Good-byes

Well, Hohomi and Yua are safely back in Japan.We had a tearful goodbye early Saturday morning at MSU. 

On the way to school, I heard sniffles from the backseat. I thought maybe it was a drippy nose from a cold, but the sniffs got more frequent the closer we got to school. 

Yua was unsuccessfully holding back tears as she stepped out of the car. Hohomi started up shortly after, which set me and G off too. Someone walked around with a box of tissues, handing them out to people. 

It was truly a Minnesota good-bye. A few rounds of hugs, standing around, shuffling a little closer to the bus, another round of hugs... Finally someone gave the cue to get on the bus. G and I walked across the street so we could wave at our girls as they drove away. 

The girls had given us thank you notes Friday night and told us not to read them until they left. We wrote them thank you notes too and hid them in their breakfast bags. It was G's idea to write their parents thank you notes for raising such wonderful daughters, so we slipped those in too. 

We left for a family wedding in Wisconsin directly from MSU, and guess what... I forgot to bring the notes from the girls along, so we still haven't gotten to read them! 

Other fun from the weekend: we stopped at a winery on the way and I got to cross something off my bucket list. Grape stomping. This winery had a few vats of grapes out for people to stomp if they wanted (and basins to wash their feet off afterwards). Even though I was in my wedding finery, I hopped right in! It kind of makes me want to plant some grapevines at our house... 😅

A little girl challenged G's brother to do it, and he couldn't resist her invitation. We survived the stomping with no damage to our fancy duds. 

The wedding was unique with a hog roast for the meal and karaoke instead of a dance. All in all, a very nice day. Although G and I are more than ready for a good night of sleep!