Mia's Birthday Trip - Day 1

Mia is turning 13 very soon, and that means something awesome...she and I get to go on a Mom-Daughter trip!  We talked about all sorts of options, and finally decided that several days having fun at Disney and Universal would be perfect.  We were exactly right.  We had a blast!

We actually left on Saturday afternoon and drove all the way down to Lake City.  This just gave us a jump on the drive so we wouldn't be exhausted to start the trip.  On Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at the Fairfield Inn and drove the remaining couple of hours to Orlando.  We were excited to stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort which was a new one for us.   We were in the Trinidad area.  We both really liked this hotel.  It felt a little quieter than a lot of the Disney resorts, it has the new Skyliner transportation, and the pirate room theme we picked was awesome!

Right after we dropped our things off, we pretty much turned around and took the bus over to Disney Springs.  Magic Bands were on (though Mia later bought a Grogu one and switched).  We were ready to get going!

We headed straight to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

We always enjoy the food here; Mia had a cheeseburger while I enjoyed a chicken salad.  It's so fun when the restaurant starts to come alive from the storms too.  Such a fun way to start our adventure.

After lunch we decided to walk all around Disney Springs.  Look at these amazing Lego designs!

I made Mia stop at the chocolate shop.  I can't NOT go.  They were so good.

Always love a visit to the big M&M store!

We visited the Marvel store, the Avengers store, the Christmas shop, the candy store, the biggest Disney merchandise store ever, tons of window shopping, and eventually we made our way back to the Lego store.  This place is so neat.

Mia had saved up over $1,200 of her money for this trip.  She saved birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, picked up bigger chores at the house (like pressure washing), and worked every weekend as the janitor at my office to earn this money.  She did a bunch of research before our trip to know what she wanted to buy; she had a few specific items in mind, but wanted to have extra for all the fun extras she knew would be available.  She was ready to start spending at Disney Springs!  

We decided to have dinner at T-Rex.  We were seated right next to this guy, and Mia had a lot of fun taunting him the entire meal.  He seemed to give it right back which was pretty funny.

Soon, we knew it was time to head on back to the hotel.  We wanted to settle in and sleep well so we would be ready to hit Disney Park #1 early the next morning.

What a great start to our trip!

Fall Fun

 We love Fall around our house.  School and its activities are back, football is starting up, baseball is going to the playoffs, the weather is turning beautifully, and it's birthday season in our house!  First up is Ryan; we are always happy to celebrate this guy.  He's the best!

I'm still loving getting a Goldbelly delivery (or two) each month.  In August, we received a Bo Ssam and fried rice kit from Momofuko in New York.  This Korean bbq took a really long time to cook, but it was so incredibly delicious.  It was so similar to Wayne's ham that we love, but the flavors were totally different as they had a definite Asian flare to them.  The fried rice came together in minutes and was so tasty.  It kind of makes me want to get a rice cooker and do this more often.

Ryan and I bought tickets to go see Hamilton at the Fox Theater for mid-April, 2020.  We had heard about this show and wanted to see if it was worth all the hype.  Of course the pandemic happened, and the show was postponed.  In the meantime, Hamilton was released on Disney Plus.  The girls and I fell in love with it.  It's an amazing show!  Here we are now in September, 2021, and the show has finally been rescheduled to run in Atlanta.  Mia and I still sing these songs often, so Ryan graciously let her have his ticket instead.  We had so much fun together.  It's always wonderful to see live theater, and they were fantastic.  It took everything in us not to sing along!

The girls started volleyball with Stonehaven again in August.  Both have improved so much over the last few years; it's so much fun to watch!  Mia has proven herself to be quite the leader of the middle school team as their captain which is cool to see. 

One of the more fun games was when Stonehaven played Johnson Ferry Christian Academy, and she got to play across from our longtime friend, Macey Henderson.  A little rivalry couldn't get between these friends!

Lily started playing on the JV high school team this season.  She has become a great setter for them, and is learning the intricacies of her position.  It's so fun to watch her!

A couple of Varsity high school girls were required to quarantine last week; thankfully, they are all fine.  This gave Lily the opportunity though to get called up to play Varsity.  She came in as libero which is a totally new position for her.  She willingly jumped right in and gave her best efforts which we were so proud of.  As the other Varsity players came back, she asked to stay on this team.  Coach Anne agreed, so she's playing double duty these days.  She's working hard!

She loved playing with some of her best friends!

What a great team!

Front row: Addison, Lily, Hannah

Back row: Kate, Mary Preston, Raegan, Lauren, Emma

Welcome back Fall; we're so glad you're here!

50th Anniversary Family Pictures

 Back on May 29th, Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  Wayne brought our whole family together to celebrate at the lake for the weekend, and it was wonderful.  Our family arranged for a big family photo shoot with the fabulous Allison Mauer.  She did such a great job, and we are all so glad to have these beautiful pictures at Whittier Mill together.  Mom and Dad have made a great legacy with our family, and we are very thankful for them!