We sent Bentley back to Seattle for a couple weeks-- easiest goodbye ever, when you know it's for a short amount of time!-- so he could keep earning money before beginning his mission. While he was there, he got to go to the temple with his cousin Samuel (and Tracy and Natalie), who was home for Christmas from the Cincinnati Institute of Music (and just got his mission call to Taiwan!!! Congrats, Samuel!!!!).
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| My parents made a point of taking him out to dinner and saying goodbye before they headed to Hawaii |
And before we knew it, it was his LAST DAY of work!!! Ace Hardware has been so good to him, he was genuinely sad to say goodbye, and the people went all out for his last day, bringing doughnuts and a cheese platter and cards with money in them as a send off! They even let him turn off the lights when it was time to close, which made him very happy! Few things in life make me happier than knowing other people are looking out for my kid, and hearing about all this from Bentley really touched my heart. I'm so grateful that he was able to have such a great experience on Bainbridge.
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| Tracy took this "last day of work" picture! |
And man, if you think it makes my mama heart happy to see how nice Bentley's co-workers have been to him, words cannot even express the gratitude I feel for Tracy and Adam (and Cora!) taking him into their home and treating him like their son for five full months! That's a really long time to have an older teenager staying with you, and they really went above and beyond in all things during this time. They have been a huge part of helping Bentley get ready for his mission. I will owe them forever for this.
For his last day, once he had packed up all his stuff, they all went to Seattle and Adam took him to a Kraken game, which was so generous! Bentley had taken to wearing hockey jerseys, so it's really nice that he can actually say he's been to a game now! 😂 They stayed at a hotel that night so it would be easier to get him to the airport (the ferries are being terribly sporadic again, so that eased a lot of the stress; poor Tracy was stuck waiting on the Bainbridge side for HOURS since one ferry was broken, the other was late, and then when it finally did come, it was overloaded and poor Tracy was the first car to not make it on. What a pit!!!).
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| Now Bentley's seen Grubauer play AND he knows how to say his name! |
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| They had a great time and the Kraken won! |
And then it was Thursday and they were dropping him off at the airport! I was getting my son back again!
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| Cora is so cute! And note that Bentley is now sporting a missionary haircut!!! |
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