Disney & The Compassionate Friends National Conference

Love Max's new shoes!!!

First roller coaster ride..ever!

Haunted Mansion

The only Disney character we ran into!

Cool dudes....

After a ride in Universal, you exit through a gift store.  Max wanted something to drink, so he went to the cooler and picked out a coke (without looking)...and what do you know...MELISSA was there!

Diagon Alley.  My favorite place!!!

Bought both the boys a wand.  They had interactive places in Diagon Alley where they could use their wands...very cool!

Nick had to try too!

Max mad the water turn on!

Andrew & PopPop...in trouble again!

Had to get Donny with Beetlejuice...when the kids were little we took them to see the movie at the Drive-In.  Melissa was sitting outside the car then decided to get back in the car because it was chilly out.  What she didn't realize was her dad had his hand on the bar between the front and back windows...she slammed the car door on his hand.  It was U.G.L.Y.  He screamed every four letter word I've ever heard.  Then, because at that time you used your car radio to listen to the movie...our car wouldn't start when we were ready to go.  UGH.  Not good memories of Beetlejuice...

Max rode this roller coaster with his mom & dad.  Andrew is the smart one.  He stayed with Pamma & Pop Pop and got an ice cream!

Surfin' dudes

Headed to the park...NO Marty Moose stopping us...

Animal Kingdom.  Did the ride through the Safari first - good thing!  All the animals were out because it wasn't too hot yet!  It was great!

Avatar

Always learning something with Pop Pop

Stopped for lunch with these guys...

Twice we saw this.  Mugs and Bike License plates...Melissa and Nick together. 

You know those little lizards that are so fast in Florida?  Max actually caught one!  And I think he liked Max.  He didn't try to get away!

Dinner for Max's birthday!

Finally some relaxation time!

Dinner with Emily, Kevin & family!

Saw Grant Wilson from Ghost Hunters!  Nick recognized him, so we stopped and talked to him...really nice!  And happy to have his picture with the boys!

Wally World.  The workers at Disney LOVED it.  Can't tell you how many stopped him and said "Hey.  Didn't the Moose tell you we were closed?" 

If you get to Disney, definitely stay for the Fireworks.  Worth waiting for!

Butter beer at Diagon Alley.  Harry Potter's favorite!  Mine too!

Nephew Chris came to visit from Bethune Cookman in Daytona Beach.

Free Hugs Station!  I never pass up a free hug!

Getting ready for the Walk to Remember

The Walk to Remember.  I met this little girls mom at the conference in Boston.  She asked me to take a picture and send it to her if I could find it.  I took it and sent it to her.  She got it the day before Sophia's birthday (I didn't know that!)  She posted a picture and said "Sophia came home today".  Makes my heart happy.

This is Joey.  He is from Brooklyn.  His nine year old daughter Mackenzie died in February of this year.  We met him in the first session we went to, then ran into him several times during the conference.  We ran into him at the Walk to Remember on the last day. He gave us a bracelet to remember his Mackenzie.  We gave him a bracelet to remember our Fort.

It was a great week.  For the last five years we've gone the week before the conference and made a vacation of it.    This was a good year to have Nick & Mere  and the boys join us - perfect time for them to go to Disney.  We went to Magic Kingdom, Universal & Animal Kingdom.  Animal Kingdom has a new area called Pandora from the movie Avatar.  One of the rides was Flight of Avatar - we heard a four hour wait to get on this ride.  And we couldn't get Fast Passes.  So we decided not to do it.  By 3:00, we had been on every ride we wanted to ride, so we went to check out Pandora.  The line was down to two hours.  So we waited.  The family in front of us in line was from Sao Palo Brazil.  They had twin daughters - born the day before Andrew!  

Emily & Kevin (my friend from Melbourne - we met through Fort's blog!) came to visit us at the resort then had dinner with us.  

At the conference, we made more friends.  A family from Wisconsin who lost their 21 year old daughter in Dec. 2014 in a tragic dumb waiter accident.  Met a girl (Katrina) and her mom (Yvette) at the pool who lost their brother/son 6 weeks before the conference.  Come to find out, Katrina lives in Enon, Oh. not far from us.  They came to our Compassionate Friends meeting last Thursday.

That's the best part of this trip every year.  The people we meet.

We are all positive our kids are putting us together.  Melissa (& John) are making lots of new friends in heaven...

Thanks Fort!  Love you and miss you EVERY day.