Disney Trip Part 7 - Out With A Bang

My end-of-vacation grieving has just about made it to the acceptance phase, so I'm wiping away the last tears I'll shed over reentering reality as I reminisce of our last day of Disney. 

Goes off to dark corner to sob.

Ahem. Sniff, sniff. Here we have our 2nd Green Shirt Day family picture!

 If you don't know Jacob, the only thing you need to know is he's hilarious. At least he thinks so. He eagerly jumped in as my stunt double while I did some last-minute primping. If he would have had his green shirt on, he may have gotten away with it.

By day 7 we had Eli trained to pose in front of the castle before we left for the day. We didn't even have to remind him of our morning ritual!

Since it was our last day at Disney, I was ready to go ALL out. We had a plan. We had a schedule. And with our reputation of being the first to bail every day, I made it a family goal to stay at the park until at least 8:00 to end with a bang.

Carson started dancing and squealing with glee as soon as we got there. It was a good indicator of how the rest of the day would go.

This is my second favorite picture of the trip.

Carson was a little less excited about his tractor ride than Eli was.

We ran into my parents just as Jeff and I were headed over to The Tower of Terror with three fast passes. Perfect timing! My mom joined us while my dad dared juggle the boys on safe ground.

I was truly terrified. Seriously. This is my terrified face. Now I know what I will look like if my worst fear really does come true and I get attacked by a bear at girls' camp.

Becky (whose family I never seemed to document?) told us about seeing the play Aladdin, so we decided to all meet up for it Friday afternoon. Just before the show, my Dad took Eli on the tractor ride one more time. I think he had more fun than this picture indicates.

Sleeping Beauty tried to disguise herself as Snow White, but she wasn't fooling anybody.

Oh look! I did document the Goldens! There's Brooke and Caroline with their heads turned and half out of the shot.

Here's Jeff bracing himself for keeping two kids entertained during the show.

Little did we know the chairs would do half of the entertaining for us. The boys folded themselves into those chairs for at least 15 minutes straight. Which is an incredibly long time for something to entertain these two hyperactives.

 I can proudly say that neither of my kids were the one who started crying mid production, resulting in one of the cast members to make a quick improv jab about a crying baby in the audience. Cough Claire cough.

Although I can't say my kids weren't pulling the hair of the people sitting in front of us. Who was luckily my unphotographed sister who had already seen the show anyway, so no harm done.

 After the show, everyone went on Toy Story Mania while I tried to get Carson to sleep.

Success! Allow me to introduce you guys to the Disney Coma.

After Toy Story Mania, it was about 4:00. Also known as witching hour. The time of day that Eli got grumpy and refused to appear happy even moreso than his usual Disney self. Plus he was acting sick when he woke up on this morning, but we made him fake feeling well in the name of a successful last day at Disney.

Summary -- Jeff took the kids home while I stayed at the park to get my dose of high adventure rides.

I rode that raft ride that I can't remember the name of, Soaring Over California, and Indiana Jones with my parents before Jeff called me to tell me he was on his way back to the park.

We took the kids on The Haunted Mansion, and then we rode the train to the other side of the park. We finished off with one last shot at Zerg on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and then we were out of there at 8:00 sharp.

 When we got back to the house, Logan snuggled up with Jeff on the couch as the shock of our waning vacation suddenly hit us all.

The next morning, it was all business. My mom got busy dispersing all the extra food, and in no time we were packed and ready to go.

Eli and Logan offered us several Kodak moments as they said their goodbyes.

A kiss goodbye.

The Thomas children seeing us off.

Making it very hard for us to begin our journey home.

With one last sneak hug from Logan, we had Belle's Castle in our rear view mirror with only the enchanting memories of the First Annual Thomas Family Reunion to take with us. Plus all the cereal my mom made us take home. And the matching t-shirts of course. Sigh.

Does anyone have any Ben and Jerry's? I can feel the grief cycle starting over again.