Day 4 - EPCOT

The kids colored some pictures during breakfast time.  

We arrived at EPCOT around 9:30 a.m.  We also got the Genie plus today to avoid the 85 minute wait times!  I'm so glad we did that.  Our family does pretty well with 30-40 minute wait times but those longer ones are rough!

Our first ride was Mission Space.  

Noah and I went on the easier green ride.  It was an orbit around the earth and just right for us.

The others enjoyed a more thrilling ride to Mars.  

Afterwards, we ate snacks and planned our next few rides while the kids played on the playground.  

It was a beautiful time of year.  The flowers were gorgeous and the sculptures were amazing!  So fun to walk around and see.

We went through a butterfly area.

Then we waited about 30 minutes for the Nemo ride.  Then we enjoyed the awesome aquarium!  Dolphin, sharks, sting rays, sea turtles and so much more.  

Kira found her stuffed animal souvenir - Dolphins.  She didn't want a character stuffed animal so we were glad we found the dolphins!

We went on the Living with the Land ride.  I liked seeing the pineapple growing in the ground.  We went on the ride Soarin'.  Everyone liked it.  As we were walking away from the ride, Sofie lost her tooth!!  She was so excited and happy.  The tooth fairy Astrid did come that night and left her $1 and 2 quarters.  

We waited in line for Spaceship Earth.  The ride was in the "golf ball" as Kira calls it.  Everyone liked it.  Then we took a long walk around the world exhibits.  It was hot.  We reapplied sunscreen, drank water and whined a bit about our sore feet!

Noah found a donut as big as his head for his treat.  

Then it was time to get in the real line for Guardian of the Galaxy coaster.  We waited about 50 minutes and then we all rode Galaxy Coaster.  Noah rode with me.  Oh, boy.  It turned out to be a BIG coaster.  Fast, twirly, backwards, spinning.  I loved it!!  Poor Noah.  We held hands and he closed his eyes and leaned his head against my shoulder.  But he did it!  He only cried after it was all over.  I think it totally surprised him too.  I was so proud of him and super glad we all got to go on it together.  

We all went on Test Track.  We created our own cars.  Us girls made a cute car.  

The boys made a fast car.

The track went 60 mph outside at the end.  Pretty cool ride.  

We got treats.  Dole whips for me and Isak.

Sofie chose this chocolate plate.

Nels chose an apple pie dessert.  Kira got vanilla cake. Their treats were in a bakery in Norway.  

And we shared a big honkin' cookie.  So that was our dinner and lunch too!  Haha.  We ate a lot of the snacks we brought with us.  But we just didn't have time for lunch and dinner!  Overall, the kids were troopers about it.

We rode the Frozen ride and it surprised us when we got a little wet at the end.  The last ride we did was Ratatouille 3D ride.  Very cool and a great last ride.  We finished just in time for the fireworks.  We sat at a little table outside of France and enjoyed our magical moment of music, fireworks and family.  

Then we started the long trek back to the car.  

We did the most steps this day - 25,000!  Last pictures of the "golf ball."  

Then we left Disney World.  Sniff, sniff!  We were all hungry.  We tried to get pizza at the hotel restaurant, but it didn't work out.  Thankfully, a lady overheard our predicament.  She happened to have a lot of left over pizza and offered it to us.  She was traveling with her son's high school band.  We went to her room and she gave us slices of pizza for our dinner.  Yay!  I fixed sandwiches for Noah and Kira.  I ate my leftover salad from Wendy's the other night.  We all got full and went to bed!

March - 31 Friday

We were all so tired.  We slept in until almost 9 a.m.  We ate breakfast and got a later check out time.  So we went to the pool!  I think it was the kids first time in a hot tub.  And they loved it.  

After some pool time, we packed and got on the road close to 12:30 p.m.  Our 10 hour drive home ended up being a lot longer.  Lots of delays, not really sure why...but it took forever to get out of Florida!

We ate lunch at a McAlister's near Gainesville, FL.  Then we continued.  We made it to a Buc'ees on the Southside of Atlanta.  Our first time at one of these huge gas stations.  It was crazy!  We got gas, went potty, and bought random junk food for dinner.  We also took a picture in front of the wall of jerky that they are famous for.

We ate our food on the curb/grass near our car.  Haha.  This was at 9 p.m.   

We loaded up  and I drove the rest of the way home.  The kids and Nels slept off and on.  I drove us through a raging storm just south of Murfreesboro.  We learned it was also a tornado watch kind of storm.  I was gripping the steering wheel and praying that we'd all be safe and that our house would be ok too.  The rain and wind were so strong!  Thankfully, all was well.  We arrived home at 2:45 a.m.  We unloaded the kids and luggage and went to bed!

I'm so grateful we were able to take our family to Disney World.  We had many wonderful memories together.  We tried new things and had some great experiences.  Was it hard too?  You bet!  But it was worth the ups and downs.