No More Magic

We're back from our magical (and exhausting) Disney World vacation. We felt the magic all last week and I'm so glad to be home now (and in my own bed) and yet so grateful for the memories. Jared's sister, Amber, was awesome enough to meet us in Disney World to be our traveling buddy. We thought Meg would be difficult to travel with because she's still so little, but we were so wrong...she was an absolute angel. That only meant more fun for all of us. However, I know traveling with our little family was no picnic 100% of the time and Amber did sacrifice going on plenty of rides to sit with Meg. Amber was a great help--it just wouldn't have been as smooth or easy without her. We're hoping she got enough fun in for herself that she won't rule out future tours with the fam!

We covered a lot of territory in the time we were there and the girls held up fabulously. I was completely exhausted at the end of each day and exhibited my fair share of "the cranks", so I can only tip my hat to our little sweethearts whose little bodies kept going and going.

We all kept pretty good records in our mod-podged journal scrapbooks (honestly people, I had no idea what I was getting myself into or I would have most definitely gone the spiral notebook route), and here are the highlights as recorded by our traveling troupe:

Leah's Highlights
*Star Tours
*Splash pad at Epcot

*Shopping and finally settling on the purchase of a new Webkinz elephant she named "Water"
*Stopping at every water feature and fountain to play and to scrounge for coins "some fools threw in there" (according to Jared).
*Buying snacks
*Seeing Tigger and Pooh Bear


Brita's Highlights
*All of the "mountains"...Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain.
*Star Tours

Love those faces and bright eyes!

*Purchasing a Webkinz as her souvenir...a monkey named Bananas
*Fireworks at night
*Posing for all kinds of photos


Brita's Lowlights
* meanie mom (taken from her journal)

Rachelle's Highlights
*Princess dinner at the Norwegian restaurant Akershus in Epcot
*Our "Viking" family (even sleeping Meg was a pretty good baby viking)


*No lines
*Running from ride to ride in our rain jackets and Jared jumping in puddles to try to splash everybody

*Favorite shows--PhilharMagic and The Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
*Brita telling me that "fast and scary equals fun." She surprised me by being willing to try any ride. She surprised me even more by loving the scary ones.
*Brita falling on top of Meg when the monorail took off because she wasn't holding on, then thinking she couldn't bend her knee when she walked to the car because her knee was bleeding.
*Afternoon naps
*Meg was an angel and so much fun to have around. She seemed pretty much unfazed by the crazy schedule and sticky heat.

Jared's Highlights
*Riding in front on Space Mountain
*Going on all the good rides twice and no lines
*Eating the most authentically Norwegian menu item at Akershus--braised pork shank

*Sushi in the Japan Pavilion at Epcot
*Doing Splash Mountain as our last ride
*Forced naps on "breakdown day"
*Taking a break from the rides so the girls could shop...who really wants to go on Splash Mountain again anyway?! (I added this one without Jared's permission)

Amber's Highlights
*The girls' excitement over the real bubbles during 'Finding Nemo: the Musical' was hilarious
*Brita and Leah fishing coins OUT of the fountains
*Leah wearing her fanny pack with her pajamas at night
*Leah screaming 'What do I do!!' as we were in the Mission: Space flight simulator had me laughing the whole ride. She took her 'job' as the navigator so seriously and didn't want to make a mistake in pushing the flashing buttons at the wrong time.
*Going on the Test Track with Rachelle is something everyone should be able to do!
*Seeing Meg interact with Cinderella at our Princess dinner was so cute. We got great attention from all of the princesses, making it so worth it.
*Space Mountain!! Due to babyswap, Brita went four times in two days and loved this ride
*Meg wrapped in her rain poncho cocoon that didn't even keep her dry


*Mickey Mouse and the Philharmagic (actually starring Donald Duck). Very fun 3-D show.
*Eating my french pastries
*Meg getting put on the monitor during 'Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor' interactive comedy show
*Leah giggling to herself later on the monorail as she remembered Meg on the monitor

What a great time. The memories were worth all the work, exhaustion, stress, anger and crankiness because the undesirables were minimal compared to the huge doses of excitement, smiles, and FUN!!! Can't wait for our next adventure, but for now I think I'll try to enjoy some rest.