Back to Reality...

Wow. Disney World really takes its toll on ya! ALL of my friends have been to Disney World with their kids. All of them. I've heard their stories, seen their pictures, taken their advice, etc. But, until you've been there, you don't really KNOW. Now, I KNOW. I KNOW just how special it is. I KNOW just how magical it is. I KNOW just how addicted you can get to being there. It truly is the "Happiest Place on Earth"!!!!!! The characters are happy. Duh! The people visiting there are happy. Well, for the most part. (we did see a husband and wife get into a SCREAMING match one night on the way to the tram...in front of their 2 precious girls. So sad.) The employees are even happy! Like, even the sweet guy who was changing out the trash bags in the trash cans on Main Street. He joked around with Sawyer. How kind! I'm not sure what the Disney people do to ensure that their employees will all be so kind, but they do it well! We had such a special week. I was NOT ready to come back. Dennis and I both said that we wish we could've just stayed for another week and started all over again. I feel like if we want to go back in 5 years, we better start saving NOW. Ouch. Sadie and Sawyer were the king and queen of Troopers this week. We woke them up early almost every day, would wear them out to the point that they would be delirious, take them back for rest time, make them go to sleep immediately, wake them up from naptime, shove food down their throat, take them back to the parks and wear them out until midnight, and then bring them back to the condo and make them immediately go to sleep again...just to start all over the next day. The greatest part is, they loved it! They were so awesome all week long! No meltdowns all week! Woo Hoo!!!! Not to mention, the food that we were feeding them was far from healthy all week. I think a few mornings they had Hershey Bars and Reese's for breakfast. Pizza many nights for dinner. And, for lunch? Maybe a bag of Doritos and a sucker?? LOL They could've cared less. We just needed to fuel them up! Whatever was handy was what they got! LOL Sawyer CRACKED ME UP this week. I mean, I seriously laughed at him more this week than I ever have before. I don't know what it is about him, but his little personality is really started to shine. He is going to be hilarious. The girls are gonna love him one day...he's cute AND funny...sounds like someone else I know that I fell in love with almost 20 years ago...hmmmmmmmm..... Sadie was exactly like I wanted her to be. She was intrigued by every Princess. She LOVED getting to meet them all. She was totally wrapped up in the "magic" of it all. She was never afraid of the characters like I feared she would be. She LOVED them! She's much more cautious of things, and we definitely had to continuously explain to her the difference in "pretend" and "real". She was much more brave than I thought she would be and I was so proud of her!!!! I love that girl more than words. Is it possible to love your kids MORE while you're at Disney World??? LOL We're slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things in our "real world". I'm going to try my very best to enjoy EVERY second of these next 2 months with my kids, especially Sadie Jane, since 2 months from tomorrow, school begins again!!!!

Last Day at Disney...BOO HOO

We got up early this morning and headed to Magic Kingdom to finish up our week! I really wanted to be there early enough to watch the whole production of the park opening. They put on a little show and then the train pulls in with a lot of the characters on it, including Mickey and Minnie! They sing songs, do a countdown, and "open" the park!!!! It is really a neat thing to watch. We marched right on through the gates and went STRAIGHT to Rapunzel. Our goal for the day. Even though we were there right when the park opened, we still had to wait about 45 minutes to see her! Unfortunately, the rain started as soon as we got in line. But, we pushed through and got to see her. She was precious to Sadie and Sawyer. She asked Sawyer what his favorite color was and he said "camo". She said "well, then you and Pascal will be best friends b/c he's a chameleon and he loves to be camo! Wait...is Pascal on your shoe?? (he had on Camo crocs) Sawyer jumped back and looked at his shoe like there was really a lizard on his shoe. Too cute. She was super sweet and took a lot of time to talk to them. Sadie was in heaven! After that, we went and waited in line to meet Daisy. The line was short and moved quickly, so Sadie really wanted to get her autograph. Afterwards, we went to "Confectionery". If you can't guess what that is by the name of it, it's a DELICIOUS chocolate/candy/sugar store. Basically, my heaven! Everything is shaped like Mickey and everything has tons of chocolate on it! We got a couple of Mickey shaped/icing covered brownies, a Mickey shaped Cake pop w/ marshmallow ears, lollipops, and a cupcake. That was our breakfast...LOL We went over to Frontierland and Sawyer wanted to stand in line to see Donald and get his autograph. Donald was fired up that Sawyer had a "Donald Duck" pen and he started jumping up and down. We then went and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 2 times. There was no line, so it was AWESOME! Sawyer was thankfully JUST tall enough to ride the big rides! He, of course, LOVED it and wanted to ride it about 50 times. It started to really rain, so we found a spot to eat some lunch. We headed over to the Magic Carpet Ride and then it REALLY started raining. So, we rode it in the pouring down rain. We went over and got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin. I love the way the characters take so much time with the kids. They make each kid feel so special. And, I love the way that they always stay in character, like they are in their movies. After that, we decided to head back for naps and a break from the monsoon! It's funny how you don't even care that you are soaking wet and riding rides in the pouring down rain. As long as the kids are having fun!!! After we rested, the 4 of us decided to head back and finish up our trip at Magic Kingdom. Grammy and Captain took the night off. It was the most PERFECT night!!!! We went and rode a Stitch ride and it was HORRIBLE. Waste of time. Disney needs to take Lilo and Stitch off the map. We went and watched the "Dream Along w/ Mickey" show at the Castle. It was WONDERFUL! It had all of the characters plus some of the prince and princesses. The kids loved it! Sadie and I rode Space Mountain together. I haven't ridden it since I was about her age, so I was REAL excited. She cried during the ENTIRE ride. I think she was just scared b/c she had to ride by herself, b/c it was only 1 person per seat. I loved it though. Afterwards, she said she wanted to ride it again, but we weren't able to. Dennis and Sawyer went and rode the Buzz ride again and then met us afterwards. We went over to FrontierLand and watched the Electric Parade again. It was worth it! I know I said it the other night, but I love how the characters all interact w/ the kids! It makes them feel so special! They all either came over or waved to Sadie and Sawyer and they just ate it up! When it was over, we ran to Thunder Mountain Railroad, but it was closed for the night b/c it was broken. So, we decided to suck it up and ride Splash Mountain. It ended up being one of my most favorite rides!! It was so fun!! The kids both LOVED it!!! We came out just in time to catch our last fireworks show. Yes, I cried. I've just had the BEST time this week and I'm not ready for it to be over. The good thing is, we did EVERYTHING we wanted to do and more, so we can leave with NO REGRETS. It has been the most special week and I wouldn't have changed a thing. Watching the kids faces light up over and over again has been the biggest blessing of all. As we were walking out (and I was still crying) Sawyer said "bye Cinderella. bye Castle. bye Disney". Bless him. We stopped at the Edy's ice cream parlor on Main St. as we were leaving, then we took the Ferry back to the parking lot. What a special, special week that I will never, ever forget!!!!