Chapter 8: All Good Things Must Come to an End 
Our last day in the parks started out with an early morning for ODD and I! Before we went to bed the night before, I asked her if she would like to get up early and go to CA for a few rides with me. I still wanted to ride on Soarin' and Tower of Terror, both rides she had expressed interest in doing and also was hoping to get another ride through TSMM!
With only two of us, we were out the door early and in the parks shortly after the 7am. We went over to Soarin' first, which we walked right on. Both ODD and I loved it, and it quickly became one of her favorite rides of the trip! I really enjoyed it as well, I had ridden it back in HS so I don't remember much about the ride when it first opened to compare old vs. new but I thought they did a very good job with it! Next up we headed to TSMM which was also pretty much a walk-on too. Both ODD and I beat our scores from the previous night, hooray! Finally we headed over to TOT which had around a 15 minute wait. I want to say we only had to wait around 10 though. ODD started getting a little unsure if she wanted to ride, and after the part in the library started wanting to leave. I left the choice up to her, but encouraged her to give it a try since she had been wanting to ride it all week, and it would probably be our last chance this trip. She decided to stay, and then we ended up with a young lady (early 20s or so) behind us in our elevator car that was overly freaking out about how scary it was. This obviously did not help to settle ODD's nerves and she had quite the grip on my arm the entire time. I thought she could go either way, she liked the spookiness of the Haunted Mansion and other than Space Mountain seemed to enjoy the bigger rides like Matterhorn and GRR. However, the drops were a bit too much for her so she was more than ready to get off and never ride again. I'm proud of her for giving it a try though
After that experience I decided a treat was in order, so we left the park and headed through DTD to bring donuts and chocolate milk (or coffee, for DH and I) back from Starbucks to the room! Spent the morning packing up the last of our things, and making sure we had everything we needed for the rest of our day in the parks. DH made a couple of trips down with our luggage to store at bell services before we left our room for the last time (sob!) and checked out.
A little farewell love for Surfer Goofy!
ODD and MDD both wanted to ride Splash Mountain (I was surprised ODD was still on board with this after TOT, I had to convince her the hotel elevator wasn't going to suddenly drop going back to the room!) so we headed to DL to grab FPs for that first. As we were getting to the park gate, DH suddenly remembered that he thought he may have left one of the girls' tablets on the charger in the room. It wasn't in his backpack with the other two. He took YDD back with him to go see if they could find it while I took MDD & ODD into the park to get our Splash FPs.
We then headed over to Fantasyland to return a couple of things, my mom & I bought ODD the same book for her birthday and then I had an extra Anna/Elsa doll I needed to return. DH and YDD met us there when we were finishing that up. He had been able to get into the room, but the tablet wasn't there. We'd barely been checked out for 30 minutes by the time he got there and said that nothing else seemed to be touched. Since it could've gotten into one of our bags in the hustle of packing, we agreed to not worry about it and we'd check the luggage before we went to the airport for it.
For a Monday I thought the parks were insanely crowded, probably one of the most crowded days of our entire trip and it wasn't even a Grad Night! We decided to just go hang over at Critter Country until our Splash FP window opened, we hadn't spent much time in the area and thought Winnie the Pooh would be fun to ride so we hopped in line for that.
Hi Pooh!
We spent a little time looking around the shops, then enjoyed a snack/lunch of Mickey pretzels and sitting in the shade. As soon as our Splash FP window opened, I took the older two to that while DH took YDD to meet Eeyore & Pooh who had just come out for a meet & greet and then they were going over to Fantasyland and we would meet them at the Castle later!
A picture from before we rode since I didn't want to have my big camera on the ride with us.
Splash's standby line was very long so I was so glad we had the FPs! When we boarded the ride, they put MDD and I in the back of the log side-by-side and then ODD in the seat in front of us. Right as we left and started rounding the bend to that first hill, I was distracted pointing something out to MDD and then suddenly had another small person sitting on my other side. ODD had decided to get out of her seat and move back to sit with us. If we weren't just about to go up the hill I would've had her move back but at that point I felt she was safer to just stay put unless we were told otherwise. We were still in view of CMs, so I don't know if they saw it happen but I also knew the rides all have tons of cameras so either it went unnoticed or they didn't think it was a big issue to stop the ride over? At any rate, we still fit just fine back there and enjoyed the ride. I was actually bummed we didn't get too wet, it was hot that day and I was looking forward to a good spray of water to cool off! ODD was fine with the Splash drop (it's definitely not as scary as TOT, and it's only once, so I'll give her that!) and MDD was a little unsure right after but by the time we got off the ride they were both begging for a second go. Unfortunately the FP return time was later than we would be in the parks and the Standby line was a good 45 minutes at least.
We headed to meet DH by the castle but on our way there, we passed Tarzan's Tree House and the girls wanted to do a quick walk through so I texted DH to bring YDD back over to that area. The girls enjoyed playing in Tarzan's tree house (ODD loved the climbing rope and MDD loved the musical instruments!)
