Sweden is a mysterious country.
Tell me, really- what do you know about Sweden?

Chances are, not much.
Perhaps the Nobel Prize springs to mind.
And also possibly those tasty fish-shaped candies they make

True fact: In Sweden, you can have your chewy fish-shaped candy "Salmiak"-flavored.
"Salmiak" means "salted herring".
I am not making this up.

Luckily, you can count on my informative, fact-filled blog to tell you everything you need to know about this mysterious, salted-herring oriented nation.

So, here's what you need to know about Sweden:
Sweden is very cold. It is located mainly at the North Pole. They have lots of reindeer there.
And trolls.
They have lots of trolls*.

The towns of Sweden have humorous names like "Jokkmokk" and "Nykoping". This is to cheer up the Swedish people who sometimes get depressed because winter lasts nearly 11 months of the year there.

The only other really important thing to know about the wonderful, troll-filled Arctic nation of Sweden is that Valentine is there RIGHT NOW!

She packed her bag on Friday night:

Then she and her boyfriend caught the plane this morning, quite early. They'll be staying with Mat's grandparents in the mildly funny-sounding city of Uppsala. And they will spend 10 days visiting the various salted-herring candy factories and caring for his grandparents' massive reindeer herd**

Now you know all about Sweden and Tya's trip there.

You're welcome!
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*I know this is true because I read the following item in the India Times: "Author Jan Brett trolls Scandinavia for atmosphere. So she naturally headed to Sweden - home of all kinds of trolls - to research her new picture book".
See? I do serious research!

**This is possibly not entirely accurate.

On a trip to France, most people might expect to go visit interesting sites- perhaps the great Cathedral of Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower.

We are not doing any of that sort of thing with my mom. In fact, today she got to help me clean my house.(Thanks, Mom! Love you!!!!)

But we don't only clean house.
Mais non!
We also....go pick up Mallory when she gets out of school early:

(FYI: My car is the one with the blue "Nebraskans for Peace" bumper sticker.)

Here's Mallory getting her papers inspected as she leaves school:

Back home, Finally!

This is Bob. My mom thinks Bob is kind of cute and sweet.

Bob is actually strange and kind of deformed.
She was like this when we found her and even the vet can't explain how a stray cat could be so hugely obese. She's like a watermelon with four toothpicks for legs. But she's so pathetic that you have to love her....

My mom has been enjoying the lovely fruits and vegetables here in France...

(She took this photo at the supermarket. Kind of pretty!)

She has also sat through two of Alexa's dance classes. She went to ballet on Monday and today was modern dance. As she watched, she had to hold the teacher's dog, Coppelia. Coppelia is quite spoiled and barks at you if not petted and endlessly cosseted.

If my dad shows these photos to their dog back home, my mom could be in big trouble. Bridget seems like the jealous type....

We're back in France now - 22 hours after our plane took off from Lincoln, Nebraska.

It was a trip full of surprises- including an unscheduled trip to Washington DC- too bad all we got to see there was the airport.
Then we had an extra stop in Frankfort before ending up in Geneva.
So, it was a bit of a trial getting here.

At least we got upgraded a couple of times. Not to First Class or even business class, but believe me, there is a huge difference between just Economy and Economy Plus. It was so great to end a long flight and not feel like I'd been folded up and stuffed into a small cupboard for nine hours...