Orlando - Day 4 {Disney World}

On our final day in Orlando all I wanted to do was sleep.  Seriously!  Disney is exhausting, but knowing this was our last day I really wanted to make the most of it, so we were up and ready to go bright and early.  We had to go ahead and check out of our room so we quickly got packed up, had the hotel hold our bags, grabbed a quick breakfast, and again rode the shuttle to the Magic Kingdom.  

Very early on we tried to ride a lot of the rides in Fantasy Land before it got crowded and we succeeded.  We rode the Tea Cups (twice)...

...then Dumbo...

...then Barnstormer (twice)...

...and finally the classic carousel.  

Around this time we were scheduled for our first Fast Pass and we made our way to ride Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  The kids liked it, but they all kept asking when it was going to go fast. Ha!  They all love the speedy rides best.

After the ride we stopped in a few gift shops to let the kids look for a souvenir.  We had told them they could each pick one thing. Hudson actually picked his with no trouble the day before.  He wanted a Buzz Lightyear "grabber" as he calls it.  It looks like the things you pick up trash with so you don't have to actually bend over to pick it up.  In fact, I saw the people working at Disney using something very similar to pick up trash.  I have no clue why he wanted it, but he did so we let him have it.

Handley settled on a pair of earrings that had her birthstone and a princess pen...both great choices in my book.

And then there is Harper.  This girl cannot make a decision to save her life.  And it isn't just about which souvenir to pick.  She is this way with EVERYTHING.  What shoes to wear, how to wear her hair, what book she wants to read at night, what snack to take for school.  She will hem and haw over the simplest decisions for worry that she will make the wrong choice.  We went back and forth between 2 gift shops at least 4 times before we finally forced her to pick.  And you want to know what she settled on...a Frozen coffee mug.  Yep, all of that for a coffee mug.  :-) Whatever.  She was happy and has proudly sipped her hot chocolate from it at home.  Part of her back and forth paid off though because one of the employees at the store saw and he sprinkled magic fairy dust on her hair.

Around this time everyone was needing a break and I was happy to learn earlier in the day that the parade that is usually at 3 PM would also be happening at noon that day, which meant we would get to see it!  This is one of my favorite things about Magic Kingdom.  We found a shady spot, parked ourselves and the stroller, and waited for about 30 minutes for it to begin. Robby went off to find us some lunch and the kids were content to just sit and relax for a little while.  We ate in the shade and then it was time for the parade!  It was fun seeing all of our favorite characters sing and dance on amazing floats.  

Of course the girls loved the princesses and Tinkerbell best, but Hudson loved Captain Hook and this dragon.

And no parade at Magic Kingdom would be complete without Mickey and Minnie!  

After the parade we split up and took advantage of some more Fast Passes.  The boys went to visit Mickey...

While the girls said a quick hello to Rapunzel and Cinderella.  

After meeting back up we did one more switchero.  The girls went with Robby to ride Space Mountian, which was their absolute favorite ride of the entire trip.  While they were off doing that I took Hudson back to his favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and then finally it was time to head out.  We got frozen lemonade on our way out of the park and sat together to eat it while we waited on our shuttle.  While we were sitting there recapping our trip, Harper said she hopped she wasn't dreaming.  I asked her why and she said because she'd just had the best time and hoped it all really happened.  That was the sweetest possible thing we could have heard and the best way to end our trip.

For memory's sake, we'll just pretend that is when the trip ended and forget about the long security lines, rushing through the airport, dealing with a very tired and very cranky 3 year old who didn't want to ride in the stroller, me swearing we will never all bring carry-on luggage again, and the exhaustion we all were feeling when the "magic" of Disney had worn off.  I'm going to let all of that just slip out of my mind and remember ending on the good note.

Seriously though, it was an amazing trip, the kids were as well behaved as they could be (considering one of them was 3 years old) and I know we all made memories as a family that we will be talking about for years to come.  And that, my friends, is what matters most!