Thursday, September 9, 2010

"Mini" Reunion with Our Ethiopia Travel Buddies

Labor Day Weekend, twenty plus families met in Nashville, TN for the America World Africa Reunion.  Originally, our family was slated to be there for a portion of the weekend, but unfortunately, our plans changed.  I hated to miss out, but a Facebook message from Amy Vagnoni helped to make it not so bad.  She mentioned that her family would be stopping by Kentucky Down Under on their way home from the reunion and wondered if there was any way we could meet.  Hip, Hip, Hooray because the Wells had no plans for Labor Day!!!!

We pulled in the Kentucky Down Under parking lot right in front of our AWAA Ethiopia Travel Buddies.  It was great to greet Miss Amy with a big ol' hug.  The Vagnoni's got to meet Caleb for the first time, and we all got to see how much our Ethiopian cuties had grown.  It is obvious that John and Ryan are doing very well and are loved greatly as they love Mike and Amy lots as well.  It was wonderful to spend the day with this family.

Aside from the Mommy's catching up, getting a recap of the reunion we missed, and talking about all the goings on the past 6 months, we were a pretty active bunch.  Our day included: mining for gems, attempting to make the kookaburas laugh, bird-watching, bird-feeding, cave exploring, chowing down, kangaroo petting, watching a border collie round up sheep, seeing a cow being milked, learning about a turtle, dragon, and snake, and of course posing for lots of photo ops.  Be sure to check out all the pictures below.

Vagnoni's we miss you!  Can't wait to do it all again...  Grayslake 2011, right?

The Wells Family @ Kentucky Down Under

The Vagnoni's - Our Wonderful AWAA Ethiopia Travel Buddies

5 Cuties!!!!  Not a bit of mischief in the bunch..... hahaha

Mining for rare gems :-) AKA... getting dirty!

Did anyone know Jon was part pirate?  He always had a bird on his shoulder.

Tip-toe and REEEEAAAACCCCCHHHHHHH!

Caleb was OK until the bird started pecking the back of his head!

Taking a break before spelunking :-)

Warms my heart - we've come a long way baby!

Pit Stop - gotta refuel!  Where are the Daddies with the hotdogs?

Kangaroos are soooo soft... who knew?

A great day, super kids, and already wishing we were together again.

1 comment:

Cindi Koceich said...

I seriously got chills seeing two of my travel buddy families together. A bit jealous, but mostly so excited that you guys got to see each other and that the kiddos got to see each other again too!!!
Makes me long for Ethiopia even more...if that is even possible!!!!