All tagged 2021
Back in October, we made a last minute decision to head to Disney World for Melody’s fall break. We had Hilton points, so that made the trip more appealing. We had enough to stay for free at DoubleTree at Disney Springs. It was the best deal out of all the Disney Springs Hilton hotels, and we did like the idea of having the separate bedroom and mini-kitchen.
I told myself over the last few years we would never get one of those elves. It was too much work and I was not a fan. But I gave in very last minute this year. Literally I found an elf at Target that was a girl with blue eyes on December 1st. I actually ended up having a lot of fun with our elf. There were a few days she was forgotten by me, but thankfully Brad would remember. She was touched, but we recovered. Check out her shenanigans below.
As I mentioned earlier this week, December was a month of survival. It was also a really fun and memorable month too. We saw a lot of family, spent time with a lot of friends, experienced Melody’s first ER trip, and spent a lot of time with each other.
We had what was probably our most laid back New Year’s Eve that we have had in quite some time. Alabama was playing football, and we just made the most of spending the day at home relaxing. We did add a few bits of fun in the mix too!
I did not mention this when writing about our time at Epcot, but we ended the night with a semi-upset child because she didn’t spend her gift card money from her Nannie. See Nannie gave all the girls a gift card since it is so rare they all go to Disney World (at the same time that is). Melody had been so torn on what to get, and she never found anything she loved. We didn’t really have time to go to the Creations Shop in Epcot at the end of our night. And Disney Springs sounded miserable that late too. So we told Melody we would go to Disney Springs when the opened. So that we did.
We spent our last day at Disney at Epcot. We opted to dedicate the whole day to Epcot. We had briefly considered returning to another park, but realistically staying at Epcot all day allowed us to see both Emily’s group and Rebekah’s group.
We did the walking nights of Galaxy of Lights back in November. We went on a Sunday, and I actually found it less crowded than last year’s visit. They did change up the trails some this year, but it was still really pretty, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. I didn’t take as many pictures as I have in the past, but here are some.
Tuesdays always seem to be a great day to visit Magic Kingdom, so we opted to do that. We ended the night at Epcot for the food! Epcot is our go to for great food, and we always have to fit in our must-dos. We snagged a decent timed reservation for Chefs de France on this evening, so we opted to do that.
We decided our first day would be spent at Hollywood Studios followed by the evening at Animal Kingdom. We opted for Hollywood first for a few reasons. One, we knew we wanted to also do Magic Kingdom and Epcot for sure. And those were fitting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Magic is never a good idea on Monday, and with the Food and Wine Festival going on, Epcot wasn't ideal for Monday either. We love doing Animal Kingdom at night, so that left Hollywood during the day. Melody LOVES Dinoland at Animal Kingdom, and we find it best in the evenings.
If my lack of blogging in November didn’t make this obvious, November was a busy month. Dance, gymnastics, school, Christmas decorating, baking, Thanksgiving, and more!
Months ago, we found out both our in laws (brother/sister/nieces) and best friends were both going to Disney World during Fall Break. While it sounded fun to plan and tag along, several things kept us from booking a trip: money, 50th anniversary, Brad’s travel, crowds, etc. We also didn’t want to invade on their vacations. Well about two weeks before fall break, we still were not sure if Brad would be home or not. So I started looking at several options for Melody and me, including Disney. A few days before fall break, Brad found out he would be home, and we started floating around the idea. We kept going back to not going due to money and just the exhaustion of driving and a short trip. Melody was clueless about our family and friends going. But that changed the Friday before fall break. Her best friend, Lydia, found out she was going, and Melody started asking to go to Disney too. After a lot of talking, negotiating, and even some arguing, we decided Saturday morning we would head to Disney on Sunday. THE NEXT DAY! Thankfully I am a seasoned Disney goer, so this wasn’t impossible.
Thanksgiving definitely did not go as planned. This year was my family’s year for Thanksgiving. It would be the first time seeing some of my family in quite a few years (most in two due to COVID). But the day before, Brad came down with strep. Melody and I still were able to visit my parents’ side of the family on Thanksgiving day however.
About two weeks ago, we visited Santa. Melody was nervous but also so excited. Kindergarten has really brought out the bravery in Melody. My aunt got some great pictures of Melody with Santa. And she even spoke with him for about ten minutes afterwards all about what she wanted and his favorite cookies and candy.
So I have definitely been MIA the last few weeks (and basically the last two months). Things have been busy around here it seems like. And I just have not had the time to really sit down and concentrate as much as I would like to on my blog. I hope to make up for that over the next month or so. I have a lot of content planned including all about the holidays and more! But let’s wrap up October. We had a busy month with Brad being back home (for the most part). Check it out below!
So unfortunately we have missed the Pumpkin Patch the last two years. In 2019, every chance we could go it rained. In 2020, COVID happened. So this year I was determined we were going to go back. Once again, our opportunities to go were limited. We finally narrowed down a date, and it was supposed to rain. But we decided to go anyhow. The forecast projected it to miss us until later that evening. Unfortunately Brad was told to travel for work last minutes, so he was unable to go. But we met up with the Owen clan.
September was a full month full of a lot of carlines, football, and family fun!
August has been a HUGE month for our household. Melody started school, Brad traveled for work, and he celebrated a birthday.
Something new to Disney World since COVID is their park pass system. It was originally put in place to truly manage park capacity in the early days of reopening after COVID. You could not park hop, so this kept Disney World in complete control of where everyone would be. Then park hopping started. They still require that you book a park pass for your first park, then after 2 pm, you can park hop to any park with availability. It looks like the park pass system is here to stay until at least January 2023. So I wanted to do a post about booking said passes. Check it out below.
Back in June, we took a quick trip to the beach with Brad’s family. We stayed at Gulf Place on 30A in Miramar Beach, Florida. We have never stayed in this specific area, but Brad’s family was familiar with it and had stayed there. We didn’t book the trip until closer due to the uncertainty of Brad’s work travel, so we only were able to get a room for 3 nights. But we made the most of our time there and had a lot of fun!
During our recent Disney World trip in May 2021, we stayed at Pop Century. During this time, there were still a lot of COVID protocols going on. [I am not sure when you are reading this as to the accuracy of how things are in the present, so keep that in mind.] With these changes, I wanted to refresh our experience at the food court here at Pop.
