Last day of summer

Sunday was a restful day....warm...even HOT....here's how we spent our last official day of summer. Maya and Granpa made a bird house together. Then Granpa and Maya painted the new bathroom walls outside the "stuga" (little cabin). Aren't they cute?!
Then Mormor and Maya studied a book for about an hour (one of those books you have to find all kinds of little things in the clues on each page).
After an entertaining lunch of BEE (wasp) watching....(we were catching them in one of those glass bottle traps over the outdoor table)....we all went down to the beach! Maya "swam" with her mermaid fin for a few moments but mostly rode on "Sharky". (Her blow up shark rafty thing). We collected LOTS of little clam like shells to make crafty stuff later...what? I don't know!
And when we got back to the house ....ONE of us continued to soak up some golden rays of sun before packing up the car to come back home. What a life that dog leads! Eat, swim, sleep!
And now it's back to the grind stone for another week.....my parents return to the USA on Friday morning. I will drive them to Copenhagen on Thursday where they will spend the night with our Danish/Swiss/Eyptian cousins. (yes, that's another story, I will write about later!)

I always feel a little sad and "empty" when my folks go back to the states. Somehow the distance between us feels greater just after they leave. Things will get back to normal again quickly....and then it doesn't ache so much. Who else lives far from family? What do you do to ease the "goodbye" feelings?