Alright, it's been a while. Last week was busy. I love Halloween and we had a lot of stuff going on. Also, some sad news in our school district, the principal of our middle school passed away last week after choking on a piece of pizza while playing with his kids.

It was so sad and though I didn't know him, I helped out at his memorial service. He really sounded like a great guy and I'm very sad my kids will never get to experience his leadership. But my heart breaks for his wife and 3 young kids, all under 6.
On a happier note, let's get back to Disney and see if the man-child's make-up fared through pool time. We got back to CBR and were greeted by this in our room.
We had THE best Mousekeepers. They re-arranged the animals every day, and of course the girls were convinced that they animals were running around and being naughty while we were at the park. They got such a kick out of it and like good parents, we played to the magic and yelled at the animals for causing such mischief.
You can see Lucy in the background of one of the pictures by the sink. She was washing her face because she was worried about getting the pool dirty with her makeup. She's such a good girl!
We headed down to the Fuents del Moro pool for some swimming! Maura the Mermaid isn't as clean-conscious as you'll see and there was no way she was washing off her make-up!
Some swimming shots. That's Maura on the steps in the life jacket and Jason and Lucy are in the water.
Some action shots.
After swimming for about an hour, we re-filled our mugs and headed back to the room to get ready to spend some more time at MK. They had EMH that night, so we thought we'd get a little more bang for our buck! We had to stop for a fountain pic, though.
We saw some of the famous Disney Ducks on our walk back.
Another costume change later, and we headed back out. This was Lucy's 4th outfit of the day!
On the monorail from the TTC, Maura felt the need to express her dissatisfaction with the odor on the monorail again. I don't know what it is with her and the stinky monorail.
Once we got back into the MK, the sun had set and everything was lit up. We were able to stop at the front this time for some PP shots.
Once through the front gates, Jason and I wanted to take a little pit stop into the Town Square Theater. I had heard a rumor that Mickey the Magician sometimes talked and we needed to see for ourselves. We didn't dare tell the girls, in case it was just "regular" Magician Mickey. They were excited just to see Mickey. The line was short, and we only waited about 15 minutes. The girls were loving all the posters on the walls featuring Mickey and his tricks and there was a video playing of the ball-under-cup trick that kept them enthralled.
After the short wait, we were let into the room. There were about 2 families in front of us in the room, and lo and behold, MICKEY TALKED!!!!!! Lucy especially got so wide eyed and a HUGE smile spread across her face. She got all giggly and nervous and whispered to us "Mommy, and Daddy, Mickey is talking!" Maura was just staring in disbelief. This is one of the many things I love about Disney. This moment was so magical for our girls. They looks on their faces were priceless, but of course I didn't take a picture, like a good mom.
Finally it was our turn to talk to the Boss himself, and what do my we-never-shut-up-ever-even-when-you-threaten-us-with-punishment loud mouths do? THEY CLAM UP! They were rendered speechless. Mickey asked us where we were from and you'd think someone asked them where to find plutonium. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Jason answered for them "Milwaukee" and Mickey said that was a great place. After the initial shock, they were able to regain their composure and answer some of his questions and talk to him. He asked if they were having fun, how long have we been here, and they told him they liked his magic tricks. After some small talk, we finally got some pictures with Mickey.
Lucy's face says it all
We all left the theater with huge smiles on our faces. I think if we would have told the kids the trip was over and we had to leave, they would have been okay with that, because holy cow, we just TALKED to Mickey. This was for sure a highlight of the trip.
We headed back to Tomorrowland, as Jason and Lucy wanted to check out the wait for Space Mountain. They were both itching to ride it. We got there and no line! Oh, but the ride was down. They decided to stick it out and wait for a while. Maura and I left them to wait and went to check out the dance party that was happening in the middle of Tomorrowland. The Incredibles were out dancing so we joined in for a bit. Maura loves to dance but was a bit intimidated by the characters. Probably because she didn't expect them to be there.
We had fun dancing for about 10 minutes, and then I told Maura I'd take her on the People Mover. She'd never been on it before, but when I told her we got to go through Space Mountain, she got concerned and I had to assure her we wouldn't be on the actual ride, we'd just see it. We walked right on and she really liked it!
After a few minutes on the ride, it stopped. And there we sat for about 15 minutes. I texted Jason to see if they had gotten on the ride yet, and they had and were going back for a second round. I told him we were stuck now so we'd meet them after.
It was actually really pleasant sitting there, watching Tomorrowland in the warm summer breeze. Maura was a little concerned about being stuck there forever, but she never got panicky. After a while we started moving, finished our ride, and went to find Jason and Lucy. Once we found them, Lucy wanted to ride SM AGAIN, so I took a turn with her this time. Unfortunately, the ride camera wasn't working when I went, so I only have the picture Lucy and Jason took.
After Lucy and I rode SM, we decided we needed a snack, since we hadn't really eaten dinner after our late lunch. We were right by the place in Tomorrowland where you can get Mickey pretzels, so I got one of those, and a coke slush/icee thing. Jason saw my pretzel and needed one too, so he went to purchase his, and they told him he could have it and to have a great night! What a great bit of pixie dust! We gave the CM who gave it to him one of our thank you cards, and she was so excited and happy to have it! She said "I love my job!" It made us feel good to make her feel so good.
I'll admit, I have no more pictures from this day. I'll try to wrap it up quickly. We had FP+ for BTMRR, but the fireworks were about to start, and the girls had never seen Tink fly. We stopped to watch while we were walking over to Frontierland. Well, Tink flew that night. The girls were in awe and I of course teared up like a fool. In general, I'm not a crier. I didn't cry at my wedding, when my kids were born, at my grandma's funeral last year, but leave it to Disney to make the water works start. It was mostly seeing my kids so excited and happy, but I definitely got teared up.
Wishes was fantastic as always, and after it was over, we headed over to use out FP+. It was Maura's first time on BTMRR, and much like Splash earlier in the day, she was nervous. Once over the first drop though, she was having a glorious time and was laughing and yelling. She said she couldn't wait to do it again.
It was getting late and we had an early morning, so we started heading back to the front of the park via Liberty Square. What was there trying to lure us in? Haunted Mansion of course! So, much to the girls chagrin, we made them get in line . They were scared, but it's my favorite ride, there was no line, and we were going on. They kept their eyes closed, but admitted it wasn't that bad. I coaxed Maura into watching most of it and she LOVED the hitch hiking ghost who took our heads and switched them! She couldn't get over how they did it.
After HM, we headed back to the front. We had to take the ferry back as the monorail was closed. We hopped on the boat, got to our car, was back at CBR in no time. We quickly showered and hit the sheets. We were off to AK in the morning!