... Day 15 brought one last stop at the Magic Kingdom for this trip. It was fun, but we were all getting tired... and a little bit sick. Seems like I remember something like this from the last time around. When you lack sleep and eat junk for long periods of time, your body finally says, "enough is enough!"
We started out our day at The Crystal Palace, where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast buffet in the company of friends from the Hundred Acre Wood:
Ian had about the same opinion of the Pooh characters that Caleb had on the last trip, but instead of smacking them around with buttered waffles, he just hid his little head in his hands until they passed by:
After breakfast, we made a beeline for Mickey's
Toontown Fair, but we were stopped by the show that was just beginning on stage at the castle, and are we ever glad we were! "Dream Along with Mickey" was really great! Well... except for the part when Ian threw up his entire breakfast and I used the rest of our wipes to clean him up, therefore missing a bit of the Peter Pan scene...
We swung by
Tomorrowland and found that there was no line for the Speedway, so we raced... and Phil, Seth, and Grace won... and I learned that Caleb is a very bad driver, and he is never... ever going to get his license!
From there it was on to
Toontown, where we found the line for Pixie Hollow, with a 75 minute wait! And, unfortunately, we also found that our Tinkerbell fairies poster was missing! I ran back to the Speedway, and sure enough, there it was, having fallen out of the stroller!
Because Grace loves Tinkerbell, she and I got in the ridiculously long line! After about 30 minutes, Grace said we should probably get out of line and try again later. I laughed... sort of... and then we resumed waiting in line. It was also about this time that we learned that only three of the five fairies appear at a time, which was definitely disappointing, but they told us that
Tink is always one of the three, so I decided we could live with that.
When it was finally our turn, we shrunk down to fairy size and entered the magical world of Pixie Hollow.
Tink came right out for Grace and encouraged her to fly around! I think I probably enjoyed experiencing this even more than Grace did, as she was absolutely tongue tied... and if you know Grace. you know it takes an awful lot for that to be the case! We also met Rosetta and
Irradessa (who was probably the best cast character we have met at Disney). Here are some pics. of my little fairy:
While we were in line, Phil and the boys rode the train... and Buzz
Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin... and The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh... and maybe some other things, too, though I have forgotten.
When all of the fairy meeting... and then souvenir buying... was done, we all jumped on the train to
Frontierland, after taking part in the kids' favorite amusement park pass time:
We proceeded to get
fastpasses for Splash Mountain, which I had never ridden! We called Mom and Dad who said they would meet us when it was time to use the fast passes, and then we went over to
Adventureland, where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean and were pleased to find that the addition of Johnny
Depp did not ruin the ride. And then Phil bought a sword... and I smashed some more pennies... and I began to realize that Disney has it all set up so that when you have stayed so long you are too tired to think clearly, you will spend every last cent you have left!
Mom and Dad then caught up with us and entertained Ian, while the rest of us rode Splash Mountain... which I can now deem the greatest flume ride ever! It was incredibly fun! After this, we grabbed fast passes for Thunder Mountain Railroad and parted ways with Mom and Dad again, planning to visit Tom Sawyer's Island (which has never been my favorite part of the Magic Kingdom, but this trip really wasn't about me, now was it?) However, we found that the Liberty Square River Boat was going to leave shortly, so we decided to jump aboard that, instead, and we called Mom and Dad who were now halfway across the park via the train, who jumped off the train (at a stop, of course, silly) and ran to join us for our little cruise!
When we got off, we used our
fastpasses for
TMR, which was great! I didn't actually remember all of the
theming, as I had only ridden it once before.
Following this, we really did go over to Tom Sawyer's Island, where I promptly found a good photo taking spot,
settled in, and then decided to move down just a bit... missing a step... twisting my ankle (which made sounds that an ankle should not know how to make)... falling down... scraping my knee... and not dropping the camera (or Ian, who I was holding the whole time).
Embarrassed, I got up... told the one lone person who stopped to ask if I was OK that I was fine (even though I wasn't)... proceeded to take pictures of Phil and the kids coming across the barrel bridge... and then limped around for the rest of the day, wondering if I'd just twisted or broken my ankle. Oh, here's a pic of the part of my family that just loves
exploring like Tom Sawyer (yeah... that's all of them):
This was, in effect, the end of my day, because it is not fun to hobble around an amusement park when you are hurting. It also prevented me from climbing through The Swiss Family
Treehouse, which is one of my very favorite attractions. I felt crabby. Phil doesn't care for the
treehouse all that much, but I told him he had to take the kids, because we have been reading the book for school. He did.
We snapped up
fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise, and rode the Magic Carpets of
Aladdin while we waited. The Jungle Cruise was as corny as always.
After this, we headed back to
Fantasyland, where we ate at
Pinocchio's Village
Haus, because it had become very obvious to us, while waiting in line for the Jungle Cruise, that Grandpa was very hungry:
I spilled water all over my pizza (long story... but isn't it all), which they replaced, free of charge.
Mom and Dad parted ways with us again, and Grace and I went to wait in the 40 minute line for Ariel, bringing her character count to 27! Grace sung songs from the Little Mermaid... loudly... throughout the entire wait. She then explained to a
Disney cast member that she was going to see Tinkerbell fly... that she had already seen her fly once this week... and that even though her brother says
Tink is on a string, she knows it's really pixie dust. And, finally, it was our turn to meet Ariel:
From there, we met up with Mom and Dad one more time, who watched Caleb
and Ian this time, while the rest of us rode Space Mountain. I have been saying for years that I have
never ridden Space Mountain, but to tell you the truth, it was awfully familiar, and I need to ask my dad if he took me on it when I was six. It was a good ride... well... not really. It was fun, but it wasn't because it was a good ride. Again... Disney coasters are all about
theming, not thrills!
We found Caleb and Ian asleep when we returned. And it was cold. And they were totally not dressed to be in the cold, so while we were in line a nice French family offered Caleb their blanket and then wouldn't take it back when they left... so we have a souvenir from France...
hehehe...
Mom and Dad called it a night at this point,
while Phil, Seth, Grace,
Caleb,
Ian, and I went to our favorite spot to watch Wishes one more time (the bridge to
Tomorrowland). Somehow, I had the times mixed up, and we ended up being there an hour earlier than we needed to be... which was fine, because it gave all the kids a chance to take a little nap on the concrete benches while I ran around buying mouse ears, picture frames, and a blanket! I put their mouse ears on them while they were sleeping, and even though I couldn't get them to wake up, they all sat upright as the first few notes for Wishes began to pay, watched
Tink fly (out of the castle that was now decorated for Christmas, which was a real treat for me, since I always went to Disney in the summer), and enjoyed the fireworks:
And then... we boarded the
monorail one last time... and, completely exhausted, we checked into a hotel, and Phil brought everything up the stairs by himself, because there were no luggage carts...
What a day... and night...
Lisa
Ian asked for cheese pizza and fries for his birthday dinner... and cookie "didi" ice cream... all of which he got! He loved his duck birthday cake... but he tried to blow the ducks out instead of the candle... hehehe... Daddy eventually had to help!
Present time was lots of fun, but Ian really enjoyed the opening process more on Christmas. The birthday presents he wanted to rip through as quickly as possible in order to play with them! And play he did... with his pile full of loot... just as soon as Mommy snapped one more pic.
I love this child! He brings so much joy to our family, and even though he is just two years old, it seems like he has been a part of us forever! Happy Birthday Ian!
