First day of school was a LOOOOONNNNG one!

We aren't used to getting up at 6:00 anymore - well most of us aren't anyway....It was sleeping in for Shawn and Caden!

My first group took off:

Maddie took off with the first group, but didn't have time to stand for a picture with them. Plus, she and Caden are now my high schoolers, although Maddie still attends the Junior High for one more year.

Before everyone left there were many teary goodbyes with their beloved Kami-sister:(

Well, Abe looks pretty happy there, but I think everyone else cried... and he was pretty sad to discover that she can't just pop in at any time to visit as he had thought.  He thought she'd be right here in town like all the other college kids that come over on Sundays.

So we got all the little kids on the bus and then we gathered up all of Kami's things and took off to get her settled at college. Boy oh boy, this was so much harder than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be HARD!  No one tells you how hard it is to have a kid grow up and move out.  I miss her like crazy and I also don't like how it changes the whole dynamics of our family.  I don't like feeling like our family will never be the same again.  I think everything was made even harder by the fact that she didn't want to leave!

But we finally managed to get her as settled as we could in one day...

We felt better knowing that one of her high school friends was already there:

And we said our goodbyes:

And tried to keep it really positive...

...And then I was teary all the way home.  But we tried to be philosophical about the fact that it's time for her to spread her wings and leave the nest and all that stuff. And about how Thanksgiving break will be here before we know it....

We didn't get home until 3:30 am and 6:00 came even EARLIER than the day before.  A long traumatizing day for this momma.