.looking forward (but mostly back)

*Nichole and I walking around the Nauvoo Temple in '06

I find that life is a lot less difficult to endure when I have some kind of event to look forward to. And right now life is pretty much a breeze... I'm crediting that to the fact that we have a couple of awesome events coming up.

Not only is my best friend and her husband coming up to visit us in Canada; but the very next week we get to go back and visit my old stomping grounds--Chicago. Plus we're going down to Nauvoo!

I can't wait to take Air and my parents and my sister around the amazing town of Nauvoo, Illinois!

I keep thinking lately about my first trip down to Nauvoo... probably in anticipation of Air's first trip. It was a trip that I'll never forget, because I was with my buds: Nichole, Niki and Ali.

{I feel a story coming on....}

When I lived in the mid-west I was persuasive enough to get my friends from Utah to come out and visit me. We toured the city... and then the four of us went on a 5hr road trip down to Nauvoo for the weekend. I drove.

This is where my only ‘hit-a-deer/wrecked-my-car’ story comes from. It was terrifying... but luckily, the car still carried us the rest of the way there and back!

Only bad news for that deer, though. RIP little guy.

I'm still sorry about Megan's van. So sorry.

We arrived in Nauvoo really late at night and pulled into a cute little antique of a hotel on the main street. We were lucky and got a sweet deal on a huge room with three big beds.

Before we went to sleep we decided that we wanted to refresh our memories of what happened in Nauvoo during Joseph Smith's time... we all pulled out our D&C's and basically had a "church history pajama party".

I love my friends.

We spent the next day touring the town. It's so beautiful there.

*Niki, me, Ali, Nichole at the Mississippi River

*taking the carriage ride to JS's "Inspiration Point"

*Carthage Jail

And every time I've been back, it's been just as great. Nauvoo really is a magical little town.