Several months ago, I got stuck on a conversational kick of discussing love languages with friends and family. For those unfamiliar with the 5 Love Languages, here’s the official quiz to learn about yours. The five languages are: physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and gift giving. I learned during that time that my dad’s primary language, the way he most feels loved, is spending time with others and knowing they Want to be there, spending that time with him. Fast forward a bit: we spent the month of February with our respective families and indulged in lots of quality time! We saw a great deal of both family and friends. After the relative isolation of our month in Texas, it felt great to share so much time with the people we love! We still managed to squeeze in several adventures and celebrate Victoria’s 3rd Birthday too!
Route to Florida
We left Nacogdoches and split up our drive to Cocoa Beach into multiple days. Our first day of driving led us to Baton Rouge, LA. We ate dinner at a yummy sushi place on the border of LSU’s campus, called Umami. Both kids went to town on edamame, sushi rice, and miso soup, while Frank and I enjoyed our rolls. The following day, we made our way through the bottom bits of Mississippi and Alabama and finally stopped in Pensacola. This was a special twofold treat for me, specifically.
I knew the following morning, we would attend Sunday Mass at another beautiful bucket list church. Yet, that evening, we would finally reunite with my best friend from my first job out of college! I’d finally get to meet her son for the first time, she’d get to meet Dominic and Victoria, I was SO STOKED! She let us know ahead of time that she was already having other friends over for a game night but had no problem with us crashing the party. As an inherently social person, I couldn’t wait to make new friends!
The kids had a blast playing together, the food was fantastic, I never won any of the games…it was a perfect night ❤️. I miss her tremendously, and I cannot wait for our next pit stop in her area. Or, even better, a future joint-family trip, you never know!
Disney World Adventures with Gramps
Through the prompting and generosity of an extended family member, and the late celebration of my 30th birthday, my dad, Gramps, took the kids and me to multiple Disney parks!
Animal Kingdom
We started our week at Animal Kingdom, which initially kind of felt like a glorified zoo. Yet, even if it were just a zoo, the Kilimanjaro Safari ride never disappoints! We saw so many animals, like a dozen rhinos, zebras, elephants, a lion, flamingos, and many more. Next on our list was seeing the Finding Nemo stage show, which was supremely entertaining!
We had a million food and bathroom breaks sprinkled throughout our fun. Thus, by the time 5:30 rolled around, both kids had passed out in the stroller! We considered calling it a day, but I knew I wanted to see Pandora, the Avatar-themed section of the park. Just a quick stroll, and then we could leave.
Pandora blew me away! The plants, the design of the whole area-it felt completely surreal and unique! That zone had two major rides with majorly long wait times, and the park was closing soon. I resolved instead to someday soon returning with Frank so I’d be able to finally try them.
Magic Kingdom
We drove back the following day and parked at the Contemporary Resort, where we’d be staying that night. After a quick monorail ride to the park entrance, we set out into Magic Kingdom. First priority: Meeting Mickey again! My dad and Dominic hadn’t yet, so we did that first. Next, since I tend to favor Tomorrowland, we spent the majority of our day in that region of the park. We rode The People Mover for a relaxed tour of Tomorrowland and through Space Mountain, ate some lunch, and fought aliens in the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride.
I suggested we take a quick break to check into our hotel room and get some rest. We knew the latter half of the day would take a lot out of us. After taking the monorail back to the park, we found a spot to sit and wait for the Disney Enchantment Fireworks Show! This had been Victoria’s favorite part of Magic Kingdom on her first visit, so I was very much looking forward to watching her experience it again. I know she liked it, but I think she was so worn out from the past two days, she was content to just watch it from her stroller.
We left the park and wondered where to get food. After much deliberation and research, my dad very graciously agreed to the suggestion of dining at Chef’s Mickey’s! This restaurant offers family-style table service along with meeting five of the major Mickey Mouse characters! Both Victoria and Dominic perked up and Loved meeting, high-fiving, hugging, and dancing with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. I believe Victoria will always treasure those memories. Dominic will have to rely on the pictures 😅.
Contemporary Resort
The next morning, we took a break from the parks and spent the day at the Contemporary Resort. Specifically, we had a splash pad day! The resort has a new water play area for little ones, and the kids had a blast! They made friends, blasted each other and themselves in the face, and crawled and splashed to their hearts’ content.
We also ate at another restaurant within the resort, and eventually, we drove back to my parents’ house to get some rest before our last day at Disney.
