gets to bike there. James is a big fan of playing the piano and we actually have to tell him to stop practicing because it starts to get old 4+ times a day... So sweet of Grandma Langlois to come support James.

Saturday, September 13

Father Kid Campout

This year the annual father kid campout was near Kamas. This is a beloved event for our older children. They were bummed Penelope didn't join them, but maybe she'll be ready for a future campout. James and Isabelle enjoyed s'mores and staying up late. They also learned some valuable lessons that boys only learn camping I guess...

Friday, September 12

Kid update

Penelope: Loves daycare and asks to go to "school" everyday. She goes part time-- every other day. Her teacher says she's a spitfire which is no surprise to us. I guess Penelope asked to come in from the playground and have chocolate.

Isabelle: Outgrew her violin! Time to size up! I got to sub Isabelle's 1st grade class and it was so fun. She gave me giant hugs throughout the school day and told me it was one of the best days this year! It was so cute. I hope she loves me like this forever. I have not been loving subbing but the extra income is needed/nice. Kids can be pretty terrible for subs.

Wednesday, October 1

James: Got an expander! He will be getting braces soon. Poor guy inherited some of my bad bite/teeth genes, but we're getting it taken care of. And no, he didn't get glasses. The orthodontist had him wear those for eye protection. He doesn't complain when we crank his expander which has been unexpected and great.

Thursday, September 18

General Conference

We attended the Saturday afternoon session of general conference. My parent's got great tickets on the ground floor! They only got 4 tickets but fortunately my SIL was able to get some for Andrew and Chris too (on a balcony.) Apparently it was the second most rainy day in SL history. We got 2.37 inches of rain that day. It was a long, cold, and wet walk to the car! The messages were so uplifting and the choir was phenomenal. The next morning, I woke up with one of the songs the choir sang in my head. We kept with tradition and ate cinnamon rolls and lots of other superb food for conference. I loved so many talks and am eager for them to come out. They helped give me peace and hope as I am going through something difficult. President Eyring's talk about being proven struck me and was just what I needed to hear.

Saturday, October 4

Andrew with his brother Logan, Julia, and Hyrum

Loss

I had another miscarriage. While substitute teaching a rotten class, I felt a big gush. I went to the bathroom expecting to see blood but instead saw clear discharge. After messaging my doctor, she told me to head to the hospital. I had to finish subbing first which wasn't easy. I tried my best to hold it together but was on the brink of tears. Luckily it was a short day, so the students got out at 12:30. I quickly dropped our neighbor off at his house and rushed to pick up my grocery order before heading to the hospital. 

Turns out the bug gush was amniotic fluid. After some blood work testing my HCG levels and 2 of the longest ultrasounds (a regular and vaginal ultrasound) of my life, I learned that I was pregnant with TWINS. Neither had a heartbeat. I sobbed. 

I was nearly 11 weeks pregnant and almost ready to share my happy news. I guess one twin stopped growing around 9 weeks and the other around 8 weeks although the doctor suspects their heartbeats stopped around the same time. I didn't think to ask for a picture of my babies and deeply regret that. I still have the ultrasound pic from my last miscarriage. The ER was actually really funny about my ultrasounds in general and recently changed their hospital policy so they didn't show me anything during the ultrasound or say anything. I never got to see my babies. No, I wasn't "clogging up the ER to see pictures of my baby" but apparently lots of people do that. I had a regular ultrasound and appointment scheduled for today. 

There were some very kind healthcare workers. Several cried with me. My mom was there with me when I got the news. Andrew was with the kids at parent teacher conferences but came to the hospital later. Silver lining-- I got to miss conferences which aren't my favorite!

I spent 9.5 hrs at the hospital and had a d&c. The doctor on call ended up being the same doctor who delivered Penelope which was a huge blessing. I like Dr. Burgett. My family made sure everything at home went smoothly and got Isabelle to dance, picked up dinner, got the kids in bed, etc. So grateful. Everything is all so fresh and I'm still processing this devastating news. My ER trip happened on Thursday, October 2. I went to the hospital at 1:15pm and finally got home around 10:45pm. This time around, my kids know about the miscarriage and have had questions. "Penny would have loved to have 2 playmates." They have been very sweet and pray for me. I don't know that I ever want to put myself through this again.

Naming children has always been stressful for me. I usually spend months agonizing. This pregnancy, we were pretty decided and had one girl name and one boy name picked out. The girl name starts with the letter J and the boy name the letter L. I guess we would have needed 2 names. I was due in April close to my mother in law's birthday which she would be thrilled about. Though twins usually come early so I doubt they would have shared a birthday.

I opted not to have my picture taken in the ER with tear stains/makeup on my face and dried blood up and down my legs. I have been so well taken care of and loved. It has been overwhelming. Our fridge is bursting with food. There have been so many tender mercies throughout this hard experience. One of them being that my mom had randomly cancelled her BYU class on Friday. She was free to take my kids as I was resting. My kids said it best when they said: "Wow mom, you're going to have a lot of thank-you cards to write." Feels like everything about my life is different/changed now. The grief/sadness comes in waves.

