Our long trip...

We would drive by this sign every time we went to stake center. This was the first time we were actually going to go the distance.
Our stop in Cumberand, MD
RUB a DUB, DUB three little boys in the tub. My mom used to always take pictures of us in the tub with our cousins... its only fair to take pictures of our kids with my cousins kids too...
We love Nauvoo!!
Calderwoods at the I-80 Truck stop!!


Well, We made it!! We crossed 11 states and made it to Utah. We had a great trip!! It was a little bit rough as we started. Late Friday night we finished cleaning, returning everything and saying goodbyes. We have so many people to thank for all of the packing, loading and the cleaning, I know we couldn't have done it alone! Thank you. We called our real estate agent one last time, made sure everything was done and then left the keys and walked away from our sweet home.

That night we spent the night with the Taylors and the next morning we packed up to leave. Unfortunately, I packed the keys in the trunk somewhere too. Luckily we had the spare keys and when we arrived in Utah I found them in Camdens suitcase (not a great place).

Fun stats from our trip:

- The most we paid for gas: $4.99/gallon (West Virginia)
- The least amount we paid: $4.51/gallon (Missouri)
- We averaged 40 miles/gallon (600 miles/tank)
- We stopped more for nursing/food/and wiggles than we did for gas.
- GPS saved us through flooded streets and closed bridges in Illinois/Missouri
- Yucky story: Between emptying the basement and cleaning it, Camden scooted accross the carpet. As I picked him up he was chewing on something- come to find out it was a dried beetle from under the desk.
- Scary story: Late at night Justin and I were listening to our book on tape "Eclipse" by Stephany Myers (about vampires). I turned around to see Brayden, thinking he would be asleep. It scared me to pieces to see him awake with blood all over his face. He had picked his nose to hard, and got a bloody nose. He didn't notice, but it will scare a mom in the middle of the night!
- We added 2000 miles to our car, in about 32 hours running time.
- We spent fathers day in Nauvoo
- We spent my birthday crossing my favorite state!! (WYOMING, :)
- Brayden carries keys around telling people that they are his home keys, little does he know we have no home right now.
- As we arrived into Utah we traveled on I-84 only to find 3/4 of it is UNDER CONSTRUCTION!! gotta love Utahs miles of construction, with no one working, and no way of anyone working on 30 miles of road at one time, yet they need to put the cones out so we can all see that they MIGHT want to work on it sometime this next summer. Justins philosophy is that they over bought on cones and have no place to store them, so better put them to good use.
- We made three big stops:
-Cumberland, Maryland to ride the B&O railroad, see the C&O Canal, enjoy Heritage Days, and ride the trolley around town. LOVED IT
-Nauvoo, Illinois to see the temple, enjoy church history and meet up with my cousin and his cute family. We loved staying at a cute bed and breakfast by the flooded mississippi river.
-Rawlins, Wyoming to see our friends from Maryland...( The Calderwoods) Crazy enough they are already settled in Colorado, and they went to visit family in Utah. We stopped to meet them half way accross the state, on their way home.