Fairytale Ending

Our final day in the parks at Disney we went back to the Magic Kingdom.

We started our morning out at the resort with breakfast and some coloring while the adults finished their Mickey Waffles, of course.

Then we caught the shuttle to the park - I believe my general appearance would be considered haggard at this point 

When we got to there everyone knew the lay of the land now so we started hitting up all the things we wanted to do again or make sure we hadn't missed.

By now all the kids were loving rides so we did a lot of that.

Denver's size prohibited him from riding a lot so he got on the train with Nana and Papa went a couple of times around the park.

Which wore him out.

We ate lunch in Cinderella's castle and enjoyed a fancy feast while hob-nobbing with the princesses again.

Afterward Denver took Papa on a walking tour of the whole park drinking all the Coke he wanted and Wyatt and his Dad got some riding in while the girls got princess makeovers at the Bippity Boppity Botique.

They were so very pleased with the results.  (Contrary to the look on Brynn's face which could have been there because Annie playing the typical big sister role informed her that her Ariel outfit was "inappropriate" due to it showing her tummy.)

We played around some more and met Tinkerbell 

then finished the day with prime viewing of the Main Street Electrical Parade.

The next morning we ate breakfast and caught the Magical Express to the airport

Luckily there was a pretty perfectly timed nap for this guy

and a play place where we had a 3 hour layover.

The Disney World trip was every kind of wonderful and gave us all memories that will last a lifetime, and even if those memories fade, we'll still have the fond thoughts when looking back that allow us to realize what a great gift family and time spent with them is.

Epcot

Day 5 had us in Epcot which I think is the most unique of all the parks.  Once again I am going to basically phone it in on this post and just give the highlights because sadly I didn't get a lot of pictures because well, day 5 and we're traveling with a 17 month old folks. Philip did capture this little gem though while we were all getting through the bag check line.

This was the perfect time of year to go to Epcot.  They were having their flower festival which meant they had TONS of creative topiaries of characters that were beautiful.

Hey kids! Look over here!

Also because it was the week before Easter there was a fun egg hunt that the kids could participate in going through each of the countries on the world tour side and finding different Disney character eggs.

On to the recap of our day at Epcot:

Breakfast in Norway with the princesses

Then we went to Turtle talk with Crush and got to enjoy the Finding Nemo ride and seeing all of the fish in the live aquarium 

(I love how the seahorse seems to be looking skeptically at Annie in this picture, she wanted one with the little octopus since he's one of her favorites on Finding Nemo).

We found the musical dance floor that both kiddos enjoyed hopping around on which was a highlight of our last trip to Epcot with a younger Annie.

Then we hit up the spot where you can try different Coke products from different countries which was a real treat for my soda-deprived offspring 

We even made some "suicides"

Some were tasty

Some were not

But it was a fun stop

After our tummies were sloshing we toured through the countries in the world showcase

Annie finished the egg hunt and after we had soaked up all the culture we could we met up with everyone else.

To end the day we closed the park down ooohhhing and aaahhhhing over the beautiful fireworks display.

Epcot - you were a world of fun!

Animal Kingdom

Well, doing an individual post for each fantastic day at Disney has become one thing on my to-do list that just taunts me; and yet with all the life that is happening right now I have to continue to let it bate me as it slides further and further down the list. However, I am going to buckle down and get this done. I will forewarn you though, many details are going to be missing but hopefully enough will be down to bring back the rosey, warm memories that were made.

Day 3 had us at Animal Kingdom.  This is a super-unique park as it a zoo inside a theme park and is all kinds of fun. Some highlights:

The scout program. They earned merits throughout the park while learning about dinosaurs, different cultures, animals, and all types of other fun things as they gathered badges, filled their journal, and gained plenty of knowledge along the way. Please make note of Brynn's "we're doing this why?" face.

Lunch at the Yak and the Yeti.  We ate here the last time we came and it did not disappoint again.

The dinosaur ride - a little scary but we got this awesome take-away photo.  About 1/4 of the way through this ride Cassey and I realized this was probably not the best for children in our age group so I spent the rest of the time convincing Annie how fake all the life-like dinosaurs coming at us looked. She still said right when we got off "I don't want to do that ever again."

Denver also got to ride a dinosaur ride of a more tame nature that he enjoyed. Apparently it was very sunny as the severe squinting of his parents portrays.

We also went on the jungle safari and this is one of my favorite features of the park.  Denver spent his time crawling across the laps of Philip, me, mom, and dad to get the closest view he could of each animal we encountered.

We enjoyed the Lion King show, Philip and I rode some avalanche roller coaster with a yeti animation that was great fun, and we hit up the 4D presentation of It's Tough to Be A Bug which dad found the most amusing part of the day.  Denver did not as he woke up when the bugs were coming at us.

And of course face painting is always a high point.

We left the park early evening and headed back to the resort so the kids could get some pool time.

Denver was happy as a lark to float on his life jacket.  He would just lay back and smile and laugh. Any time we took him out he wanted to jump right back in.

Annie, Wyatt, and Willow loved the slide and water features at the pool.

It was another day where we'd overdosed on good times and everyone went to bed with a smile on their face.