Iowa & Illinois

Last Friday morning we took off to Iowa and Illinois. The kids were SO GOOD the whole trip! I was definitely surprised! It took us ten hours to get from Topeka to Nauvoo with all the stops to feed Grace, change her diaper, and for John & Ellie to use a bathroom too. But, it was otherwise uneventful, thankfully.

Nathan's Aunt (Although really, she's more than that. She took Nathan and his brothers in after their mom passed, while having three boys of her own. She's a saint!) is really sick, and has been for quite a while, but is declining pretty rapidly. She has in home hospice now. 

The last time we were in Iowa was right before we left to all go back to Germany after Nathan returned from Afghanistan, so John was only 7ish months old, and I was 15 weeks pregnant with Ellie. It was time to definitely go again.

We went to the Burlington/Sperry/Fort Madison parts of Iowa, which isn't far from Nauvoo, Illinois at all. Nathan thought it'd be a good idea to shoot up to Nauvoo on Friday, then go to Fort Madison to visit John and Sherry's (Nathan's brother and mom) graves. Then, we'd make our way to Burlington to our hotel.

By the time we got to Nauvoo, it was 5:30ish or so, maybe 6. There was no getting the kids to sit nicely for a "good portrait" photo. Just silly, in-the-moment shots here :)

she was SO happy to be out of her carseat!

he dressed himself that morning :) red on red, of course!

ladies and gentlemen, the biggest DIVA you'll ever meet!

Nathan took John across the street to one of the church buildings to use the bathroom, so I wanted to get some nice photos of Ellie in front of the temple. Temples are some her favorite things! We sing "I Love to See the Temple" everyday, all day. She always talks about how she got to go in the temple and how she wore her pretty white dress, with her white flower shoes. 

I got her to finally not grimace by saying we'd have these photos printed for her bedroom, so she can always remember being at the temple and how happy it makes her when she's there. 

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After walking around for a bit and letting John & Ellie burn off some steam, we loaded back up in the jeep and headed to Fort Madison, to the cemetery to visit John & Sherry. 

This was a difficult hour or so. John was distraught when he realized that Uncle John isn't here in person with us anymore. We explained to him that we can't see him with our eyes because he died. We told him it's okay to feel sad for a while, but to remember that Uncle John is happy now because he's with Heavenly Father and Jesus in Heaven, and that one day, we will all be together again. We had to explain it to him over again when we showed him Sherry's grave too, but for some reason, he was very hung up on Uncle John being gone. He cried, the most heartbreaking cry I've ever heard from him for the next hour in the car. It made me choke up. Death is so hard, especially for little kids. I'm grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ TO KNOW that death isn't the end. There IS more. We WILL see John & Sherry and all of our other loved ones again one day in the sweetest of reunions. 

As I'm sure most know, John W. Miller was KIA in Iraq in 2005. He's our hero!

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We stayed at a Howard Johnson in Burlington, IA. 

I've never stayed at one of those before; I figured it was probably similar to a Fairfield or whatever by Mariott. N-O-P-E!

We were extremely dissatisfied. Everything was dirty, it was party hour all day, the staff was inattentive to everyone. Just really not a good place for a family. I don't think John or Ellie noticed obviously, so that's good. They thought it was fun to stay somewhere with a big bed and a swimming pool in the middle of the hotel.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed to look around Burlington since it was too early to head into Sperry to see Nathan's aunt. 

Nathan took him to some of his favorite places around the area; parks and such.

these canons overlooked the mississippi...

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We spent a few hours in Sperry and not only got to see Nathan's aunt, but also his grandma, his other aunt, and some cousins. That was fun, because I hadn't met a few of them before.

The kids had fun with the two big wolf hybrid dogs in the backyard, and playing with toys. 

It was good to get up there and see everyone, and to have some family time too.