Rob and the California George Family

I received a text message this morning from Ina that she was back in Norway. Her parents met her in Oslo and she is on her way home with them now (from Oslo she still has a ~1 hour flight and then ~2 hour drive to get home).

Ina Therese Alvaeren is an exchange student from Norway who lived with us from last August through yesterday. She attended our local High School as a senior. Due to a family event, she finished the school year early. We dropped her off at LAX yesterday afternoon and have been watching the British Airways updates on her flights since then. Now that she is with her parents, our responsibility has been passed back to them.

Ina's visit helped us have a fully packed year of family activities! A few examples:
- San Francisco
- Monterey
- Yosemite
- Las Vegas
- Sea World
- Hollywood
- Universal Studios
- Knotts Berry Farm
- Disneyland Annual Passes
- Attend a taping of America's Funniest Videos
- Visited more beaches in 1 year than we have in the last 10 years!
- Purchased a new family Christmas Tree (we go the artificial route - Ina talked us into the new tree that we bought)
- Our version of holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.

I am cutting the list very short, but this provides a good sampling of the things we got to do with her.

More importantly, she got to be a member of our family. She got to know a number of American kids her own age and see what we were like. She got to tell us and our friends about Norway. She walked to school with Bethany daily. She gave her extra US and European coins to Hayley and answered Hayley's questions about how to say things in Norwegian.

This is not the end of our story with Ina - just the closing of the first chapter.

Labels: Bethany, Family, Hayley, Ina