Ingram the Conqueror: Monday January 7th, Heading Home :(

The kids didn't get the memo that we were sleeping in this morning and decided to get up before 8am! Those crazy kids were ready for one last breakfast at that Gingerbread House and excited to stay at GKTW and play for the day. We were going to go to Epcot part of the day, but the begging just went on and on to stay at the Village. The kids wanted play Marc's Dino Putt, drive the remote control boats, play Pool, ride the train, drive the trains, and of course ride the Enchanted Carousel and eat ice cream all day!

To our surprise though when we went for breakfast, some of our favorite characters from Disney made a stop at GKTW and we got to meet them and take pictures with them. First up was the most famous mouse in the world, Mickey Mouse!! He was sooo cute and the kids loved playing with him; he even signed Ingram's Mickey Mouse stuffed animal on his foot! When we were with Mickey Mouse, he told us Goofy was also there and Madison took off to go find him. When we caught up with her, she was in the Castle of Miracles dancing with Goofy! That Goofy had her spinning and dancing all over the floor of the Castle. Lindsey and Ingram got in on the action too and it was so much fun to watch them play. When we left, Mary Poppins was outside by the fountain and she was sooo pretty in her white and red! The kids loved talking to her and so did we because she told them all exactly how to behave and to eat their vegetables too!

We got breakfast in the Ice Cream Shoppe since we spent too much time playing with everyone so we decided to eat more ice cream than breakfast! We still had to pack everything up so off to the Villa we went to pack up everything we brought, plus all the nightly gifts that the kids got and our souvenirs. Oddly enough, we left home for our trip with two LL Bean large rolling duffel bags packed full and wound up with two large duffel bags, four backpacks, and three large Vera Bradley duffel bags full for our return trip. We brought the Vera bags in our other bags because we had heard we might need extra room and we certainly did!

We checked out of our villa around noon but still had about 3 hours to play and the kids had a blast! We played about a thousand rounds of Dino Putt, about a hundred games of Pool, had tons of crashes with the remote control boats, and even rode the train a couple times around the Village. We knew that if we could get Ingram to sit still that he would fall asleep on the couch watching a movie before we left; unfortunately, it was the keeping still part that we could get to happen! Once we finally left for the airport, all we could think about was eating Chick Fil A for lunch; I think all of us went into chicken withdrawals and were so excited when we saw the sign. Ingram, however, couldn't stay awake long enough to eat and fell asleep with a nugget in his hand and held it while he slept.

It took us a while to get through the Orlando airport because of the crowds so it was good that we got there super early! We ended up walking straight to our gate and then right onto the airplane. From our seat assignments we had two single seats and three together so you can imagine how that went; Craig and Madison were solo and the three-person row was Party Central! The only person that slept on the flight was Madison and she even missed the goody cart. I think all the fun they had leaving the flight made up for her not getting her regular Sprite and pretzels that she loves.

There was also another Make A Wish family on the plane that had also stayed at GKTW and the flight attendants knew both of our families had extra attention this week and they wanted to get in on the action too. Before everyone left the plane, an announcement came across the top for the Make A Wish families to stop by the cockpit on the way out and you can imagine how excited our kids got! They stopped and were talking to the Attendants and Pilots about our trip and before we knew it, all three of them were inside the cockpit...in the seats!!! One of the pilots had gotten out so they could get in and they were having a blast pushing all the buttons and pretending like they were flying the plane. Everyone was already off the plane by this point and it was soooo loud, but it got even more loud if that was really possible. The pilot turned on the intercom and let the kids talk over the top and it quickly got crazy! If they had only known what the Dismuke kids were capable of, they might not have made their offer but then once again, memories were made and we all loved it!