Disney Wrap Up

I know I have been blogging about Disney every day this week & most of you probably aren't even reading this but are just scanning the pictures. But I wanted to do a quick re-cap of our trip & our last day on property. 

When the girls woke up on their last morning, it was December 1 & they were surprised to find their elf, Ellie, in our hotel room:

Sadie has been talking about her for a couple of weeks so I think it was pretty special that she found the girls in Florida :) And since it was December, I brought Christmas outfits for the girls to wear as we traveled home.  We had a few hours to kill before we had to head to the airport so we went to Disney Springs for breakfast & shopping:

We were on the dining plan while we were there & after we cashed in our quick service meals, we had 39 snack credits left over. Isn't that ridiculous?! I mean we ate quite a bit & I already confessed to all the dessert we had every night. We learned last time not to let that money go to waste so we hit up Goofy's Candy Shop & bought as many things as we could:

A lot of it comes pre-packaged so we bought a lot teacher gifts to pass out when we got home & we piled up on snacks for the house - trail mix, chips, nuts, etc. I mean seriously, look at that bag we had to carry home on the airplane with us:

Eventually we made it to the airport. While the girls were walking on the plane, the pilot saw the girls & called them into the cockpit:

We have flown with them quite a bit & this has never happened! He literally let them walk all the way in, touch buttons, ask questions - he must be a dad because he was great with the girls! And then when we were up in the air he even gave them a shout out :)

When we landed, we almost didn't make it home with all of our stuff. We only went with 4 suitcases & 4 carry on bags but we came home with an extra set of golf clubs that we almost couldn't fit in my car:

I'm pretty sure that wasn't safe for us to be driving like that! And when we got home, there was 1 last surprise:

Ellie flew all the way from Florida to Texas & beat us to the house! She was sitting on the Christmas tree waiting for us when we walked in. The girls couldn't have been more excited. 

So, here are my final thoughts. We had an awesome week. I loved traveling with my family & watching the girls spend extra time with their cousins. But Disney was much more crowded than we expected. Everyone told us that it was really busy over Thanksgiving but then the first 2 weeks of December slow down before it gets busy again over Christmas. It did not seem slow to me. I think it was less crowded when we went in October. 

The weather was perfect. Some nights I needed a light jacket & some I didn't, but I walked around comfortably every day without getting too hot. 

We did the quick service dining plan & same as last time, we had so many food credits left over that I don't know if it was worth it. I mean it's definitely convenient, I just wonder if we would save money by not doing it. 

Bryan & I are over Disney! I don't mean that in a bad way, but we have done it 4 times now - 2 were quick trips with just our family & 2 were extended trips with extended family. We have been very fortunate to go with both his side & my side of our families & for that I am extremely grateful. But do I want to go back again? Not any time soon. I think we will sometime but I don't mind waiting until they are older. Or maybe we just pop in for a day trip while we are in Florida but don't necessarily have to do every single park again. 

Sadie is growing up faster than I want her to. This was the first time she was almost too old for the princesses & characters. She still had fun, but she would have rather been riding roller coasters with her older cousin. 

Sophie was perfect. She was too young to really enjoy it last time but she was the perfect age this time. She is really into princesses & characters so she loved every minute. She loves all the small rides with everyone & we talked her into a few of the bigger rides which surprised me, but she always had to sit between me & Bryan and hold both of our hands. 

Thanks again Mom, Dad, Robert & Sherry for taking us. We truly enjoyed both trips with both families & are extremely blessed to have gotten to experience a trip like that at such a magical age with both of our children & the rest of our family.