Day 6 One Last Rope Drop and then Illinois Bound

Sadly, our 6 days went too fast!

I had mostly packed after shopping the night before. (although we came home with an extra duffle bag that I had to buy since I bought too much!) I just had to put dirty laundry away and pack the kid's backpacks for the plane.

I think all of us ALMOST said screw it and slept in. But we all managed to get up and get going. I wanted to end our vacation at Magic Kingdom just like we started it.

We managed to get to rope drop with a few minutes to spare, enjoyed the opening show and rushed in at the drop of the rope.

We needed to leave the park by noonish to get lunch and get to the airport so we only had a few hours. We intended to just hit our favorites.

We rode BTMRR twice and then headed for the tea cups (since we didn't get to ride at our earlier visit to Magic Kingdom). We rode Buzz Lightyear 4 times and then stopped and got Stitch's autograph. (against RJ's better judgement......He does not like Stitch, since he doesn't behave well)

We rode the Astro Orbitor and then rode the Haunted Mansion. We rode Aladin's carpets and then back to BTMRR two more times and Splash Mountain one more time.

Rick and Heidi wanted to ride Splash Mountain one more time, but RJ wanted to play checkers on Tom Sawyer's Island so we headed over there with Miss Kaitlin. Rick and Heidi were going to surprise us with ice cream when they came over but had to wait so long on the raft that the ice cream started to melt. The CM running the raft felt bad and gave us a voucher for 5 free ice creams, BUT apparently he has never met the Lindemanns before. We'll eat ice cream melted or not, just a little faster. :)

After we quickly ate our ice cream, we headed back from Tom Sawyer's island and hopped on to the Walt Disney World Rail Road which took us to Main Street. We all wished the castle goodbye (for another year) and headed back out the gates. Unfortunatly, we were running about an hour behind and I had to walk past Mary Poppins without getting her autograph and a picture. It seriously took all I had. :(

On our way out of the gates, I found a family of five and gave them our free ice cream vouchers.....(Disney Magic) :)

I was so happy that we headed to Magic Kingdom and was able to ride rides and have fun on our departure day. It made the vacation seem a little longer.

We headed off to the airport and stopped at the WAFFLE HOUSE on the way for lunch. Mmmmm waffle house! Rick and the kids love it just as much as me, so it was an easy decision! After lunch, we headed to the airport. After security and finding our gate, we sat down to relax and saw Greg and Grant White. What were the odds? They were in Florida on a golfing trip and were on our plane home. We visited with Grant for a little while and then I took a nap.

Our plane took off and landed with no complications. The kids were well behaved and it was a smooth flight.

Unfortunately, it took us 40 minutes to find our car once we claimed our baggage. Rick had written our lot and row # down on a walt disney sticker on the suitcase, which the airline removed. Damn Northwest Airlines!

It worked out fine though and we headed home. Miss Kaitlin and the kids all fell asleep right away.

We had such a wonderful trip. I can't wait to start planning another! But it is nice to be home!

:)
-a