Vacation to Omaha and Kansas City

I was hoping it was not a bad omen when I ran over my sunglasses case right before we left on our vacation. 

Apparently, I set my case on my lap the day before when I was in the car and hadn't noticed them falling to the garage floor when I got out of the car.

When I ran an errand right before we were scheduled to leave on our trip, I could not find my sunglasses. When I arrived back home and drove into the garage, I got a sickening feeling as I felt the car run over something. 

NOOOOOO!!!! My worst fears were confirmed when I got out of the car to investigate.

Not only was it an expensive accident (bifocal prescription sunglasses are no cheap thing!), but it was annoying to know I would have no sun relief for my eyes the whole week of our car trip. 

Actually, it will be a couple of months before I get relief until I go to my eye doctor appointment in October. UGH!!!

Despite my little setback, we were able to get on the road an hour or so earlier than we had planned. HURRAH!! 

I had gotten some books from the library to read aloud to Glen while we made our drive to the midwest. Reading to Glen helps keep me awake on long car rides and helps the time go more quickly. Also, having my eyes looking down at a book helped it not be quite so bad that I didn't have my sunglasses.

Every time we come to the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska, I can't help thinking about Abe. He served his mission in the Nebraska Omaha Mission and we went back to his mission with him and toured the sites there--this being one of them.

At one of the rest stops, I noticed these derbies hanging upside down on the ceiling in the women's restroom. I thought it a bit odd as I didn't see anything feminine about them. Perhaps the children who frequent that restroom might think it a cool way to decorate a ceiling????

We stopped in Sidney, Nebraska to spend the night and made the rest of the drive to Omaha the next day. It was the first time we had been to Jacob and Laurie's current home in Omaha. 

They moved back to Omaha from Houston at the beginning of our mission. So, for those three years we were unable to visit them. We would have gone to see them some time during all the months during the Covid lockdown, but that was impossible to do.

Then when we finally had a trip planned to visit them, I got called to jury duty and we had to cancel. So, FINALLY, we were able to see where they live. They have a very beautiful home and yard. We were very impressed with how big and roomy it is inside.

The back deck and also the backyard patio grill area are very nice as well. It was a very sad sight to see the big circle of dirt in the middle of the grass where their trampoline used to be. They lost it recently in a windstorm. 

They lost another trampoline in a big windstorm when they lived at their other home in Omaha. How unlucky is that??!!??

The playroom was impressive with all the Lego creations. I got a kick out of hearing the story of Claire moving into the playroom so she could have her own bedroom. Half of the playroom is her designated space and it is so cute. She will be moving into Natalie's bedroom now that Natalie has gone off to cosmetology school in Utah.

Jacob and Laurie designed this beautiful television/shelving/cabinet in their basement with the basement designed with BYU photos and paraphernalia. It is just so Jacob!!!! Actually, their whole family likes BYU, so it is an enjoyable space for everyone.

We got the basement to ourselves. They had a guest bedroom built in the basement and it was a very private and lovely place for us to stay.

It was just so nice to be with that group of grandchildren for a short time. 

We went to dinner at Olive Garden.

Logan and Claire rode in our car on the way to restaurant (I neglected to take a photo of them) and then Emma, Luke and Natalie rode with us on the way home.

We got involved in playing Codenames--one of my favorites--and we teamed up to see which team could give the best clues and make the best guesses.

Logan is a little mini me of Jacob and I loved that they were paired together at one point, sitting in the blue chairs, giving clues.

The next morning Claire had requested pancakes for breakfast. She had Laurie load her up with some pancake batter in her squirt bottle and then she got to work making some artistic pancake creations for us.

We packed up our belongings and loaded some of Natalie's college stuff into our car and were off on our way. Natalie and Laurie were headed out soon to fly to Utah and couldn't take too much stuff with them. 

There was already a bunch of Natalie's clothes and things in our garage. A friend had brought them to Utah in their car last month, and we were taking the last of her things with us.

Next stop on our vacation was Kansas City--a place familiar to us as we had lived in Blue Springs, Missouri for 3 1/2 years when Jacob, Rebecca and Abe were young. Sarah was born when we lived there. We moved to Albuquerque when Sarah was 18-months-old.

We took a drive into the part of town where Glen used to work at G&K Services as a service manager. It was a very demanding job as things were not going all that well at that location. 

Glen insisted we go eat at Gates BBQ. He ate at that restaurant many times while working at G&K. I ate there a few times. My memory of that restaurant is being greeted at soon as you walk in the door with an enthusiastic, "HI! May I help you??!!!??? 

Glen ordered ham and turkey double meat plate and I ordered brisket.

Before long, Glen's whole head was dripping sweat as he had been generously pouring the extra spicy BBQ sauce onto his sandwich.

The thunderstorms began while we were ordering our meal. I was happy Glen was willing to run out into the rain and bring the car to me. It was a gully-washer which continued on into the night. 

We thought the storm had stopped when we were going to bed, but later we found out it rained through much of the night causing flooding in various areas.

Our travels had taken us to Kansas City to attend a wedding. Turns out the bride's family's basement flooded during that storm and on the wedding day morning they were dealing with getting somebody to come and bail out their basement. 

Not a great way to start the day...but the wedding must go on!!!!