12/11/08- Thursday

Thursday morning we awoke to a very overcast and yucky day. We had reservations for our last character meal at Hollywood Studios Play n Dine at 8:30. We woke the kids up and got everyone dressed then headed over to the bus stop. Our plan was to meet my parents at Magic Kingdom after breakfast and spend as much time there today as the weather would allow.

I must say, for anyone planning a trip to Disney that has preschool aged children, this dining experience is one of the best. My kids loved it! It is a Playhouse Disney character themed meal and they really do a good job of getting the kids up and involved. They have everyone come up and dance with the characters several times throughout the meal. Mary McLean was all over this. She had the best time dancing with Leo (from Little Einsteins) and Jo Jo. Andrew was a little more shy about getting up and dancing, but he still did a couple times at MM's prodding. While we were eating it started drizzling outside, but we were determined not to let a little rain ruin our last day. We finished eating and Marc wanted to take Andrew on Tower of Terror before we left, so we headed down towards the ride. The girls and I found a covered eating area to sit in while we waited for them to finish the ride. During that time it really started raining, when the boys came out, we made a mad dash for the bus. We got to the bus just as it was pulling up, unfortunately then we sat around for 10 minutes while he waited to see if anyone else was coming. Seriously? My kids are getting more antsy by the minute, do you really want to risk the chance of 3 full on blow ups just to see if 2 more people come (which they didn't)? Of course the bus doesn't run directly to MK, so we had to go to the transportation center and ride the monorail the rest of the way. At least that was one place we didn't have to worry about getting kids out of strollers and folding them up.

We arrived at MK around 10:30 and since it was raining steadily now, we decided to split up so that each kid would get to ride what they wanted to. Andrew wanted to ride Space Mountain again and MM wanted to ride Cinderella's carosel and the Snow White ride. Marc took Andrew to SM and the rest of us went to Fantasyland. When we got done on the carosel it was really pouring, so we ran over to Snow White and jumped in line. Luckily both of these rides are under cover. When we finished Snow White the bottom had opened up and it was raining buckets. We were supposed to meet the guys back over near Space Mountain to ride a Buzz Lightyear ride, but I didn't see my parents and I running all the way over there in the downpour. We told Marc to go ahead and take Andrew and when it let up somewhat, we would come down that way. We made another mad dash over to Small World since it was another indoor ride and Emma had really enjoyed it before. When we finished there it was still raining, but at least enough to where we could see where we were going, so we hurried back over to the strollers and started heading over to meet Andrew and Marc. By this point my shoes were completely soaked through and I could feel water squishing around inside them. The rain was dripping off the hood of my jacket and down my face, it was pretty miserable. We met up with Marc and Andrew and decided to take MM on the Buzz Lightyear ride, so we all got in line one more time. While we were waiting, Marc and I decided we would go over to Main Street and take the kids to the store so they could pick out which toy they wanted. Then we would go back to the hotel and change into some dry clothes and wait for the rain to let up some.

Over on Main Street, Andrew couldn't find what he wanted. He had seen a "Pirate Mickey" that he said he wanted, but had only seen a small one and wanted the bigger one. Marc and I left the girls with my parents in the store and the 3 of us ran over to Adventureland to find a pirate Mickey. On the way there the bottom opened up again and we were drenched, the only dry part on my body is where the backpack was covering up. We stopped along the way to buy some ponchos because the jackets we had weren't doing much in this kind of rain. We finally found where the pirate stuff was and found a Mickey that wasn't the small one, but Andrew was unimpressed. Are you kidding me? We just ran all the way over here and you don't want anything? He said he wanted a REALLY big Mickey (not the medim sized one we found). We told him that they didn't make the giant ones like that and if they did, it was more than we were spending. He finally decided on a small pirate mickey and a pirate playset. He was satisfied and we were all drenched, so we ran back over to get my parents and the girls and head back to the resort.

After drying off and me taking a little snooze, we went over to the food court and arcade. They had all the games going for free in the arcade, so we all had a blast in there for about an hour or so. We stopped for an early dinner, and since the rain had let up, we went over to Epcot to end our trip. We rode a couple rides and then grabbed some prime spots to watch the fireworks. While we waited we took turns going places with the kids. Andrew wanted to ride the Viking ride in Norway again, so we all went on that while Nana sat with Emma (who was sound asleep) saving our spots. You should know that Andrew had ridden the Viking ride twice when we were there on Monday, and at the end of the ride they show a 5 minute video on Norway. We had never stayed for the video because honestly, it's really boring. Andrew for some reason was really wanting to see it, so when we were on the ride, he said, "Mommy, can we stay for the movie this time?" I responed with, "Yes, honey, Pops can stay and watch the movie with you!" heehee, I'm evil, I know. So Pops and Andrew stayed to watch the movie while Marc, MM, and I went to go sit with Nana and Emma. By the way, when Andrew came out, he did say, "Mommy was right, that was boring." :) We still had some time to kill, and I saw on the map that there was a little ride inside Mexico, so my mom and I took Andrew and MM over there while Marc and Pops took a turn saving seats. Andrew and MM had fun trying on sombreros, and playing with maracas and drums in Mexico. After Mexico, Andrew wanted to go to Paris, but it was all the way over on the other side of the lake, so he settled for Germany. When he got back from Germany, it was finally time for the fireworks to start. MM got on Marc's shoulders for the beginning of the show, but didn't even last 5 minutes before she was ready to get down in the stroller. 5 minutes later, she was sound asleep. The fireworks show was really good, and it was a great way to end our wonderful vacation. I can't wait to go back again, I think Andrew and Mary McLean will always remember this!