Vacation

Andrew and I booked a kid-free trip to South Carolina months ago using Andrew's vacation fund from work. We leave this week and the timing aligned nicely. Having a distraction and a way to leave behind this upsetting loss is perfect. We haven't left our kids overnight in over 3 years! So grateful my parent's are watching them! 

Andrew and I had planned on taking a picture together on the beach holding my ultrasound to announce my pregnancy but sadly that won't be happening anymore. Neither of us have been to South Carolina and it has been on our bucket list. We're really looking forward to it.

Fall break is coming up later this month which means no school for a week. I'm taking James and Isabelle to Texas for Esther's baptism. They are giddy to get to ride on an airplane and see their cousins! I am already stretching my belly to make room for all the BBQ food.

My baby Penelope turns 2 this week and I'm crushed. How can this be?? If there's one thing my grief has taught me it's to love the kids I've got because getting them here hasn't been easy for me. I'm going to focus on the 3 wonderful kids here with me instead of the 3 in heaven. Thank you Taylor Swift for dropping your new album this weekend. Her peppy and poppy clean version has been on repeat. Stay tuned for pictures of the birthday girl and our trips!

New Calling, Hiking, and Rafting, Oh My!

Mother nature and I are on the same page during the months of September and October.

Biking in the river bottoms near my parent's house is fabulous. I want it to become a Sunday ritual. Andrew proposed to me on this bridge almost 14 years ago!

Peaches peaches peaches for days. My parent's peach tree is thriving! My mom has made many scrumptious peach pies. Grandma Woods would be proud. 

Baby "Dorothy's"

New Calling

I have been serving as the ward music coordinator for just over 3 years. When I got a text to meet with a member of the bishopric, I was sad. Music has been my baby and I still have more ideas and musical numbers I would like to make happen in church.

As I've had time to process this change I think it was inspired. How would I have gone to weekly young women activities in addition to teaching piano several evenings a week? This would have taken me away from my family a lot! It shows me that stopping piano lessons was the right move and that I was lead to do it. Brother Robbins said they have been trying to call me into young women's for awhile. I truly enjoyed my music calling even though sometimes dealing with people and cancellations could be tricky.

I am now a young women's specialist over 14 and 15 year old girls (formerly known as "Mia Maids"). I taught a couple of these young women piano and love them! I haven't ever had a calling in young women's and am excited! A lot has changed in the 14 years since I was in young women's.

The same week I got called, I went with some friends in the ward on a "Christ Walk" in Heber. The church news has an article about it. The young women in our ward went on this walk during girls camp and several shared powerful experiences they had there. 

The Christ walk was touching. Writing about a trial I'm facing in invisible ink and then later walking through and reading others anonymous answers/challenges was humbling. Collecting pieces of thread at a few stations to later turn in for a bracelet was also impactful. How can I become the beautiful "bracelet"/person I want to become without going through the tough stuff? At the end, everyone wrote down what Christ would say to you as you're going through your trial. What a way to end. Talk about hope.

Hiking

James noticed a trend. We hike on Labor Day. This year was no different. We went on a more vigorous hike called Heughs Canyon Waterfall near Holladay. Several websites clock this hike as 3.5 miles roundtrip. You have to park about 0.4 miles away. According to my dad's watch, we walked close to 5 miles. We did it!

This was a shady and pretty trail. Sunflowers greeted us as we entered. I feel bad for the poor people whose driveway aligns with the beginning of the path. Yikes. The hike begins in a neighborhood. It is a steep climb the whole way. You cross 2 bridges. Near the end, it was easy to slip due to steepness and rocks. It was pretty anticlimactic when we couldn't find the waterfall!! What! We came across endless giant boulders and it was unclear where to go.  Fortunately, we ran into some other hikers who pointed out which massive rocks we had to climb.

By the end, the kids were tired. My dad went ahead and got the car for us so we didn't have to walk the extra distance. We were treated to Krispie Kreme doughnuts on our way home courtesy of Nana and Papa. Thank you!

Rafting

"ABH" which is the "All Brothers Hike" looked different this year. Andrew went white water rafting with his brothers on the Salmon River in Idaho. Andrew drove 10 hours to meet his brothers there. We had to get new tires on his car and do some other maintenance but his car felt brand new after the tires were replaced. They were in a bad state. 

The timing of Andrew's weekend away seemed unfair. On Labor Day evening, all of our kids came down with an abominable stomach bug. There were over 13 throw-ups that night. The next night, only Penny was still throwing up. The first night of ABH, Penelope threw up some more. Lucky me. Our house has reeked of throw up but the stench is finally diminishing after endless loads of laundry and several repeated laundry cycles.  

That being said, Andrew had a blast and like usual the Dittos partyed until the last possible second... He returned home at 4am on Sunday morning which made me nervous. Phew-- he stayed awake and avoided deer. Everyone but Vaughn (BIL) was there, so Andrew + his 4 brothers, + 1 BIL= 6 total men.

I hope our trees will thrive in this cooler weather.. We just replaced this toasted tree. We got it about 1 year ago and thankfully it was still under warranty. Don't mind me just opening all the windows and enjoying the breeze and the green grass. The aroma from a spiced apple toddy candle is currently making our home smell heavenly.