June, Part Five: Ormond Beach Family Photos

And now it's time for our annual Ormond Beach photos! 

So very thankful for this place & these people! Until next time, Ormond!

June, Part Four: Magic Kingdom!

While we were in Ormond Beach, we drove over to Orlando bright & early one morning to spend a full day at Magic Kingdom! I think it might have been the best weather we have ever experienced at Disney World. It was a dream of a day. It was mostly overcast & not at all hot or humid, dare I say a bit cool for June in central Florida?! Crowds were pretty minimal, too..and that combined with the Genie Plus, we hardly waited for any rides at all with the exception of The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train & Tron. We were there before the rope dropped at 9am, and we left the park around 10:45pm just minutes before closing. It feels like we are in this magical sweet spot where our kids are amped to do all of the "big" rides, but they still fully enjoy the character sightings and all their favorite rides from when they were younger. I absolutely love making these memories together year after year.

{riding the monorail into Magic Kingdom}

{Tomorrowland Speedway}

{We started the day with back-to-back rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!}

{Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is always a fave!}

{People Mover}

{the "Ariel ride!"}

Ice cream is a must at Disney! We took a mid-afternoon ice cream break on Main Street & were able to catch the parade from the patio area. I was worried we wouldn't be able to see much from here, but it ended up being perfect!

{enjoying snacks while we waited for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride}

{The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh}

{The Barnstormer}

I was a little bummed that we finally got our turn in the Tron virtual queque super late in the evening, so we had to miss the nightly fireworks show over Cinderella's castle. But as it turned out, everyone loved the Tron experience so much that it was absolutely worth it! This was such a memorable moment for our fam because it was everyone's very first time on this ride--we all agreed that was was one of the best parts of the entire day!

After Tron, we had one last Lighting Lane pass with Genie Plus for Big Thunder Mountain, but Brady wasn't interested in walking clear across the park for a ride we'd already ridden twice that day. {Our fatigue was definitely starting to catch up to us at this point!} The girls were eager to experience Big Thunder Mountain at night, so Derek took them over to Frontierland while Brady and I did a little souvenir shopping on Main Street & enjoyed the castle all lit up while we waited for them.

{finally leaving the park after a 14-hour day!}

Brady made it all the way to the car this year without falling asleep on Derek's shoulders, so it had to be documented!

Whew! Disney days are the best days. We had so, so much together! Until next time, Disney!

Book Post #5 of 2024

There isn't much better than summer reading!

My Reads

If you're looking for a book that will make you question everything you think you know about traditional schools, look no further than Instead of Education by John Holt. This book was first published in 1976, so it was interesting to read about what things have changed in traditional education/compulsory schooling since then and how much hasn't changed at all. This was somewhat of a dry read but absolutely thought-provoking. 

Katherine Center's newest book is The Rom-Commers, and I of course loved it! I have enjoyed each & every one of her books that I have read. 

Yellowface was a hard book for me to read at times. The protagonist was just so unlikeable & unrelatable that it make the book difficult to enjoy. It was interesting, but it wasn't a home run for me.

I think I have read all of Sally Hepworth's books. Darling Girls is her newest release, and while I enjoyed it there were sooo many glaring typos & editing errors. The first book of hers that I read was The Secrets of Midwives, and I don't think any of her other books have ever lived up to that one in my opinion.

It has been a while since I read anything by Jojo Moyes, and then I randomly stumbled upon Someone Else's Shoes on our library's "New Releases" shelf & picked it up. I really enjoyed this one!


Read-Alouds with the Kids
We are big Kate DiCamillo fans around our house. When I happened to spot The Puppets of Spelhort in our library, I immediately grabbed it! I was especially intrigued since it is the first in a new series, and our beloved Mercy Watson tales just concluded. While we all enjoyed The Puppets of Spelhort, we didn't feel compelled to pick up the next book in the series.

We just finished Astrid the Unstoppable, and I can't say enough good things about it! We all thoroughly enjoyed this book! We realized about half-way through this read-aloud that the author of this book also wrote Adventures with Waffles, which we read maybe 3.5 years ago or so. Astrid lives in a cold, snowy, mountainous place where sledding & skiing happen regularly, so we especially enjoyed this setting as Alaskans. But even if we didn't have that connection, you can't help but love Astrid!


Audiobooks
I am not a huge audiobook or podcast person. I don't think I ever listened to a single audiobook until we took our national park trip to Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountain, and Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago & we all listened to the first Harry Potter book together in the car. Then fast-forward to our PCS to Alaska when we knew we'd be without service for hundreds of miles & we listened to quite a few audiobooks on the Alcan! Since we were roadtripping through Alaska over Memorial Day Weekend to Homer, I checked out the Read Aloud Revival audiobook recommendations and picked out a couple books from the list that were available on our Libby app. We all really enjoyed The Mysterious Howling, which is the first book in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. The kids immediately put the subsequent books in the series on hold at the library when we got home from our trip!

We also listened to Peter Pan, which felt like a safe, classic bet. Shelby & Brady were really enjoying it, but Hadley immediately recognized the narrator's voice {Jim Dale} and just couldn't stand listening to it...and honestly, I felt the same way. So we got about half-way through this one & had to stop.

June, Part Three: Ormond Beach

We are so very thankful all five of us were able to spend two glorious weeks with my parents in Ormond Beach this summer! My sister's family joined us for the first week of our trip, and Derek's sister's family & his mom were able to come for a weekend, too. What a gift it was to have everyone together in one of our very favorite places!

{When we come up to the condo for a mid-day break from the sun, the kids almost always play a quick game of Solitaire or two while we prep lunch.}

{I couldn't love this pic more! All five cousins having fun and in birth order to boot!}

{these giant grasshoppers were everywhere & provided endless entertainment for Brady this summer}

{impromptu beach yoga with Elly & Leland!}

{the one & only picture we have ever taken with all four of our kiddos' cousins all together!}

{playing putt-putt with the Griffins}

{Brady & Logan had so much together in the ocean this summer!}

Countless walks along the beach, playing Euchre & Solitaire, going to the movie theater, dinners at Stavro's/Hull's/Hide Tides, swimming, boogie boarding, putt-putt, reading with my toes in the sand, throwing the Frisbee, making drip-drop castles, early morning chocolate milk with Grammy & Grampy...these seemingly ordinary days at the beach are filled with the most magical moments that we are endlessly grateful for year after year.