Happy Easter

It seemed a little different at the old Foulk homestead this Easter. Our Megan made a spring break trip to Utah to be with her sisters, which left just Nathan and Evan here for the Easter morning egg hunt. I gotta say.....not such great finders.

But they eventually found every last one of the 28 eggs we colored the day before.

For Easter dinner we were able to get together with Grandma Foulk , Aunt Tracey, Uncle Chuck, Kaci and Nikki. We had another egg hunt with plastic eggs at Grandmas house.

It was also Grandma's birthday on Easter so there was a lot to be thankful for. We traditionally go to Grandma's house to watch general conference which also fell on the same weekend, so that was the icing on the cake.

(Technically we had cool whip icing on grandma's cake....)

But all in all it was a wonderful uplifting weekend to celebrate all that life has to offer us....thanks to a Savior who was willing to make it all possible. Happy Easter!!!!

More Albania Missionary Adventures

I thought it was past time to give an update on our Elder Foulk in Albania. He continues to amaze and delight us with his letters. There really is nothing like having a missionary daughter or son serving from your family in the mission field.

During Geoffrey's time in Albania, he has had the opportunity to meet several church officials. Elder Christofferson of the Twelve Apostles visited in late May. Each missionary got to shake his hand and meet him.

When we last checked in with him, he was serving in the office in Tirana. He started out serving as the district secretary for three months and then another Elder came in to serve as secretary and he moved to the financial secretary desk with different responsibilities and served there for three months. While in the office, he had some amazing experiences. Here is an excerpt from one of his letters outlining his responsibilities as district secretary....

My official title is District Secretary. Personally, I think a better title would be “The guy that does everything the Financial Secretary doesn't do.” Among my duties are to manage district finances (reimbursing travel & phone expenses and distributing Localized Unit Budget Allowance), oversee missionary house rental contracts and closing agreements, managing our fleet, (maintenance, licensing, insurance, registration), placing supply orders for BOM’s/everything, organizing the temple trip to Frankfurt in September, being on the Albanian Steering Committee (explained later), starting up Public Affairs projects (i.e.. organizing the Elbasan Chapel Open House), and getting trained to do Audits (they say it’s a 6 hour training…. Awesome ;). So needless to say, I should find time to be pretty busy. In all my “down time,” I’m supposed to come up with “projects.” We’re trying to make a big media push here in Albania, because the Church’s image is pretty tarnished here. We hope to change that though.

These are some of the members who went on the temple trip to Frankfurt.

Someone came up with a Settlers of Catan game which made for a fun prep day activity.

Geoffrey loved working with President Neil while serving in the office. He worked, first, with Elder Turley and then with Elder Smedley. In addition to doing office work and doing regular missionary work, they also saw some beautiful places. I think the highlight trip while he was in the office was the trip that they took to Theth. It is a big national park there that is just amazingly beautiful. Here are some photos from that momentous trip.

As the pictures show...the journey was very eventful, to say the least.

While in the office, Geoffrey also went with a group from his district to see some amazing caves.

On the trip, he found this funny sign.

This is Geoffrey with Arten who he was able to baptize while serving in Tirana.

This is just one of the amazing photos that Geoffrey was able to take on New Year's Eve.

Just shortly after Christmas, Elder Foulk was transferred to Elbasan. This is one of the two cities in the country that has a chapel. Durres was the first and Elbason was dedicated at the time that Elder Christofferson was there. In addition to proselyting work, Geoffrey serves as the second counselor in the branch presidency in Elbasan. He started out with a companion named Elder Klein who he really got along great with.

But when Elder Turley, who he had served with first in the office, had to return home with a medical problem, Elder Klein was transferred out and Geoffrey began serving with a mini missionary named Zef.

He is 17 years old and Geoffrey actually helped teach him when he served in Durres. He has only been a member since October. What an adventure!! It has meant that Geoffrey has really only been able to speak Albanian for about two months since his companion is a native. But Geoffrey has loved serving with Zef and has really gotten even better with the language.

