5 Year Update & One Magical Summer

Ever since Brayden turned 5 back in April, I've been in a bit of a denial about Kindergarten. How did it sneak up on us so fast? Knowing I truly wanted to make the most of the time we had this summer, I decided to turn the summer before he started Kindergarten into his most magical summer yet! 

Throughout the summer weekends, we swam, ate snow cones, went on road trips, visited the park, loved on family, swam some more, and by the time it was all said and done, I knew that our mission had been accomplished. 

This will likely be my last official "Brayden update" as he is now 5 years old and although he is still growing and changing, it's not as rapid as it was in previous updates. But, here we go...

Clothing: 5T tops - Shorts are mostly 4T or 5T. 

Pants have to be at least 5T because he's such a tall kid! 

He's in a size 11 shoe.

Weight: 42 pounds (estimated)
Height: 44 inches (estimated)

Watching Brayden grow into his own little personality has been so much fun. He's still silly and loves to make people laugh. He's definitely not the shy kid I was!

He still takes naps everyday and I'm fine with that because they do in kindergarten at his school, too! As far as eating goes - well, his variety hasn't changed much although some choices leave me scratching my head. Apart from his usual chicken nuggets, fries, sweet potato fries, spaghetti, pizza, tacos, yogurt, etc, he now will eat lettuce. Yes, like salad lettuce from a bag. He also loves a green smoothie concoction my mom makes. Kids are so funny!

Earlier in the spring, we took him to our local beach. It was such a nice afternoon and the weather was perfect! We had a great time until Jason hurt his foot (he's fine) but Brayden will tell you all about our day at the beach and how his dad injured his foot if you ask! 

He also played tee-ball this year which was SO interesting and a lot of fun to watch! For a first year kid, he learned a lot and I'm excited to see how next year looks for him! 

In June, we took a road trip to Missouri to visit family at the Lake of the Ozarks. We spent 80% of our time out on the water and Brayden LOVED it!

The whole week was very relaxing and something we all needed. It truly was a great getaway!

While in Missouri, we took him to his very first water park. He loved riding all the rides and sliding down all the slides, but he discovered the green slide pictured here and must have gotten on it about 100 times! He still talks about that water park today!

As the summer drew to a close, we packed our bags and headed to Disney World! I wanted to end Brayden's magical summer with a truly magical experience - at the most magical place on earth!

While there, we visited Blizzard Beach water park which was a first for all of us! It was fun but we were rained out of a good bit of our day (more on that later).

We also rode the Skyliner which y'all know is his absolute favorite!

We also said hello to several characters throughout the week, rode plenty of rides, ate a ton of yummy food, and just enjoyed being together!

I hated to see the summer end, but we returned home from vacation literally the day before Brayden started school. Nothing like making each and every single day count, right? :) 

...and now we have a big kindergartner! 

On his first morning as I was trying to get him dressed, he told me that putting on his uniform was so scary. I reminded him that he already has braveness inside of him because his name Brayden literally means brave! I am proud of how much of a rockstar he has been since that moment! 

At drop off, a sweet first grader was helping kids find their classroom. He asked where Brayden needed to be, we told him, so he took Brayden's hand and walked him to his classroom. Brayden never looked back. It was absolutely precious! 

He rocked his first day and has done amazing since! I am excited to see what this year has to hold! 

Here's to an incredible year 5! Brayden says it's been a pretty awesome one thus far! 

For those of you who have followed these updates for a while now, thank you!! I'll still be back with snippets of fun things in our lives and our crazy adventures so stay tuned! Thanks again for following along! It's been so much fun to share this journey with you!

Disney 2021: Our Final Day!

Our final morning at Walt Disney World came before we knew it! Our friends had a later flight, so we planned to spend our morning at the Magic Kingdom with them!

Thankfully, we had Jason's truck available, so we packed the truck with our luggage before heading over to the boats to take us to the MK.

Our first stop at the Magic Kingdom was for Mine Train. We rope dropped, were allowed in the park extra early, then realized the ride was not actually working! Whomp whomp! 

While walking through Fantasyland, we discovered that the Tea Cups were undergoing refurbishment. We were so happy we were able to ride them earlier in the week!

While our friends and Jason rode Space Mountain, Brayden and I took our time walking around Tomorrowland.

We rode Buzz Lightyear, then played with bubbles with this friendly cast member!

I also ran into Shannon from BRB Going to Disney! It was so nice to meet her in person and she's so sweet!

Brayden's next request was for Astro Orbiter. Apparently this is his new favorite ride! Hah!

We also snagged breakfast at Sleepy Hollow one last time! So good!

After breakfast, we saw that Dumbo had an incredibly short wait time and Mine Train was back up and running again! So, we walked that way to ride both! :)

When we got to the front of the line to ride Mine Train, Brayden decided he didn't want to ride. Instead, we rider swapped right there and it worked out perfectly!

The Tangled bathrooms are seriously my fave! :)

Our friends wanted to ride another thrill ride, and I was perfectly ok taking Brayden on Small World by myself, so that's what we did!

I just love his little hand on my leg! These days are passing so fast and this is so precious to me!

We rode Haunted Mansion one last time, then finally the Carousel!

This has been one of Brayden's favorite rides since his very first trip at 10 months old!

We said goodbye to our friends, then made our way over to the Wilderness Lodge to retrieve our truck.

It was bittersweet saying goodbye. While gone, we somehow managed to bypass Winter Storm Uri, spent 8 nights at the most magical place on earth, and had a blast with our friends! Despite the wearing of masks and lack of an official runDisney race, we still had an incredible time. It's truly one for the memory books!

Our 12 hour drive home was incredibly smooth. We were initially going to break the trip in half like we did on our way to Florida, but instead we split the driving time and made it all the way home in one!

Of course we had to make a stop at Brayden's favorite Buc-ees! The Alabama Buc-ees is now affectionately known as the "Disney World Buc-ees"! 

If you've made it this far, thank you for following along in our trip chronicles! We will be returning to the World in less than a week and I can't wait to share more fun times with you. This trip will include a first for us - Blizzard Beach!! Stay tuned to my instagram for lots of footage from our trip! :) 

Have a magical day!