2025 Summer Vacation - Traveling to Michigan for Tyler's birthday, plus lots of Chuck E Cheese - 2025/07/10

Time to continue our summer of travel. We're leaving Chicago and headed to Michigan! 

2025 Summer Vacation - Travel to Chicago and Six Flags Great America - 2025/07/09

Continuing on with our 2025 Summer travels, time to move on to the next place. 

Happy Valentines Day Weekend! - Gram and Pop Pop visit, Presidential Classic, Cat Cafe - 2026/02/14

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. 

2025 Holiday Challenge - Homemade Hot Chocolate, Marshmallows, and Whipped Cream

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! 

Plus homemade marshmallows and whipped cream! It's going to be delicious! 

2026 Disneyland Half Marathon - After the Race, exploring Disneyland and getting back home - 2026/02/02

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. 

2026 Disneyland Half Marathon - 2026/02/01

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. 

2026 Disneyland runDisney Race Expo and the days leading up to the race - 2026/01/30

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! 

Hawaii Day 6 - Last Day in Hawaii - 2025/07/07

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!

Hawaii Day 5 - 2025/07/06

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. 

Christmastime with the family in Florida - The conclusion - 2025/12/26

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. 

Christmas Games with the family - 2025/12/25

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.  

Celebrating Christmas Day in Florida with family - 2025/12/25

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! 

Christmastime with the family in Florida - 2025/12/23

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! 

Getting ready and leading up to Christmas! 2025/12/24

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.