Author: laurie

We were off late in the day on the road. We settled in quickly and passed the time reading on our kindles while snuggled under our new sherpa blankets. We stopped in Perry, FL for the night and then hit the road for a long day of driving.

The weather was already quite cold. We enjoyed a leg stretch at a lovely welcome center in the Atchafalaya in Louisiana. This raccoon apparently was animated but it wasn’t working. It looked a little creepy waiving at us.

We made it to San Antonio and settled in quickly at our KOA. We ran out to get a new battery for the motorhome as the chassis battery apparently didn’t like us anymore. We arrived back in time to toss up our holiday decorations and get over to the club house for the campground holiday potluck. Everyone was so wonderful and the campground was great. We found out there was a holiday decorating contest so we made sure to put all the decorations out, in the pouring icy rain! We had a fun time at the potluck. One of the teen staff members dressed as “Twinkle Sparkles” the elf and passed out candy canes. We found out we won the decorating contest. Honestly I think we were the only ones that entered! We won a cool KOA mug and a jar of cookie mix!

Some family photos while we listened to a local band play. Ollie and Jolly found us safely on the road and are enjoying some time under the tiny tree in the motorhome. We didn’t do much else as this was just a resting spot on the road. We went to the movies and saw the new Star Wars movie and then hung out in the motorhome and relaxed as the weather was cold, grey and miserable.

We have been busy studying for the 4-H Insectathon and wrapping up school until January after we return from our trip. I put together a demonstration and a poster on lifecycles of butterflies and different butterflies and host plants in Florida.

We played around with the new camera settings on Mom’s new phone. I really like the black and white filers.

Dad and I drove over to Disney and set up camp for the week Mom and B stayed back until late in the evening due to a 4-H Event. Dad and I took a long walk and enjoyed some treats over at the Wilderness Lodge.

Dad had to run home for work for a few days so we enjoyed the campfire without him. It was a small group oddly. We spend Sunday visiting all the different resorts and seeing the holiday decorations. We found a fee free pool table and Mom taught us the basics of how to play.

We loved finding the hidden Mickey’s in all of the amazing gingerbread displays.

Sometimes we get along and even smile.

We had a posse watching us play pool. We taught these kids how to play too. Heading into the Magic Kingdom for the evening. We have Seven Dwarf Mine Train fast passes for 7pm! Ugh! We never stay late int he parks. Everything was insanely crowded so we wrapped up and headed back to the campground for hot cocoa and fireworks from the beach. Dad got back in time for fireworks and was able to join us.

B dient want to swim so Mom took just me to the pool for a while. I did the dance a long but from the pool.
That night we went to Mickey’s Backyard BBQ. We had great seats and enjoyed our meal. I tried some new foods too. Mom got B to go dance with me for the kids only dance. I just loved the trick roper! He was amazing! The next morning I was not having it. I was tired and grumpy. B was oddly in a good pre-teen mood and tried to cheer me up.

We finally got to go on the Frozen ride. While we were waiting for our fastness window some vikings stile my sweater kitty. They tried to eat her. They tried to steal her! The viking offered to cut the cat up and share it with other people?I will have her back now please. Nope! the viking shoved her into his hip-sack with a mallet! Okay, enough! I was almost to tears and the viking gave up and offered to only eat the eyeballs of the cat. UGH!

Some time at Hollywood Studios for the Star Wars ride was enjoyed by all.

We left a day early and got unpacked and repacked for archery in Gainesville. We left the house at 5am.

I shot super well in the tournament.

Sadly I was the only kid in my bow class but my score was higher than all of the other kids in my bow class in the other age groups and 3rd for the bow type in general if compared to non sighted bows. I ended up with 1st place. Sunday we visited the plant sale at the Florida Botanical Gardens. I insisted we get a cactus garden. I just love cacti! Grandma Susie visited for a pre-Christmas since we won’t be here for the holidays. We finished up our insect collections and got everything labels and organized. We even had time for some caroling at Largo Park with our 4-H group. This is always such a fun event.

