A family getaway

Ever since Londyn fell in love with Mickey Mouse, we've wanted to take her to Disneyworld to meet him!  We've been looking for a long time into when we could take them...  Burkey is actually in love with Minnie, which is both pretty adorable and pretty hilarious at the same time :).  Love him!!  Shortly before Harper died, we were trying to figure out if we could make it happen in November.  We never settled on a date, and then when everything happened in early November it was obviously out of the question.

I knew that Harper's due date would be a hard time for me.  There were so many reasons... I was so excited to have a February baby.  My birthday is the 18th, and I've always loved having a birthday close to Valentine's Day.  I couldn't wait to share that with Harper.  I'd already bought her Valentine outfit, and had picked out the perfect headband to match...  I'd pictured her sweet face in my head a hundred times.  She was due on the 11th, and I was excited to spend my birthday getting to know our new baby.  I just knew that week would be a hard week for me.  The last thing I wanted was to be sitting at home being sad all day.  Dana and I both felt strongly that we wanted to be celebrating Harper's life.  We wanted our family to be having fun and laughing together- just like she's doing in Heaven...

So, most of you already know this, but we decided to go to Disneyworld over her due date!  I have to say, I think it was the perfect thing for us to do.  I definitely had some very sad moments, but it just felt so good to be celebrating Harper's life!  One of my favorite parts of the trip was our Harper balloon.  

We told the kids that we were going to get baby Harper a balloon, and we were going to let it go for her to have in Heaven... Theology's a little off here, but we didn't care.  It really was one of the sweetest moments we've had as a family.    

No family balloon time would be complete without kids fighting over it :)...

I've been amazed at Londyn throughout this whole process.  She has such wisdom beyond her years.  We let her let the balloon go- she loved it...

We watched the balloon until we couldn't see it anymore.  My eyes were filled with tears as it floated away.  It felt good to cry.  I've never been a huge fan of crying, but my mom has always told me that some things are worth crying over.  I can't imagine something more worth it.  And so I do cry.  Often.  There will just never be enough words for how badly I want Harper to be here.   I let the tears heal my heart.  I held Londyn and we cried together... She said (as she often does) that she wishes that she could hold baby Harper, but this time she added that it makes her so happy that Harper has a balloon... Me too sweet girl.

So yes, we had some sad moments, but we also had SO MUCH FUN!!

giving Mickey kisses!

so adorable :)

our good friends, the bergantzel's came with us!

Minnie's house!

playing in Minnie's house

waiting for the parade

playing at Honey I Shrunk the Kids

dancing with June from Little Einsteins

aww.  little stud muffin

everyone loves uncle Jim :)

We are so thankful that we got to spend such a huge day in such a happy place.  We couldn't have asked for a better time.  Thank you all so much for the sweet messages on her due date.  Just to know that you were thinking about Harper meant the world to us- thanks for missing her with us.