Nebraska - Day 2

We finally arrived in Gothenburg on Friday. It definitely seemed like day 2's "brief" 6 hour drive took a lot longer....and it did...I think we stopped 4 times and Avery kept saying "my's bottoms huts" [translation: my bottom hurts]. I'm assuming it was going numb...

But we made it...without anymore puking.

Whew.

The day was filled with reminiscing over the house...the memories...the smells. The goal was for all of the kids (my aunts and uncles) to clean out the house of what they would like to have and then auction off the rest and ultimately sell the house in town. My grandparents have both passed away. It was a very bittersweet trip. It was, as always, so fulfilling to see my family but so deeply saddening knowing it would be the last time in the house.

The girls had a great time, but as is every Grandma's house it is FULL of breakable things!!!! Precious valuable things. We tried to sort out a few things for Avery to play with that, if broken, would not be mourned. She affixed herself to a small table in the kitchen next to the sliding door that was just her size and covered in small glass salt and pepper shakers. She proceeding to prepare "tea" for all of us over the next 3 days anytime we were there. I should have taken a picture.

My Aunt Janet took the girls downstairs for a pretend tea party with one of Grandma's real tea sets. Of course Avery is like a bull in a china shop and I was waiting for an explosion of shards of very valuable teapot parts. We managed to keep it all in one piece and then found "alternate" means of a tea party - paper plates, cups and really old dusty plastic fruit.

Kendall asked if my "grandma" (she was talking about my Aunt Janet) could do another tea party with us the next day. I guess since I kept saying "my grandma's house" and Aunt Janet was one of the pre-dominant people in the house, she assumed that she was my grandma.

Then I explained that actually Janet is my aunt, and her Great-Aunt, and that my grandma and grandpa died. Well, that really confused her and she called Janet her Great-great Grandma. Poor Janet! But "from the mouths of babes." She definitely doesn't look old, it's all just terminology to Kendall - not age association.

So all in all, Friday was a long day but short on extraordinary festivities. We made it to the house for a quick dinner and a little play time (the neighbors were gracious enough to let the girls play on their swingset). After it all we headed back to the hotel for some rest and I snapped possibly my favorite photo ever.