December 2024

 It was hard to follow November, but December had lots of great moments and fun memories before we say 'hello' to 2025. 

We're never sure if this silly elf is coming back, but she showed up again this year and brought some silly tricks to brighten Rose's morning. 

This year we tried a new countdown calendar- 25 national parks puzzles. We all agreed this was one of our favorites. 

December also made Rose very hungry and nothing fixes her hunger more that a shopping trip where she can just pick out whatever she wants :)

Justin also finished a paint redo for Rose's bathroom. While her first choice of colors was fun, the blue and cream match her bedroom.

We had some visitors and got to visit the Crayola factory, see some Christmas lights, and have a sleepover!

While these two only got to know each other because their dads are friends, they've quickly made their own friendship and it's been great to see it grow. 

Although the weather was chilly, I can always eat ice cream! So we got some ice cream and drove around to see Christmas lights in celebration of the winter solstice. Now bring on longer days and warmer weather!

We got an early Christmas present with a new couch and I can safely say, everyone loves it!

On a non Christmas note: we also love Pumpkin dressed as a crabby crab :) It kind of fits her personality ;)

Rose has been loving her Food Sciences class and for Christmas they did a cookie exchange. Rose also learned a lesson in baking, sometimes things don't work out, so these cookies were our second attempt and they came out much better!

Rose had a great time at her cookie exchange and we all had a great time eating all the cookies. 

We built a gingerbread house and all helped decorate it

I think it turned out to be one of our favorites

Christmas Eve Rose completed her countdown puzzles of national parks, maybe we'll get to visit some new ones in 2025!

And we did a last minute shopping run for a Lego train set

We also made some yummy cookies to eat until Santa came...

Christmas Day was relaxing, since Rose was not feeling well. We enjoyed just being home and spending the day together. 

As we were getting ready for New Year's we reviewed our 2024 Bucket List and realized we hadn't made it to the ocean. So we packed up for a day trip to our favorite beach!!

We also got a really delicious lunch with beer for the adults

and a yummy dessert for everyone!

We ended the year hanging out with family. Surprisingly most of us made it to midnight :)

Some favorite moments from 2024:

Disney

Las Vegas, Zion, Hoover Dam, Death Valley

Finishing the Fence

Camping Trips

Painting several rooms

New couch

We mostly finished our 2024 Bucket List and have started another list of goals for 2025. Here's to lots more memories waiting to be made :)

November 2024

We went to Disney!!!

This trip has been planned since last fall and LONG awaited for Rose...but here we go!

We were able to book a direct flight from Reading to Orlando with Boscov's and it was so convenient. 

 We started off on Sunday after checking into our hotel with a trip to Magic Kingdom

Our first ride ended up being Tomorrowland Speedway! Rose drove mom around and it was a nice ride to ease in...

Because then things took a faster turn!! We rode all the coasters, my favorite was Space Mountain.

We also met Ariel

And tried to pull the sword out of the stone. Also do you see what we are wearing? Check out our matching shirts for each day of our trip!! Justin made them himself and it added a little more magic to our trip :)

We found some coffee and a huge pink donut

And made our own custom popcorn to take with us on our way out of the park

While I might have seen this trip as just for Rose, I can honestly say after our first taste of Disney we were all enchanted!!

We woke up Monday to animals outside our room. Rose picked this resort and while I had other ideas, we went with her pick because I really wanted this to check all her trip wishes. I am so glad we did!! We had animals, including the giraffes, outside our room at some time every day. 

Monday was our first full day at Disney and we went back to Magic Kingdom and had tickets for the Christmas Party that evening. 

We rode lots of rides...

I think our favorite as a family was the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It was such a beautiful ride and there was so much detail to enjoy. 

There were some rides we could drag Rose on just to try...It's A Small World 

A surprise for all of us was Monsters Laugh Floor. It was really great, so we did it again during the Christmas Party! Another surprise was Jingle (Jungle) Cruise, which Rose loved so we rode twice :)

TRON was Rose's favorite coaster ride and it was pretty cool!

Rose also was a good sport and indulged her mother in meeting several princesses

We had an amazing lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern with this ooey gooey dessert!

We ended the day with the Christmas Party. 

We booked a dessert party and it was Rose approved

Mom and dad liked it too!

The night ended fireworks were the best we have ever seen!!

And we walked down Main St with snow falling :)

Tuesday we decided to just have a late morning and got to see some animals before heading out for a little more Magic Kingdom and our favorite rides

Big Thunder Mountain was Justin's favorite coaster and a close second for Rose.

We also all loved Haunted Mansion

Rose got her Mickey waffle

And we made it on Tiana again...this ride was down a couple times and once we had to leave while in line, but thankfully it was up again later in the afternoon before we wanted to head out. 

We also called it an early day so we could spend some time at our hotel. 

Rose and I found the flamingo's by the pool

And Rose got to make an animal enrichment feeder

And we saw tons of animals 

We enjoyed a buffet of African favorites

And ended the day with the animals sleeping right outside our room. This was such an amazing experience. 

Wednesday we ventured out to a new park: Hollywood Studios. Justin and I agree that this was a great park and we could definitely have spent more time. We also had tickets to the Christmas party.

We started off the day with Rock n Coaster and Tower of Terror. Justin and I really loved the coaster and Rose really loved Tower...more on that later

After some rides we got churros

And headed off for more rides in Toy Story Land

Justin lived his childhood dreams in Star Wars Land

all the rides were amazing and Rose loved them just as much as Justin

And they built a droid

 So Rose had an obsession with Tower of Terror...after 4 times Justin dropped out (haha) and Rose and I kept going for a total of 8 times!!!!!!!! We were able to ride it several times without any wait and our last time we got the whole car to ourselves :)

Rose probably would have ridden more, but we wanted to see the Christmas Show.

Thursday we spent the day at Epcot. We hit up some of the classic rides like Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Soarin',  Living with the Land, and Under the Sea with Nemo

We all agreed that Guardians of the Galaxy was our all time favorite ride of all the parks. 

We also got to eat food from France which was my favorite, I love croissants and creme Brule.  We also got to ride the new Remy's Ratatouille Adventure before visiting more countries. 

And my family indulged me with some more character meets!

Our final day was spent at Animal Kingdom. I think it was the perfect park to slow down and enjoy our last day. We started off with the safari and it was amazing! We got to see so many animals and really enjoyed the elephants. 

We also found Mickey cinnamon rolls which were delicious, so we ate them twice!

And we found some fun foods over by the Avatar rides. We all really enjoyed Flight of Passage. 

And we ate some Mickey pretzels

We also found Russel and Dug!! This was definitely a fun meet and we even did some of the Wilderness Explorer activities throughout the park. 

Rose and I rode Everest three times, it was a surprise of a coaster that we both ended up loving. 

And we watched a super fun bird show