The Foulgers: Foulger Family Road Trip

34 people. 4 Cars. Over 1600 Miles. 7 nights. And I don't know how many fast food restaurants but it was a lot. What am I talking about you ask? I am talking about the road trip of all road trips that we went on! Kevin's parents decided to take the entire Foulger clan to Nauvoo for their 50th Wedding anniversary. We laughed, we cried, we survived! :) Just kidding. We seriously had an amazing trip! We saw so many amazing places and spent some quality time with the fam. It was a great place to have a reunion.

We met up with the rest of the crew in Laramie. From there we went to Omaha, Nebraska which is right near a little place called Winter Quarters, a temporary settlement for the Saints as they crossed the plains. (For my non- LDS friends out there all of these places are significant places in the History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). We went to the temple and visitors center there.

A distant relative of mine is buried right here. They have it all mapped out and can show you where they are buried even though there aren't any headstones. It was like a little treasure hunt trying to find the exact spot. But it was such a cool thing. Got to love family history! :)

Here are some random pictures while en route. Calum did really well, he loved being around all his cousins and they loved him too.

We were in a 15 passenger van and if you can believe it at times we got a little bored. We tried to pass the time playing various games, searching for license plates and eating junk. I even talked the Foulger's into making up a dance :)

Check us out!!

Calum and I watching a movie. Me using my sweet home made neck pillow! Haha

Bubble blowing contest.

Kevin was jealous of my mad skills.

The siblings had these funny shirts made up to tease their dad. Quick backstory- Back in the day when they were on trips and would stop for food they could only get two items, ie. burger+fries, or burger+drink but they could never have all three. Since Kevin is the youngest by a long shot he missed out on these years of frugality and so he could always have whatever he wanted and his siblings always resented him for it. JK ;) Haha. Anyway, the shirts reflect this inside joke. And Keith got a good kick out of them.

That night we went to a BBQ place where Calum couldn't get enough of the root beer!

The next day was by far the busiest. We went to the visitors center in Independence, Liberty Jail, Richmond, the Temple Site at Far West and Adam Ondhi Ahman.

The Whole Crew at Adam Ondhi Ahman. Such an amazing place.

After all that goodness, we finally made it to Nauvoo a little after midnight.

In the morning we had a little time alone so we braved the heat and walked the Trail of Hope.

It was nice to have some quiet time and to reflect on the sacrifices that the saints gave for their religion. It was in the hundreds that day so it was hard to imagine them walking this trail in the middle of winter, and it being cold enough that the Mississippi was frozen over. But it was still an awesome experience.

When we got to the Mississippi we played in the water for a little bit and tried to cool off :)

There are a lot of demonstrations of how they made things back in the day, but Calum was most interested in riding this sheep :)

We saw a few other shops including the Browning Gun shop. Kevin was stoked about that.

That evening we went to a fun little performance with lots of singing and dancing. Calum wouldn't take his eyes off the performers. He was so into it! Haha.

After that Uncle Keith took us all out for ice cream :)

The next morning we went to the temple. So awesome to be in the temple with Family. Love you all :)

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After that it was another fun filled day of seeing all the sights in Nauvoo. We all rocked out Reunion shirts that day!

Joseph Smith Gravesite

I loved the print shop! Such a crazy detailed process. Also did you know all of these terms come from a print shop:

-Dingbat

-Mind your P's and Q's

-Stereotype

-Coin the phrase

-Cut to the chase

I am a nerd and love things like this.

Some of our fun trinkets from the trip. Our Remember bracelets from grandma and our prairie diamonds.

Before we went to the pageant that night we went to a little carnival. I learned a jig..

Calum joined a bagpipe band...

We met new friends...

And old friends :) Tregan and Kim drove down from Iowa to say whats up to us and watch the pageant. It was fun to visit with them for a little bit.

From Nauvoo we went to Carthage and saw the jail where Joseph Smith was killed.

Carthage was a really neat place for me. Keith and Ilene assigned each family a stop on our trip to study about and give a quick little thought about when we got there. Carthage was assigned to me and Kevin. I had the impression to share part of a conference talk with everybody. Weeks later Kevin told me that he thought we should share that exact talk. And then when we got there the missionary that gave the tour shared that exact talk with us. It was such a testimony to me not only of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of this gospel. But also of Revelation and God's love for each of us. Three of us were inspired to share the exact same talk with this group of people. God definitely wanted us to hear that specific message at that time and in that place. Because of that Carthage was my favorite stop on the whole trip. This is the talk we shared, listen to it, or watch it. It is so powerful.

The next stop on the trip was Hannibal, Mark Twain's stomping grounds, and a River Boat ride on the Mississippi. Scorching hot, but so fun.

From there we started making our way back across the country. We made an impromptu stop at the University of Nebraska stadium to appease the Huskers fans that were with us :) We all had a good time.