Farewell to the Aussies

It was a sad day today sending our Aussie daughter off. She has been packing for several days and finally got things crammed into the suitcases. I checked the website to see what the weight allowance was, and then weighed her bags. Her biggest one was just over the limit of 32 kg (70lb) so we transferred some shoes into the smaller bag 20 kg (45lb). These are some big bags! Pretty hard not to collect a lot of souvenirs after 6 months. Despite the desperate packing, Jess will still be hand carrying her Aussie flag, backpack, two stuffed Teddies, and her heavy letter jacket.

The families arrived at the airport at 7:30am and started the checkin process. Lines were long as the holiday crowds were still finding their way home to other parts of the country. Finally it was time for the kids to go through security, and everyone had their last hugs. Almost all the Aussies had friends from school there to see them off. It was a great experience, and we will truly miss Jess, and all the other Aussies. It is just incredible how fast the six months passed

A week from Thursday, on the 11th it will be the Americans turn to visit Australia. That's when Jaimie will leave, and the house will be really, really, unbelievably quiet. It sounded good before,... but now I'm not so sure.