Go East Young Man, Go East...and so we did!

Alice and I got back last week from a trip to Virginia. It has taken us a while to get everything all organized and get back into the swing of things. But it is good to be home. On our trip, seven of us jumped into a large van and rode back east. It was nice to have seven drivers, so no one had to do all the driving. My sister in law and I had not met Poppy and Dessie (Grandpa and Step-Grandma), so that was the purpose of the whole trip. On the way, to and from, we were able to see my brother in law's mission (Omaha Nebraska), Far West Temple Site, Adam-ondi-Ahman, spend a few days at Poppy's, have a family reunion, see a way cool bridge, and hit church history sites on the way home (Carthage, Nauvoo, and Winter Quarters). It took about two and a half weeks to complete the whole thing. So here are some of the pictures from our trip.

All of you know the wonderful game of "Frogger", well we found a frog that was living in Dessie's flower pot one morning. We took some pictures of it. The next morning, the frog had moved on, so we didn't think anything of it. So Alice and I went on a walk and we found the little guy, who was trying to play his own game of "Frogger" across the road. OUCH! Apparently he lost. The next morning, we actually found the frog again safe and sound in the little pot. So here is our little friend, to whom we named "Buddy". We found some eggs in the pot as well so we guessed that was the reason for staying around. So Alice just gave Buddy a kiss and then sent him on his way.
After leaving Poppy's, we headed to go to the Family Reunion. On the way we stopped at this awesome bridge, Humpback Bridge, that is very scenic and perfect for either engagement pictures or to be in the movie "Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It was fun to walk across and to take some fun pictures using silhouettes. I kept getting this picture wrong, so we had to keep taking this picture over again....Darn :) After the reunion, we traveled on to Nauvoo and Winter Quarters. We were able to attend sessions in both of these gorgeous buildings. In Nauvoo, they don't have a lot of restaurants, so we stopped at a grocery store to buy about three days of food and keep it in the refrigerator at our hotel. We found an interesting fruit called "UGLI". We would have bought it to try it, but it was over $4.00. So we though we would just take a picture to capture the moment.

This is a picture of us on the steps of the Nauvoo Temple. Alice and I both had a lot of fun on this trip. It was fun to see my brother-in-law's mission, but this trip made me excited to take Alice to my mission, Vancouver Canada. They are going to have the Olympics there in 2010 and the temple will be finished by then. So we are saving our pennies to make that trip. And so ends the summer 2008 trip.