Happy Easter! We've got a couple more fun Easter themed taste tests before we move on to the next thing.
Some people in our family LOVE Peeps Marshmallows, while others don't. We've tried so many different kinds of Peeps, including dozens of Marshmallow Flavors, Peeps Cereal (two different kinds), Peeps Soda, Peeps Gummies, Peeps Lollipops, Peeps Candy Ropes, Peeps Cotton Candy, and more!
We were all happy to see a new flavor to try this season! It's Pop-Tarts Frosted Strawberry Peeps!
Well, we said we like to taste interesting new things. I think these Pickle Flavored Jelly Beans certainly qualifies.
Among all the other Easter Jelly Bean flavors, we have found something unique. Claussen has come out with a Pickle Jelly Bean! Do you like pickles? I don't but the rest of the family does, so this one promises to be an interesting one. I mean, I've tried a Pickle Milkshake from Epcot before, so why not do a jelly bean.
It's Easter so that means it's the time of the year for Jelly Beans! There's the regular boring Jelly Beans of course, but I always like to find unique and interesting Jelly Beans! We've tried Sweetarts Jelly Beans, Skittles Jelly Beans, Starburst Jelly Beans, Sour Patch Kids Jelly Beans, Krispy Kreme Donut Jelly Beans, Tabasco Jelly Beans, Late Night Taco Truck Jelly Beans, Holiday Favorites Jelly Beans, and many many more.
So finding these Froot Loops Jelly Beans of course fits right in to all the unique things we like to try!
Let's wrap up this summer Michigan trip with all the rest of the things we did that weren't part of the birthday celebrations.
We joined the Federle's at Buffalo Wild Wings for their Bottomless Apps deal.
A Book Tasting? Am I reading that right? We've done plenty of taste tests, and even did our first ever movie tasting before for Home Alone this past winter. But a book tasting? Theresa and I had talked about it with the kids, trying to think of what books might be good source material. Harry Potter, Ranger's Apprentice (stews, breads, and coffee), or Willy Wonka even. But we'd never gone all the way through to pulling it off.
And before we could do it, someone else did it for us! The Winter Park Library had its first ever Book Tasting event on February 26th, 2026!
We've already had two small celebrations for Tyler's 50th birthday, but here's the big reason we're here. Months ago, Aubrey wanted to do a big surprise party for her dad's 50th birthday, and this weekend is the big celebration!
Time to continue our summer of travel. We're leaving Chicago and headed to Michigan!
Continuing on with our 2025 Summer travels, time to move on to the next place.
Happy Valentines Day weekend! It's an especially fun one because we've got visitors! Gram and Pop Pop have flown down from Colorado to hang out with us all weekend! They got in early enough to see both Ian and Alli at gymnastics practice, and were impressed by their improvements since they last saw them.
Since 2014, I've challenged myself to make something creative and unique that I've never done before every holiday season.
It started when my Disney friend Ariel shared Disneyland's recipe for Gingerbread Cookies, and I thought to myself "I've never made homemade gingerbread. I should try it!" Since then, I've been making different treats every holiday season that I've never attempted before! Things like Homemade Candy Canes (2015), Fudge (2016), Peppermint Marshmallows (2017), Figgy Pudding (2018), Eggnog (2019), A Holiday Yule Log (2020), English Toffee (2021), and Pepperidge Farm Cookies (2022). In 2023, I branched out and instead of making something to eat, I made something to wear. With some help from my mother, I learned how to sew a Santa Hat (2023), so I made a few for me and even more for the rest of the family. Last year, I made those tasty Peppermint Butter Mints (2024) that melt in your mouth, which were pretty delicious.
This year, I was thinking to myself about tasty holiday beverages. I've already done homemade Eggnog, which is the classic Christmas drink. But there's another one that I think I could do, along with all the things that go into it. Hot Chocolate!
The Disneyland Half Marathon is over, but it's still super early in the day. The day would turn out to be a bit different than I had expected it to go, but we'll get to that shortly.
It's time! Time for the 2026 Disneyland Half Marathon!
The run today will be a little bittersweet though. All the runners were notified that after this race, all the runDisney races at Disneyland will be going on hiatus. Many people were asking at the expo if anyone in charge had an idea of when it might be coming back. 5 years? 10 years? Never? No one had a good answer. So today, we're going to make the best of it and have the best race and come away with some good memories.
It's January and that means it's time for runDisney races including the one and only Disneyland Half Marathon! I'm headed out to California to run it!
It's our last day here in Hawaii. So far it's been a very relaxing trip, which has been perfect. Let's jump into it!
Jumping back to our summer travels. I've got a lot to still write about! We had an eventful summer.
Today though isn't all that full. It's mostly a relaxing day still in Hawaii.
Wrapping up our Christmas vacation with all the family from Michigan and beyond.
Grammy and Grandpa took all their grandkids out for an afternoon of fun. It started with our usual Chick-fil-A where the kids got recognized and got to introduce them to the whole family.
It's Christmas! And instead of doing presents for every single person, a few years ago we decided each family would do fun Christmas Games with money as the prize! It's something we look forward to every year. There's always big laughs and lots of rivalry.
Merry Christmas! We're happy the whole Michigan (and extended) family is here to celebrate in Florida with us! We got a huge rental house so we can all be together for the holiday!
Happy Christmas! Every year we flip flop between families for Christmastime, and this year it's time to hang out with the Michigan family. Except it's really cold in Michigan. A better idea would be for everyone to come out to Florida! Since we can't squeeze 16 people into the RV, Theresa was looking months and months in advance for a rental house to hold us all. The family has gotten even bigger since the last time we did this, so we're heading to a new rental resort a little further from Disney, but closer to our RV. Welcome to Windsor Island Resort!
Took a bit of a break around the holidays, but I'm starting to get back into our write-ups.
Here's a look at a few of the things we did to get into the Holiday spirit.
We love how some of the smaller towns have decorated their areas for the season.
