Farewell Dustin

The day has come... way too fast and June 18 is here. The day we have to say Goodbye to Dustin and let him go back home to his family in Germany. We've had a great last week together spending as much time as possible together, attending Zoe's last school events and also spending time with his friends as well. 

I made my famous chocolate chip cookies one more time (and of course the meal plan for the last week were all Dustin's favorites)

Bowling with the kids...

puh, packing, that was a topic of its own *lol*... it was quite tricky to get under the weight limit but we did it and when we arrived at the airport both suitcases were just under 23kg!!! YEAH...

Schnitzel, was the first meal when he arrived and the last dinner before we let him go home....

We took a stroll through town while the Strawberry Festival was going on

had a last Frosty Boy of course...

And this morning a couple of friends came over and we had a great american breakfast and some fun quality time afterwards. Three of his friends came with us to the airport and it was as hard for them as it was for us to let him go. A couple of times his suitcases and passport got hidden *lol*

Ride to the airport

Slowly the kids realized it really happens...

Henry was very sad the whole time but when you'd ask him he said he wasn't...

Yeah, I think he was very sad... very cuddly and not his normal smiley anymore. Even Zoe told me when we got into the car that she almost started crying because she was so sad that Dustin was leaving. It made my heart jump with joy but also very sad because it's so hard on the kids. The whole time I was thinking about Dustins' family and how happy they'll be when they get to embrace him tomorrow in Germany... when I thought about that and how happy they'll be and what a crazy rollercoaster of emotion it'll be tomorrow at the Bremen airport... it made it easier on me. But I'm really sad and I will have to occupy myself very good the next few days not to feel blue. He was a part of our family and it made us complete. We're just meant to be a family of 5 ;)... We'll def. have many more exchange students in the following years... I guess that's a given *lol*... we just totally love it.