Day 8-Heading home from the trip of a lifetime

Tuesday morning we slept in for as long as we could. Gratefully our flight didn't leave until about 5:00 that evening so we had time to pack and do a few last minute things before we had to be at the airport.

Packing all of our stuff turned out be quite difficult. We had been given SO MUCH STUFF!!! The funny thing is, the last day the gift from the First Things First Foundation (the Warner's foundation) was a very cool suitcase to fit all of the things they have given us while we were there. Even with that extra suitcase we were tight on space. Every bag was stuffed to the brim. Yes, we had been completely spoiled!

Once we finally got everything packed we had a couple things we wanted to do before leaving GKTW. We were never able to swim in the awesome swimming pool they had there because every time we attempted to go they had to close it due to lightning. I still wanted to go so we took about an hour and let the boys swim. They loved it and it made me wish we had been able to find time earlier to swim. It also made me sad that the pool party with Kurt, his family, and everyone at GKTW was cancelled due to lightning as well.

Here's a few pictures of the fun we had in the pool.






I really hope to go back to GKTW someday (once you have stayed there you are always a welcome guest. You can't stay in the villas ever again but you can visit and enjoy all of the activities they have for free). It would be so fun to go see Kyson's star and relive some of these amazing memories with our boys when they are a little older.

One other thing we absolutely had to do was take Caleb to drive the "motor boats." As I mentioned earlier, this was another activity that was always shut down by the lightning. Caleb was so disappointed every time it was shut down. There was no way we could leave GKTW without stopping to do it one last time.


We also made one last stop to get ice cream and to see Kyson's star in the Star Tower.

After loading everything up, I took two last pictures on our way to check out.



It was sad to drive away from that amazing place. It is full of memories we will never forget.

Gratefully we got to the airport early because getting through security and on our flight proved to be a little crazy. We had a lot of bags plus Brooklyn's car seat and stroller so trying to carry it all and navigate through security and getting on the plane was tricky.

It was kind of funny...as we were walking down the isle of the plane when boarding, a guy stopped Kyson when he saw his Make A Wish shirt. He talked to him for a minute and then pulled out a 20 dollar bill and gave it to him. Kyson was so excited he exclaimed...OH YEAH!!!

We were able to fly home with a few of the families we got to know. Brenda Warner and some of her kids were on our flight as well. Caleb begged and begged to go up to where Kade was sitting. Finally they turned the seat belt light off so I let him go. He said he got to sit on Kade's lap and play his iPod. He was so happy! We were all so exhausted on our flight home that we were grateful once the plane touched down and we could get off.

It was kind of surreal to look at the pictures on my camera after we got home. It went from the pictures of that amazing place to the picture of the limo driving away.

Yes, it was good to be home but sad at the same time. We will forever to be grateful to Make A Wish for providing that incredible opportunity for us and for the memories created. Our family had more fun than we could ever imagine and we had an experience that we will never be able to have again. It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.