The following pictures were taken in the village of Berat. There are no missionaries there yet but the missionaries were able to travel there on a preparation day.

Keep up the good work, Elder Foulk. We love and miss you!!

Will You Marry Me? YEP!!!!!

It's official. Our Stephanie said "yes" when Marc asked the question after a fun scavenger hunt that led to a picnic that led to a ring. Very cool. We are so happy for you, Marc and Steph!!!

Let us know, guys, when you officially decide on that wedding date :) Congratulations.

A Short Trip to Utah

It is tough when you have kids in multiple places and want to be able to spend time with them all. A while back, Steve and I decided that we really didn't want to wait until the summer to see our sweet little grandson Alan out in Utah. We hear reports of his happenings from his mom and dad and see photos of him and even Skype with him, but it just isn't quite the same as being there. To add to the mix, we have three children out in Utah plus a son-in-law and a soon to be son-in-law. We decided we would take a quick trip west.

It was such a fun time.

We played with Alan,
met Bronco Mendenhall at Costco, went skiing at Sundance,

went to church with Em and Janelle, and ate Sunday dinner at Steph's.

My parents came down from Idaho and we also got to go out to dinner with uncle Bruce and Aunt Jennifer. Emily even took us all to dinner at the Cannon center one night with her dining plus dollars. Very fun.

We saw lots of snow in the mountains and it even snowed one night in the valley.

The kids here in New Jersey were real troopers taking care of themselves for the most part with some help from our friend, Heather. They got a surprise on Saturday morning when the power went out due to heavy rains and wind and they had to rough it for almost 24 hours. Way to go, guys. Thanks, Aunt Tracey for the pizza! We were very happy to get the word that the power was back on Sunday morning.

Even though we hated to leave the crew in Utah, we knew it was time to come home to our kids here. We are so thankful we were able to spend some time there and establish some great memories.

Evan the Great Turns SIX!!!

Well, the long awaited day finally came. I wonder how many times Evan asked me, " Mom, when will I be six?" Evan has been excited for this birthday for a very, very long time. He got to spread it out over a few days since his actual birthday was on March 3, his party was on March 5, and we celebrated with a family dinner with Grandma on Sunday, March 7. He loved everything and just soaked it all in from the cupcakes that he got to take to school, to the "Under the Sea" party, to the new bike. What a great age!!! Evan, we love you so much and are so glad you came to live in our family!!!! Here are a few photos from the big day(s).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN

DC or Bust!! (Having fun in spite of the snow)

It's been quite a winter. The big snow that we got just before Christmas was a type of things to come, I guess. Although our church ward has not had to cancel church again since that big storm, other local congregations have not been so lucky. We have had three other major snow events this year and are expecting a minor one (about six inches) tomorrow. There is actually a patch of snow next to our driveway that never quite melted after the original storm and it is still well covered. Crazy year.

We had made plans last fall to go to Washington DC over President's Day weekend. As the time grew near to going, they got hit down there with even more snow than we had. The national government pretty much shut down. But we were determined. We delayed our departure by a half a day to allow for snow removal here and then took off on Friday morning. Because a storm had come in on Tuesday night, the kids ended up missing Wednesday and Thursday because of snow and then Friday because of our planned trip. Luckily the things down in DC and the National Aquarium in Baltimore opened up in time for us and we ended up having a great trip after all. The crowds were even thinner because of the weather. Bonus!!

( We actually took this cool photo of a jelly fish)

We took in the aquarium on the way down, spent Saturday and part of Sunday in the museums of the Smithsonian,

and stopped at the DC Temple on the way home on Monday so that Megan and Nathan could do some family file baptisms It was Nathan's first temple trip to Washington.

(Evan by the Christus statue in the visitor's center)

We also caught Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief on Saturday night. Nate is a big fan of the book series. Sunday, before going to the museums, we attended church at the Capitol Ward. The brothers and sisters there had missed the two previous weeks of church due to snow and it was very interesting to hear of their adventures. Over all......just a great trip. Even though we couldn't escape the snow, we had some great family time together and saw some parts of Washington we had not seen before.