A little work and a little play...

I've been keeping a secret.

A few weeks ago, I had shared that Emma's band would be heading to Orlando FL. 

 What I didn't share was that Chris, Josie and myself would also be traveling too!!

 We've known about this trip for quite a while.

 Back in May, I put in a proposal to present at the SLOAN Consortium International Conference on Online Learning that just happened to be scheduled during part of the time that Emma would be in Orlando.

Thankfully, my proposal was accepted and this gave us an opportunity to travel to FL!

After I was done working, the three of were able to enjoy some time at Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

 Emma doesn't return back to a cold and snowy MI until late Wednesday.

Thankfully, we were able to spend some time together with her Saturday at Epcot.  

Josie had been away from her big sister for 4 days and was happy to be reunited again.

Hard to believe in two short years, Emma will be off to college...sigh.

Disney certainly knows how to do it right for Christmas.

 Even Santa managed to find some time in his busy schedule to attend the evening parade.

Merry Christmas, Santa!

We certainly are counting our many blessings this year.

XOXO

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom sure looks different during the summer season. We've been spoiled visiting MK in October to celebrate their Halloween festivities. The weather is cooler in the fall and the lines are shorter too. That being said, it is a magical place and I'm glad my work conference brought us to Orlando. Our family's favorite rides always include the Haunted House, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Toy Story, Pooh's Adventure, and Splash Mountain. If you can stand to be at the park all day, the fireworks are amazing.

Here are few pictures from our day at the park.

Next stop, Georgia!

Then and Now...

I have to thank Nicole again for letting me steal the idea/pictures behind this post.  I'm constantly in awe of how much our lives have changed because of our adoption experience.  This past weekend reaffirmed those feelings all over again.

Our family has two special princesses. 

It's a small world...

Guess where we've been these last few days???

We've been in Disney World.  I it kept on the down-low because I didn't want our outdoor Halloween creatures to mysteriously vanish in our absence.  We're back home and it was a glorious mini-trip. 

Not only did we get to experience all the magic of Disney World at Halloween, we were able to meet up with four other adoptive families from Josie's orphanage (JiAn/Jizhou District SWI in Jiangxi, China).

Although we didn't travel to China together, we've all been in contact throughout the last few years and feel like we know each other forever.

I have to give Nicole a big thank you for arranging such a wonderful reunion.  Every detail (right down to the t-shirts) was super.  Our family looks forward to doing this again in the future. 

We also got an opportunity to meet up with the Brown Family (love ya Shanna) and finally connect in person. 

Josie's convinced that Chloe is her new best friend.

And Emma can't wait to have Halley come visit us sometime in MI.

Now that we're back from Magic Kingdom, the pressure is on BIG TIME to get the final touches done for our Halloween party.   Only 5 days until the big event!!