Disney World - Day 8 The Most Dreaded Day of All

      The most dreaded day of all had finally arrived: the final day of our vacation.  It was so sad to have our vacation over.  Our flight didn't leave until 5:30, so we got to have some time in the parks earlier in the day.  Since it was so close, we decided to go to Epcot so we could just walk there and back.  As I mentioned in the post before, it started raining Friday night and it rained heavily all night.  When we woke up, it was raining.  We all had to gear up in our ponchos.  We figured it would rain the entire day.  We were pleasantly surprised when the rain completely stopped around 11:00.
    It's too confusing to write about, but Ella, Ashlyn, my mom, dad, and sister ended up with an extra dining credit.  They decided to use it at the character buffet breakfast at our hotel.  I didn't get to go, but they said the food was great and they had a great time meeting the characters.  The rest of us at breakfast elsewhere and met up with the others when they were done.

Their princess hair still looked perfect. 

Giving Goofy a big hug.

Yum!  Mickey waffles are the best. 

Finally meeting Minnie Mouse

So sweet

Katy said Ella really liked the characters

Precious girl!

Donald Duck and the girls

    We had Fast Passes for Test Track to ride one last time.  When we got to Test Track, it was closed due to the rain.  We were allowed to come back any time that day, but we just never made it back.  I really wish we could've ridden Test Track more.  I just love that ride.  We went into a building we had never been into before.  Ashlyn and I got to create a virtual roller coaster and ride it.  It was pretty neat. 

Jameson having fun

That weird contraption is part of the roller coaster we designed. 

It was a very fun ride. 

How cute are these three???

    We ended up riding Nemo one last time.  For our final ride, we had to ride Spaceship Earth.  I tried to soak up every second because I knew it would be our final ride of our trip.  It was the perfect ride to end with.
    We then headed over to the World Showcase. Every year, the World Showcase has a huge food and wine festival.  It only lasts about 6 weeks and its really neat.  They set up around 25 temporary food booths from different countries.  All the booths have food and drinks from those countries.  Epcot gets very busy during food and wine so we planned our trip before it.  I didn't realize we would be there for the first day of the Food and Wine festival. We decided we didn't care how busy it was, we had to go try some different foods.  We had a bunch of snack credits to use and this was a great use of them.  We had a great time trying all sorts of different stuff.  The portions are just tasting portions so we were able to try a lot.  My favorites were amazing steak from Canada and this melted cheese from Greece.  I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Ashlyn eating a slushie from China

Carrot cake Katy got at the American stand.  I had heard it was good and Bryan said it was amazing and requested it for his birthday. 

Such a pretty girl. 

    We had some time to kill.  So we got some food and our favorite beer from Germany and found a table to sit at.  The kids ran around and burned off some energy. 

Trying a caramel my mom got in Germany. 

I love them so much!

She was such a happy girl.

Being silly

Our attempt at a group shot.  Someone always decides not to cooperate

This was a really good bacon hash we tried. 

One of our favorite restaurants is the fish and chips shop in England.  Its so authentic and the fish is incredible.  We stopped her for our last meal at Disney. 

Graceyn yanking on Belle's hair.

Graceyn passed out after all of the excitement.

    After our lunch, it was time to leave and head back to the hotel to wait for our bus back to the airport. 

Ella wearing Uncle Joey's hat.

Definitely the saddest we have ever been in Disney while waiting for a bus

All ready to go

Joey taking a selfie

This was Ashlyn's sad face about her vacation being over. 

She was so not happy. 

    We arrived at the airport and managed to get all 12 of us through security and to our gate with plenty of time to spare.  The flight was uneventful.  Ashlyn spent most of it finishing her schoolwork.  Gracie did really good.  She didn't sleep as much as I thought she would, but she was a happy girl.  I got lots of compliments from those around us about how good she was. 

The plane

    When we arrived in Denver, it was around 8:00 P. M. .  We were all very, very tired since we had been up since about 4:30 A.M. Colorado time.  We managed to get all of our luggage and then had to take a shuttle back to the hotel where our cars were parked.  The kids fell asleep the second we got in the van.  I hit a brick wall of exhaustion and fell asleep the second I got in bed.  It felt so good to sleep in my own bed, but I was so sad it was all over.  We had such an amazing trip.  Big thanks to my parents for making this whole trip possible and providing us with truly amazing memories that we will will cherish forever.
    I'm already planning our next trip for whenever that may be :)

I had to get a shot of the amount of bags 12 people travel with.  This wasn't even all of it.