Saying Goodbye to the Hardees

So this year was not a great year as far as getting to spend time with my sister Lindsey and her family - her babies were sick a lot of the time we were in town. BUT, we did get a slumber party with Mari at the beginning of our time in Florida and I got to go out to dinner with Lindsey and Ali the night of Cousins Camp, and the Hardees came over to Mimi's for dinner the night before we left to say goodbye. The girls love playing with Mari and Baker and it's fun to see them entertaining their little cousins. Here in New Zealand my girls are the youngest cousins and they love the attention and interaction of their older cousins, but it is equally a joy for them to go to Florida and be among cousins their own age or younger, we are blessed.

Baker impressed me with his mad swimming skills. . .

We brought Mari and Baker some pajamas from New Zealand and they looked so cute in them.

We love you Hardee family and we're grateful for the time we did get to spend with you!!

It's All Magical in the Magic Kingdom!

We've safely arrived back in Wellington after a very long journey but I'm still catching up on the blog. These photos are from our second day at Disney when we all went to the Magic Kingdom together. 

In Fort Wilderness just before leaving on the boat to the Magic Kingdom.

Meggie, Samantha and Katie

Josh, Chris and Will

Stacy, Ali and Lilly

Dad and Jayne

Josie, Anders, Anna and Ellie

Will and Jen

Lucien, Shannon and Jude

Dawn and Ali

Josie took a liking to Anders.

Meggie holding Ellie during the rush into the park when it opened.

I love Josie's face in this picture on Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Ellie's first time on Space Mountain since she wasn't tall enough last year - she LOVED it!

Lunch with Papa at the park.

We went back to Fort Wilderness to have a cook-out for dinner and then headed back to the park around 7 and stayed until it closed at midnight. Another great year full of great memories - thank you so much Mama and Papa!!

EPCOT!!

We spent the first day of our 2011 awesome Disney Family Reunion at Epcot. The girls really wanted to go back there since it's been a few years so we braved the sweltering heat instead of joining the rest of the crew at the water park. Samantha and the Martins came with us for the day since the girl cousins really are inseparable!

We got up at 5:30 am in order to leave by 6 and get to Epcot when it opened for resort guests at 8 am. It was a good thing we did because it allowed the girls to ride their favorites twice - the lines got pretty long quickly. Disney manages crowds and heat amazingly well, but we are blessed with the Disney expert, my sister Ali, who gets us on more stuff than your average Joe because she knows how to maximize the Disney experience. 

Outside their all-tine favorite ride- Test Track.

We ate lunch under a tree and a lot of the birds were interested in our food. The Morrisons thought they were cute, Katie even caught a duck again, but the Martins not so much.

Josie and Ellie waiting in line at Test Track.

For those who haven't been there before, the front half of Epcot consists of educational but fun shows and rides about all sorts of things from energy, to the land, to history, to geography, the oceans, etc. There is more cool stuff just at the front of Epcot than you can possibly do in one day. The back half of the park circles a lake and is the "Countries" section - as you walk around you visit countries around the world. Some have rides, some restaurants, shops, shows. The girls remembered the Viking ship ride in Norway so before we headed back to Fort Wilderness for the family dinner we raced over there to ride it. They enjoyed trying on the hats, shields and swords to attack the troll afterwards.

At the entrance just before we left.

We left Epcot and went back to the cabins at Fort Wilderness and joined the rest of the family for dinner. Normally that would be followed by s'mores at the campfire during the Hoop-de-Hoop Review but it was rained out so Ali and I produced microwaved s'mores in Mama and Papa's cabin instead. We all decided microwaved s'mores are a lot stickier if that is even possible! But they were darn delicious so totally worth it.

Ellie and Will

Christopher, Samantha and Katie

Josie, Anna, Lilly and Meggie

I totally didn't get any pictures of Shannon's boys the first night but they were there! If someone shares some with me later I'll post them.