Day 4--Magic Kingdom

After such a terrible night's sleep, it took us a while to get around that morning. I had hopes of arriving at the park early in the morning, before the crowds and before the heat of the day. But it wasn't to be. We arrived in time to grab fast passes for a later visit with the princesses, take a picture in front of the castle, and meet up with my family for our lunch reservation.

We had lunch at the Crystal Palace, which was the first of several character dinning experiences.

Honestly, with all the character dinning we did on this trip, I would be ok with not doing any more character dining again. I know the girls enjoyed it, but I felt like mealtimes were very chaotic.

After lunch it was off to meet Mickey, Minnie, and the princesses. (We met Winnie the Pooh and his friends at lunch.)

Our visits with them ended just in time to stake out a prime spot for the mid-afternoon parade.

After the parade, we hit the rides--Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear and the race cars.

Ashlyn was big enough to ride the race cars this time, but not really big enough to see over the steering wheel. So Dakota and Grandpa took turns helping her drive.

I also went on a small roller coaster with both girls. I wasn't sure what Ashlyn would think of it, but when she heard it was fast, she wanted to try it. Emma's first time on it (2 years ago) scared her, but now that she was bigger, she wanted to try it again. Emma ended up getting the front seat, with Ashlyn and me right behind her. (This was the only picture Dakota was able to get of us on the ride.)

The girls both loved it, and I thought Ashlyn was going to cry when I told her the ride was over and she had to get out.

We hadn't planned to stay late at the park, but with getting such a late start, there were still things we wanted to see and do. We kept saying we were going to leave before the light-up parade and fireworks, but somehow time ran like water, and we found ourselves at the park entrance 5 minutes before the light up parade was to start. At that point we figured we had made it that long, we might as well stay for the parade and then leave right after. So that was what we did.

Josiah let us know he was still WIDE awake for the night time parade.

And that was the end of day 4.