[Jillybean]

Well . . . it’s June, so you know what that means! Yes, the Koenigs family is returning to Disney for our annual “Mary Devall just got out of school” big blowout trip and this year it’s even bigger and better. Unlike last year, no extended family will be traveling with us. Instead, we will be spending time with friends who have become like family. To be able to spend time with everyone, we stretched out this trip to 11 nights and 12 whole days!

We haven’t been to Disney in over FOUR months , so you might have forgotten who we are:

Jill (43) – Wife, mother and instigator of all Disney trips. Since our last trip, I’ve occupied myself by reading my book club books (best so far this year “Water for Elephants” ), watching tv (“The Tudors” on Showtime is THE best although I will not miss an episode of “The Real Housewives” series either - - despite the fact that Mary Devall tells me that I shouldn’t be spying on people ) and doing a bit of East coast traveling (NYC in March and PA/NJ/NY with the CLQ in April). The last couple of weeks have been dedicated to getting my patio in shape for my brother’s wedding. I had two weeks notice (yes, you did read that correctly ), but we actually pulled off a very pretty little wedding on Saturday. The thought of that first sip of my Italian margarita is what has kept me going these past few weeks.

With my new SIL, two brothers and Thom (notice that Thom is holding hands with my brother - not sure why ).



Thom (40) – Husband, father and champion door salesman. Thom is now national sales director for his company, so he is on the road a ton. He is so looking forward to being with his family for more than a few days in a row although I’m sure that he won’t be entirely “work free.” He’s still the same old sports loving, goofy guy (see above hand holding shot for further proof ), but I do love him because he’ll do things like watch “The Real Housewives” reunion show or “Househunters” without complaining (well, as long as I’ll let him freely comment ). He is praying that Mary Devall will be tall enough to ride RnRC so that he will finally have a riding partner.

Mary Devall (7) – Newly retired 2nd grader, budding 3rd grader and never ending source of energy. She has grown up so much this year - - she’s a Brownie, has play dates and has a crush on a boy named Johnny. She still has her drama queen tendencies, but they tend to be fewer and fewer these days (although I do understand that all bets are off come pre-teen time ). She is seriously considering riding ToT and RnRC (if she’s tall enough), so we’ll see what happens!

The girls at the wedding (note that I let them dress themselves since it was a casual affair ).



Maddie (3) – Potty trained preschooler and total love bug. There is nothing like the sound of Maddie giggling which causes me to “ziburt” her belly constantly. She is such a happy little girl, but she’s definitely not a pushover. Last week, she began telling me “I don’t want to be a mommy” every time I would ask her not to do something. Well, okay. Although not a fan of the Pooh or Snow White ride, she is thinking that she might be ready to ride one of them again (she keeps waffling about which one though).

Our little family is only part of the equation . . . . so without further ado I now present to you . . .

The CLQ and the Louisiana Crew (in order of appearance):

First up in our Passporter family will be two of the first PP’s that I ever met – Monica (Montimouse) and her daughter, Macy. Mary Devall and I met them on our first surprise mommy/daughter trip and we’ve loved them ever since (actually Maddie met them too since I was pregnant with her at the time ). Several of our trips have overlapped since then, so we’ve been lucky enough to almost see them on a yearly basis. This year I goofed though when I assumed that they would be staying through the weekend (and you know what happens when you assume ), so we only have a day and a half together. You can be assured that we’ll make the most of it though because in that short period of time we’re packing in a ton of fun, food and FABs!

This is our first meeting 4 years ago.



We also plan on spending time with the terrific trio of Molly, Travis and Joey (wvgrrrl, Doctorhead and ThatGuy). I originally met them at Mousefest 08 and then my entire family was able to meet Molly and Travis when they visited our hometown of Columbia. They are so much fun and my entire family is looking forward to seeing them as much as possible!

You'll just have to pretend that Joey is in this picture because unfortunately I do not have a picture of ThatGuy!



Continued in next post . . .