March 2023 Family Update

Skylar hasn’t been too keen on traveling recently but she did express an interest in wanting to “go build a lightsaber at Disney World.” I contacted my Disney Planner the next day and booked a trip for Spring Break. I prefer to travel to new places but, at this point, mama just wants to go SOMEwhere and I’d love for her to be with me so WDW it is. I am not trying to take these high school years for granted. I know they will be gone in a blink. This Disney trip was TRULY magical and I’m so glad we went even if I know ZERO about Star Wars. My friend Paula went with us and we had a BLAST!

Day 1: BNA to MCO with free flights ($1114 round trip). We dropped our bags at Pop Century, headed straight for Disney Springs, and had an incredible meal at Raglan Road. That evening we decided to test out the Skyliner and ended up having an incredible view of the EPCOT fireworks.

Day 2: EPCOT. We met Mary Poppins right away and then rode Ratitoulle. Even though Skylar makes fun of me, Living With the Land is one of my most favorite rides – it’s fascinating! We had an opportunity to ride Cosmic Rewind from Guardians of the Galaxy and it is literally the best roller coaster I’ve ever been on. We had dinner at Teppan Edo and Skylar impressed the staff with her Japanese that she’s been studying this year.

Day 3: Magic Kingdom. We snacked our way around and rode all of our favorites – Haunted Mansion, Mine Train, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear. The most magical part was seeing the full moon rise over the castle. It was gorgeous!

Day 4: Rest Day. I have been on trips where we powered through but building in a rest day is now a must. We hung by the pool and then went to dinner Sanaa at Animal Kingdom. We made a reservation for 5:30 but got there early and asked for a table by the window. We had an amazing view of a lot of activity and saw a ton of animals up close! The food was also phenomenal.

Day 5: Hollywood Studios. Basically, this was Star Wars Day. We started at the park before it opened and closed it down. We rode Rise of the Resistance (twice!) and Smuggler’s Run. Skylar was able to build her lightsaber at Savi’s Workshop which was a really cool experience and complete several bounty challenges in the park. We had Genie+ for this day which helped us book a lot of our rides including my favorite, Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror (NOT Skylar’s favorite). We finished up with dinner at Mama Melrose which had a ton of GF options for me.

Day 6: We didn’t want to leave the Disney magic but, alas, it was time to come home. Our flight ended up delayed almost 5 hours (all flights were) but we did make it home. Mike picked up the dogs for us so that Skylar was able to get to see her puppies. My animal lover always misses them big time when we travel.

Once we were home Skylar had her test for her driver’s license and passed. It’s been so nice not having to drive her to practices and having her chauffeur me around to games – even if it still feels a little stressful riding with her. Brentwood finally had their last hockey game of the season but we’ve been to quite a few lacrosse games all over Middle TN. She’s doing pretty well at goalie and still starting every game.

We also snuck in a little Disney magic at the end of the month when we went to the Disney Immersive exhibit at Lighthouse Art Space. The company Mike works for did the entire setup so we were able to get tickets. It was really neat to see and we loved the different kinds of bubble surprises!

Next month we’ll be wrapping up lacrosse season and the school year.