Hollywood Studios
With Abuelita watching the kids for the day, my dad and I lived out our Star Wars dreams at Hollywood Studios! Essentially, we made a beeline for that area of the park and never looked back. Without the kids in tow, my dad and I were able to ride all of the major rides. Also, we ate at the Cantina, attempted some shopping, and had to wait out a major rainstorm. Once we had our fill, we left the park with a glorious sunset behind us and fond memories in our hearts.
Quality Time with Gramps and ‘Lita
Over the following two weeks, we enjoyed a great deal of quality time with Gramps, ‘Lita, and several of our friends in the north and central Florida areas. One of the principal highlights of those two weeks was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Frank, Victoria, and I joined ‘Lita on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to witness the SpaceX Falcon 9 “Amazonas Nexus” launch! We went deep onto the base, even further than the building where my mom works. Across the waters, we had a clear shot of the launch pad, and we saw the steam and smoke being vented before liftoff. The sounds of the launch boomed in our ears and the brightness of the flames illuminated the whole sky! Alas, all Victoria could focus on: “It’s TOO LOUD!” C’est la vie. Perhaps she’ll appreciate it someday.
Here‘s a link to a video of the launch.
Catching up with Friends
We still have quite a few friends throughout Florida, and I missed them terribly. Frank, the kids, and I joined some of our local friends for dinner one night in Satellite Beach. We love seeing them and having all of the little ones play together. Plus, we gave them our plants when we moved. My very sweet friend still gives us updates on how “our plumeria” is doing, which we love!
I also did a few day trips up to Jacksonville to catch up with several friends up there. One I met for brunch at a place I had never been, called Canopy Road Cafe. If you’re in the Jacksonville area around breakfast time, find one, and fast. Delicious food, fantastic company, it was a great start to the day! The kids and I followed that up with a trip to a playground to meet up with another friend and her kids. Victoria calls her daughter her best friend ❤️. We spent some lovely time chatting about life and the kids, and before we knew it, we were on the road again.
Celebrating Victoria’s Birthday Early
Our last Monday in town, ‘Lita took the day off work to celebrate Victoria’s birthday a little early. We had a lovely beach day, making sandcastles, collecting shells, and playing in the water! Dominic and Victoria loved spending that quality time with ‘Lita, and afterwards, we ate cake!
Onward to Ohio
After countless scrumptious meals, movie nights, beach days, and indulging in so much quality time with our loved ones, it was time to head up to Ohio. We sprinted up the country, the kids once again being absolute road warriors. I believe this time, we were even able to squeeze the drive into only two days! Frank’s immediate family couldn’t wait to see us again, and we had a lot of work to do.
Victoria’s 3rd Birthday
Our first week in Ohio, we spent primarily doing last minute planning, shopping, and reaching out to people to confirm RSVPs for Victoria’s birthday party. So, Frank has a LOT of family up in northern Ohio/southern Michigan, and I kind of semi-unintentionally invited most of them. Most of them also happened to say yes. This little birthday party suddenly was not so little, and we had 35+ people come! My only excuse is, I knew we were only in town for a short while. I wanted to see as many of his lovely extended family members as we could!
The party proved to be just the mini family reunion I had hoped for. We loved catching up with as many people as we could, sharing about Texas and Disney, and hearing about the highs and lows of their lives too. Victoria shined in her brand new birthday dress, and she loved playing with all of her “cousins” and friends. Food had been eaten, presents were opened, and cake was shared, and then everyone went home. We had a quiet evening afterward, full of quiet contentment for a wonderful day!
Rest of Our Time in Ohio
Very shortly after the party, we all took turns being some degree of sick. We had hoped to spend more quality time with various family members, but naturally, we had to cancel. We don’t quite know what we were sick with, and we didn’t hear of any major spread of sickness throughout Frank’s extended family. Nevertheless, our last week became just about enduring and surviving feeling so awful. It felt like it lasted a month, but only a week later, we were packing up the car again for our next adventure.
Where to Next?
Cookeville, Tennessee!
We found a good deal on AirBnb in Cookeville. Also, we loved its central location to most major cities within Tennessee. It’s roughly an hour and 20 minutes from Nashville, about two hours from Chattanooga, and an hour and a half from Knoxville. In addition, we have two state parks on the bucket list within an hour’s drive from our new place. We have six weeks on the calendar planned there, so we’ll get plenty of quality time within our immediate family. I cannot wait for the adventures to come!
