Fall Break

Over Landon's fall break we headed out on our annual October trip to Nauvoo, Illinois. 

(If you've never heard of Nauvoo, you can read about it's amazing history here.)

We've done this every year since we moved to Iowa and it's been a great tradition for us. It was sad to think this will be the last time for a while. 

Nauvoo is so beautiful, especially during the fall. It was an awesome trip except for the mishap on the way there.

We stopped in a little town called Swedesburg that probably has a population of less than 100 people. 

Well long story short, we lost our dog in this tiny town. 

I was taking pictures, trying to figure out my new camera and Thor was sitting next to our car wanting to get back in, while Landon was looking around inside the Swedish "museum" if you could call it that. 

We were pretty much the only ones in town at the time, but I saw a car coming down the road so I went to make sure Thor didn't get in the road and he was gone. GONE. In a matter of minutes, us and pretty much everyone in the town, were searching for him, calling his name, and of course I'm bawling. 

We searched for 2 hours, which means we circled the town about 7-8 times. It's that small of a place. The dog was nowhere to be found. 

Now if you don't know by know, Thor has been our child since we got him. We have an unhealthy attachment to him :) So Landon and I were both freaking out. He has never run away and always wants to be right with us. I thought for sure someone must have taken him. 

It was starting to get dark so we thought maybe we should drive the rest of the way to Nauvoo and come back in the morning, but Landon just couldn't leave. So we parked in front of the now closed "museum" and sat wondering what to do and how the heck this happened. 

Landon got out of the car to look around one last time and way across the street saw a little brown bum running into a corn field. I saw him take off, jumping over 2 wire fences separating us from the field, running as fast as he could. Of course he emerged with our little stinker. 

We don't know how he got over there or why. Needless to say, we will never forget little Swedesburg. 

The rest of our trip was much more low key :) We went to the temple the next morning, walked the Trail of Hope, and stopped at the pumpkin patch on the way home. 

The Trail of Hope is really amazing. They have plaques set up along one of the little town roads down to the Mississippi River. In almost the exact spot, the saints left Nauvoo for the Salt Lake Valley in the middle of winter. The plaques have excerpts from journals of some of the people and it is so amazing to read how they felt and what they went through. They left everything in the freezing cold to go to a place they didn't know. Pretty much a barren desert where they would have to start their lives over, and many of them died along the way. 

Their faith amazes me. 

I especially loved this plaque from a woman who gave birth along the trail. I can't even imagine.