Sunday, January 16, 2011

G'day Mate!

I have it on good authority that people from Australia don't really say this phrase much.
My sources are reliable... 2 teenage Aussie boys who are asleep in my basement as I type.

Early in the fall, we received this.



It's the biographies of 2 boys, in "grades 10 and 11" who have each spent the year working at a McDonald's near their home to help pay for their trip overseas.
Honestly, I worried a little.
Who knew what habits, language or problems they would bring along with their expectations of "experiencing America".
At the same time, I kept in mind that we had a wonderful similar experience last year when we hosted 2 girls.
But you know, boys are different... I have 4 of them!

On the 6th, we received this.



2 clean cut, well mannered, helpful, kind, courteous (you get the picture), boys who have been an absolute joy to get to know.
They came ready to dive in and see and do as much as they possibly could.
They have even eaten whatever I put in front of them.
They are teenage boys, after all.
The program they came with has had outings scheduled almost every day. They got to see...
ASU,
Tempe Marketplace,
The Zoo,
Sedona,
The Grand Canyon,
Tucson,
Scottsdale Mall,
and
Tuzigoot National Monument.

The weekends were ours to plan, so the first weekend, R loaded up the van and took the crew to Pinetop to play in the snow.
They experienced Taco Bell and loved it!
They had a great time and even got home Saturday night so we could all enjoy our Sunday, together.

This weekend, we ran errands to any of the stores that the boys wanted to visit before leaving Arizona. They had specific gifts in mind and bought them at quite a savings as compared to prices in Australia.
Tonight, we said our goodbyes. J and L will be heading to California in the morning for the final leg of their trip. They will spend the week enjoying various amusement park adventures.
We helped squash down their luggage. We deflated a soccer ball and an American football so they took up less space. We removed packaging and boxes and then had room for a few items from us that included a good variety of candy found here and not there.

This was a super great adventure that we look forward to next year!

3 comments:

Allyson & Jere said...

How FUN for these boys, and for your family. I can't imagine having an experience like that in highschool. Glad they turned out to be so great for you guys.

Karli said...

um...the Christmas cards are still up...........really? :)

Kristin said...

I can't believe they are gone already. Alyson wanted me to take her with me and run an errand to your house. You apparently had the cutest Aussies out there!

Lucky you! Bet you didn't even appreciate that fact.