They had just finished going through when DH and YDD met up with us. We discussed what we still wanted to do, and the girls were all interested in going to the Disney Jr. Live show over in CA. On the way back through Main Street we stopped real briefly so DH could grab a souvenir for his brother and I got a little candy for the plane ride. It was a bummer to leave DL, but I knew we had a couple more hours to enjoy CA too! We quickly walked over there to catch the next show that would be starting soon! YDD caught a ride on top of a stroller on the way there
We got to the line for the show just as they were opening the doors, we had seats near the back on the side but still were able to see quite well! YDD loves Sofia, and ODD is a fan of Jake so they especially enjoyed seeing those characters and they all had a fun time!
As we were going back outside, Doc McStuffins was there and ODD & YDD were excited to give her a hug. They've never really seen the show (we don't have cable and it isn't on Netflix) but were happy to meet her nonetheless!
With about an hour left before we needed to head back to the hotel, we let the girls choose whether or not they wanted to go to Turtle Talk with Crush, go on a ride or two, or do more shopping. All three still had money from their other grandparents to spend, so it was an easy decision for them. As we headed towards the GCH entrance, I passed Mickey on the Trolley for one last farewell wave. This ended up being one of my last pictures on my big camera for our trip, and I find it quite fitting.
Leaving CA for the last time definitely had me feeling
We went into DTD since the older two had seen Anna & Elsa dolls in Fantasyland earlier so A&E's boutique was a good place to look for those. DH stayed with the older two there while they decided what to purchase and I took YDD to the World of Disney to pick something out there. All three ended up with little doll sets (Elsa for ODD, Anna for MDD, and Cinderella for YDD) They were all quite happy with their purchases!
Several times during the trip when I'd been shopping, I'd taken some mental notes of stuff I wanted but had decided to wait until the end of our trip to buy anything. In the end, a combination of running out of time and not being able to settle on anything I HAD to have won out. My pictures and memories are the best souvenir I could've asked for though, honestly. I also found a little trio of "Best Friend Forever" necklaces to give my girls when they are older. It was especially fitting that the pendants on them are purple, pink, and aqua - each of their favorite colors and the colors I tend to dress them in when I coordinate (the ruffle skirts from our first park day, tutu dresses from our second park day, even their princess dresses were close to the theme - YDD's Cinderella dress is more blue than aqua but close enough). I'm hoping they will be close as they grow, but at the very least it's a very special reminder for me of this trip and I hope it will be for them as well!
Not knowing what food there would be at the airport, we decided to grab another snack. I wanted to try the special 60th anniversary drink at Starbucks that was exclusive to that store (it was called the Citrus Celebratory Blend, it was a smoothie and had orange in it but I can't recall what else now, but it was very refreshing!) I also got a sandwich. DH got a big smoothie at Jamba Juice too. It was time to head back to our hotel after that, so we could call for our taxi. DH got our luggage from bell services while I sat with the girls and we share the sandwich and drinks. Unfortunately, we still were unable to locate the tablet in any of our bags. Since the housekeeping staff was gone for the day, they gave us the number to call the following day to speak with them. Long story short, our tablet was never found and I'm not entirely happy with the communication there but I'll share more about that in my next post.
Our cab showed up very quickly after we called (easily under 5 minutes so I'm guessing he came from across the street as they always had a few taxi vans lined up outside the GCH). Carseats were installed and luggage and tired children were loaded before we were on our way. We had a voucher from the guest services desk for a flat rate from our hotel to LGB that we used, it ended up only saving a few dollars off the meter rate but it was a nice thing to have should we have gotten a driver who wanted to take a more scenic route
We were checked-in, and through security quickly and then boarding our plane before we knew it. All three of the girls slept most of the flight, and then went to bed when we got back to our house. Sign of a VERY good trip, indeed
And as always, iPhone pics!
Top Row L-R: TOT ride pic (we're bottom left, but my favorite is the lady in the striped shirt behind us!); Makeshift double stroller; picking out last day souvenirs
Bottom Row L-R: Splash Mountain Selfie! YDD's face when Sofia came on stage in the Disney Jr. Live show, and a very sleepy girl after a long night of travel.
This isn't the end of my trip report! I still have YDD's Baymax balloon video to share once I get it edited down a bit, and plan to write a post with more details about things we liked & didn't like and other stuff. There may also be some pictures to share that I missed earlier! Though those may come a bit later on since I have to write them still (I'd outlined my days for the TR on the plane ride home, so they were fairly quick to type up once I started!)
Thank you to all who have been following along as I've been writing and to those who find and read this later. I've really enjoyed sharing our trip with you and the conversations we've had! Our next trip is at least a couple of years out, so I'll live vicariously through any trips you all and other posters will take, and hope to continue staying in touch on the boards!
Also love that they seem to have an appreciation for some of the classics like Pirates, etc.
ODD and I shared one car (she did most of the driving, though I used the pedals, and it confirmed my suspicions that DH will need to be the one to teach her to drive when she gets her permit 