Mom drove B and I up to Gainesville for a trip to the Natural History Museum and to a cool photography class at the UF Entomology Jumping Spider Lab (Taylor Lab).  We spent the morning at the museum. They had a neat specialty exhibit on museum artifacts. Some were really cool.

There were also different scientists from the university rotating through each week and they had different stations set up. We learned about genetics and how to extract DNA from strawberries.

The new kids area is open and I found an incorrect item in the BEETLE collection! 🙂 haha

We walked the NATL (Natural Area Teaching Lab) when we ate lunch and then headed over to the entomology department.

Sam helped us get situated and showed us around the spider lab.

We learned skills and techniques from the main photography of the Natural History Museum. I really enjoyed setting up the habitats for backdrops. 

Here are some of my photos.

Oh yeah, at the end of the class they let us take home some of the non-jumping spider specimens.

We had to lead a knot typing class for 4-H. We spent hours practicing at home until we could tie all the knots without the directions!

 

We had a fun fishing day. The best part was that we actually caught fish finally! 

I have been working more on my photography class. This week was animals. I had to take an animal photo and then find another artistic media to recreate photo. I picked clay!

We worked more on our insect collections. The 4-H collections are due in January but we have to get everything done before we go on vacation for Christmas and New Years. 

We helped out at Farm City Day. We talked about fishing, made fish prints and taught kids about fish parts. 

We enjoyed a fun night at the banked track roller derby! It was loud but we laughed and cheered! 

We spent a day in Venice at Caspercian Beach collecting sharks teeth with our friend Zoe, her family, Grandma Susie and Cousin Marilyn.

I demonstrated that I can eat almost the entire Admirals feast at Red Lobster!

We helped Dad to build a new grill.

More photos for class.

More of my Steve Spangler kits.

This is Mom’s favorite photo I have taken. I call is Watching the Yard.

B was tired of being my model so I followed Mom around and made her pose and do silly things for me to photograph.

We took a trip to Orlando for the night to go see la Nouba before it closes in January. We enjoyed the holiday decorations of Disney Springs before the show.

We all LOVED the show! I am so sad it is leaving but eager to find out what new show will replace it!

We are back to shooting archery with 4-H. We had a fun Thanksgiving shoot full of turkeys!

Next photo assignment was more animals but this time selfies!

This is my maple tree I planted two years ago.

This is my bald cypress I planted this year.

We bought a little tree for the motorhome and had to tie on all the decorations so they dont fall off. We will have to move the tree when we drive.

Dad and B went for a walk at the park and I had a fun time not he monkey bars and swings. I didn’t feel like a long walk but I sure burned a lot of calories swinging!

B got a new longboard which means I can ride my bike when he practices riding his board. I have missed riding my bike!

I loved helping decorate our campsite for Halloween. We managed to get a site right near the Trading Post passthrough. We had a fun time scootering all over the campgrounds.

I carved my pumpkin with no help this year. I even took the guts out!

It took me nearly 3 hours to finish my pumpkin!

I was so happy and proud of all my hard work.

I loved the golf cart parade and all of the really creative decorations. I think my favorites were the Moana and the Wall-E carts.

Dad entered a cake eating contest. He didn’t win but it was super fun to watch him shove his face into the cake! Our friend Nick was put int he adult category and didn’t fair much better. It was  LOT of sticky cake!

We enjoyed time int he parks doing our favorite rides. Thankfully we had fast passes for most of them because the lines were a wee big long.

B made us all dizzy not he tea cups. Boy is he getting strong! 

I felt better after a giant cinnamon roll from Gastons!

Tuckered out! We stayed at the parks late to see the night shows at Animal Kingdom and the Avatar rides.

I finally bought the Coke bottle bank from EPCOT! I look forward to filling it with lots of change!

I loved this Mickey pillow too!

I call this BB-Grape! It looked like BB-8 from Star Wars!