It's Not Goodbye, It's See You Later...

We are at that stage, the final goodbyes. They started about a month ago we had some of Josh's friends from work over, we did some last lunches with friends and we started to organize our calendar to maximize our time spent with the friends we've made here.

Obviously the kids' friends are the top priority. As adults, we know this is not goodbye forever and have various methods to communicate. While Aidan, at age 10, is getting better with email and the such, he's still not an effective communicator. And so these last days have been especially important to both kids as we don't know the next time they will see or talk to their friends (though we are thinking of maybe a trip in May to visit). 

And so our calendar, especially since school ended on the 20th has been jam packed. Like scary amount of things we've had planned. And it's no wonder the kids are walking around like zombies. Let's recap the last 10 days...

June 20 - last day of school. We went with a bunch of friends to the park after school finished. It was the last day for Aidan to see Nicolau's and Liam to see Quinn as both were leaving for their summer trips. Liam slept at Quinn's that night for a little extra time together.

Max, Aidan, Nicolau and Guille

Aidan and Nicolau - one last goodbye as Nicolau was leaving the next day for Japan for the summer

Miles, Liam and Quinn - one last goodbye with Quinn as he was leaving for vacation the next day too 

June 21 - Liam play date with Mateo at our house, Aidan ended up with an impromptu play date with Isa that evening. 

Liam and Mateo on the wii

Such great friends!!

Isa was Aidan's first friend in Barcelona and they have remained great friends to this day!

June 22 - Both kids had a play date at Pablo and Luis' house in Valldoreix.

Pablo and Liam

1...2..3... Jump!!

June 24 - Liam play date at Mateo's in the afternoon. Picked him up and we brought Aidan to Max's for a sleepover.

Liam and Alyia - there may be 2 years difference between them but they are peas in a pod and have so much fun together!

Aidan and Max after a sleepover and playdate all afteroon

Just being silly

June 25 - While Aidan spent the day with Raul and Max, Liam had a play date with Miles. In between I dealt with the hot water heater repairs. Good times.

Aidan, Max and Raul

June 26 - Liam went to Shoma's along with Miles.

Shoma, Liam and Miles at the end of the day - such a great group of kids!

June 27 - Aidan went to Guille's for most of the day, the last photo of which is on my camera. I had drinks with my friends Eddy, Ricardo and Nasi that night. 

My going away gift wrapped in Catalan Independence paper - yes I did get a kick out of it.  And I loved my beautiful framed picture of Barcelona.  But I loved the words on the picture even more - thank you guys!!  xoxo  As the picture is already packed, I don't have a picture of it to post.

Eddy, myself, Ricardo and Nasi

June 28 - Aidan had a play date with David at a park and Max met up with them later. In the mid afternoon, Liam went to Mateo's for a sleepover. Meanwhile, Aidan's play date with Max turned into a sleepover and even a trip to Casteldefels to see Johnny. They got in at 130am. Yup he's tuckered out!!!

David and Aidan

Aidan, Max and David

Johnny, Aidan and Max

Getting in at 1:30AM

June 29 - I picked up Liam at Mateo's at 12 and went to get Aidan at Max's. We ended up staying for lunch and just hanging out (such a great afternoon) before meeting up with Liam's friend Shoma's in the late afternoon. 

Shoma and Liam on one last playdate - thank you Yukiko for making it happen!

June 30 - We had our home inspection and then it was off to see Luca and Roan for one final play date in Spain...for now - we will be back!

The boys in Sitges - having a great beach day on our last day in Spain.  We look forward to visiting them in Stockholm this year!

Probably the most epic photo bomb ever!  So much so it deserved the xlarge setting ;)

It warms my heart to see what amazing friends the boys have. We have been so lucky in that respect. They took the boys to their homes since we were moving and/or at a hotel, or they met up with us at various parks. It really meant the world to the boys and to us. 

We know this isn't goodbye forever. We hope everyone stays in touch, comes to visit us in the Netherlands and knows that we will be back to visit!!  It's been a crazy 10 days but every moment has been worth it!!

Besos,

Julie

PS - On a separate note as I'm finally posting this post move, it was a really good idea (as of this moment) to go straight on vacation from moving - it really cut the emotion out of it as it felt just like a temporary absence rather than leaving for good.  Or at least this is how it feels now, we'll see what it's like when we get to Amsterdam in 5 weeks!