Connecting to the Southland

Hello Dear Reader,
When May rolled around the Houtz family, who Marilyn had lived with while she attended BYU for the year, drove to Atlanta so Marilyn could be with her family after eight months of homesickness. It was wonderful to be reunited again.

LeAnn graduated from high school shortly before so we were free as a family to travel with Grandpa as he made his rounds to the twenty-two buildings that were under construction in the Southeast Area. One trip we took was to Miami Beach. It was the first time the family had been to a warm and sandy ocean beach. We basked in the sun--so much so that we all suffered terrible sunburns. Even the bottoms of our feet got burned. It was painful to walk for about a week. We were all sick to our stomachs for several days as well. It was as if we were so burned we became dehydrated.

But that didn't deter us from going with Grandpa every chance we got. The beauty of the South touched us immensely. We had no idea that future genealogical research would reveal that some of the places we visited were places our ancestors had lived. No wonder we felt a special connection to the Southland.
Love,
Aunt Genni