WDW: Homeward bound.

Fun fact: We made it back to our room from Magic Kingdom just before midnight.  I packed until 1:30 am and our ride came to pick us and our bags up at 3:45 am.  Ouch.

We had zero trouble with our travels until we had to get in the car and drive home from Dallas.  We had been chauffeured everywhere we went for 8 solid days and the idea of driving on less than 3 hours sleep was THE WORST IDEA EVER.  

The kids were able to fall asleep in the car.  Emmett was out before we even got on the interstate.  

Luckily, there were Christmas songs on the radio, which I sang to Britton to keep him awake.  

WDW: Day 7, Part 2

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. 

WDW: Day 7

The morning after the puke incident was a little iffy for Britton.  I don't know if it was shear exhaustion or what, but he wasn't feeling good.  We had some very important plans to keep, so we decided I should just take the kids for our morning activities and come back after lunch.  

We setup to take our daily photo and Ella absolutely refused to do it.  

She told me that the Holy Spirit told her we "should not take the picture without Daddy because it will make him feel sad".  

What?! I thought it was sweet,  laughed it off and rolled on to the next thing.

I later texted the photo to Britton and told him what she said.  He told me that he was in fact watching from the window of our room and DID feel sad that we were taking the picture without him!  I was too busy with my own plans, checking things off the to-do list and never stopped to think.  What a sweet and sensitive little girl I have to help keep me in check!  

Our first stop was at the Princess Fairytale Hall to meet up with Cinderella and Rapunzel.

We didn't ask Cinderella if her dress had to be cleaned last night.  

I hopped in for a photo since Cinderella and I are basically twins.  

Halloween 2015

Just kidding.  

After Princess Fairytale Hall we headed for our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest.  

It was snowing out the windows of the ballroom.

After lunch we visited with Peter Pan.  He was quite chatty and a lot of fun!

Miles asked him if he knew about light sabers.  Peter told him "no", but that it sounded awesome and he should go get some and bring them to Neverland to play with the Lost Boys.  

Miles entertained lots of kids waiting in line to see Peter.

We then headed back over to Princess Fairytale Hall for one of the most highly anticipated events of the trip.  

It required a wardrobe change.

They tried their best to remove Excalibur.

We caught part of the castle show again on our way out.

It was then time to meet up with Britton, who had thankfully made a recovery and was waiting for us back at the resort.