After we returned from Magic Kingdom that afternoon we closed the curtains, turned off the lights and all slept from 2pm - 7pm. It was the only way to survive one more night in the park.
We woke refreshed and ready for a big dinner.
We made sure to get our last daily pic as a family before we left for our final evening at Disney World.
We ate dinner at The Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and friends. We had an enormous amount fun with these characters!
After dinner we looked for a good spot to watch the nightly castle shows.
A cast member by the name of Eddie was keeping pathways clear and asked up to keep moving as we tried to park ourselves in a perfect spot for viewing the show. We were kind of bummed to not be able to stay in the really good location, but Eddie was super nice and started trading pins with the kids. He told us stories and was quite entertaining for several minutes, all the while keeping people from cluttering up the walkways surrounding us. As the loud speakers announced that the show was about to begin Eddie finished up a story, told us to enjoy our evening, and left. Basically, he knew he was supposed to keep the path from getting cluttered up until that point and was helping us stall until he could leave us in that perfect spot. We didn't realize it until it had happened. Eddie is good people.
Britton drooled over the excellence that is the castle projection show (which only the kids and I had seen on Day 2) and then there were just a few minutes before Wishes (the fireworks show) began.
As we sat there waiting for it to begin, Britton gathered the kids together and presented me with a beautiful necklace. He might as well have been proposing because the ladies sitting next to us were all gushy about it, I cried a little, and it was amazing. A perfect moment right there in front of the big castle, just before the fireworks launched, on the last night of our awesome vacation.
We are clearly so sad to leave.
We tried to kill the sting with a little souvenir shopping on the way out of the park. Emmett was able to con his daddy out of a big old stuffed Sorcerer Mickey.
I think we all wanted him to have it.
I couldn't have asked or dreamed for anything more for our trip.
It was worth the years of saving.
All the months of planning, thinking and preparing.
All the pins I pinned, blogs I read, podcasts I listened to.
All the gathering, sewing, sorting and packing.
2015 had moments of sucker punching me in the gut.
But you really can leave the world behind in this place and just have fun.
Be a kid.
It was exactly what I needed.
I am beyond thankful for a gracious God who showed me his goodness and love in this place through a mouse and countless blessed moments.
And it should be said, I am also thankful for my friend and Disney vacation planner, Coy Cypert, whose expertise and Disney planning mojo saved me a lot of time, money, sweat and tears. If you need to plan a Disney vacation, he's your guy.
The. End.
