Days 14, 15 and 16

Our original anniversary plans fell through... I was supposed to make a reservation at a fancy restaurant on Saturday night... not realizing I needed to do it 2 weeks in advance! Oops! So feeling very bummed about that, Hubz suggested I see how much it was to fly one way to meet him in Milwaukee. That started the ball rolling on a totally "on the fly" weekend... we have never done something like that without planning way out in advance. While empty-nesting will I'm sure be a downer in a lot of ways, it's cool having a trustworthy 17 year old who you can leave alone for a night and not worry. Leaving at a moment's notice will be one perk of no little ones at home anymore. So I left work at 1:45 and drove straight to the airport. Got to Milwaukee, Peter picked me up and we drove 200 miles to Le Claire, Iowa... on the way, in the dark, took an off ramp and followed the arrows to the "Boyhood Home of Ronald Reagan" in Dixon, IL... Reagan was the first president I ever voted for.

The next morning we woke up at our hotel on the banks of the Big Muddy in LeClaire, Iowa... I noticed lots of Bald Eagles this weekend... they must be making their way back up north. The hotel was great, a jacuzzi tub in the room... wonderful.

We left LeClaire and drove 2 hours south to Nauvoo, IL and attended the temple there for the first time -- we had gone to the Open House in 2002, but had never gone there in the winter... the river was frozen over (in Nauvoo, where it's shallow - not at other parts) and with the snow all around it was easy to imagine what it might have looked like during the westward exodus of the saints.

After leaving Nauvoo, we had a 400 mile drive ahead of us home! Kind of crazy to drive 700 miles in 30 hours when our original plan was just to go out to dinner! I loved the last-minute-ness of this little getaway -- we need to do this more often, it was fun!

Today it was back to normal, and here is where you can find us most Sundays - back at West St Paul ward, at our next-to-the-soybean-field chapel.