A couple of weeks ago, me and my husband went away for 4 days to Woburn Center Parcs.
We went Friday to Monday and we had a brilliant time.
We haven’t been to Woburn before, only Elveden, so it was cool to see what another Parc was like.
Here’s what we got up to…
Friday
On Friday we arrived after my husband had finished work. When we arrived we got checked in, had a look around our apartment and then went to our dinner reservation at Las Iguanas.
Our dinner was absolutely delicious. This was a great start to the holiday, and it probably ended up being our favourite meal of the weekend.
The Mexican platters were so nice and gave you a little taster of lots of their yummy dishes. My mocktail was also yummy.
Saturday
A lovely start to the morning and we made some adorable squirrel friends. Lovely 🤗
We picked up our bikes at 10 and had a little cycle around!
We then did some of the fun activities on offer.
The activities we did were the interactive Squash and interactive Shuffleboard. These both really fun but we particularly enjoyed the shuffle.
For lunch we had some yummy nachos and chicken empanadas.
We had dinner at the American resturant Hucks. This was yummy. I enjoyed my chicken caesar salad topped with cajun shrimp. The star of the show was the cheesey garlic bagel bread – absolutely sensational. Still thinking about it tbh.
After dinner we had a bit of chill time before playing Glow in the Dark Table Tennis, which was very fun.
Sunday
We started off Sunday morning with breakfast at The Pancake House.
Breakfast was really yummy and we thoroughly enjoyed it. They didn’t do omelette at The Pancake House last time so this was a nice new addition (unless we’ve remembered wrong anyway!) We both had a savoury omelette and then shared a sweet Dutch Blueberry pancake. All was very nice.
It was lovely and sunny when we left The Pancake House, so we sat on ‘the beach’ and read for a bit.
We also enjoyed a few activities today…
We played football pool, which was very interesting. It was fun but, much harder to aim than regular pool. You use a white football as the ‘white ball’ to kick yout three coloured balls into the net corner ‘pockets’. When you have scored all your goals you then score the final individual colour (Blue in our case) in place of the black ball. Very fun
Dinner was Italian at Amalfi resturant. Very nice. We shared some Calamari and Burrata to start, with some yummy pastas and garlic bread for main.
After dinner we had time to get in another round of interactive shuffle before our interactive darts slot. Both of these were really fun and made a great end to our third day.
Monday
Out final day 🥲
We had a bit more of a chilled morning, packing up (as wel leave our apt but can still spend the whole day at the Parc)
We had one last cycle around before giving our bikes back in.
We did the interactive gamebox as our morning activity. This was very energetic and the little mini games were fun and funny to watch each other partake in. I was knackered after this.
For lunch we decided to try out the French resturant Cafe Rouge. We haven’t been here before but we enjoyed posh toasties, French fries and crisp Diet Cokes.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the swimming pool, having lots of fun in the Rapids (brutal) the lazy river (lovely) and the various flumes (terrifying).
For dinner we had some picky bits at the Sports Bar, before heading off home 🥲
Another brilliant weekend at Center Parcs. We had SO MUCH fun and tried out lots of new activities, relaxed, enjoyed the sunshine and had some yummy food. Plus, I didn’t fall off my bike this time 😅 yay!
In May Half Term myself, my Mum and my two sisters took a trip to Venice, Italy. We went to celebrate my Mums upcoming 70th Birthday!
Shes always wanted to go to Venice, so thats where we went. If you’ve followed the blog for a while (or you know me) you’ll know that Italy is mine and my husbands favourite country to visit, and Venice is my all time favourite place to visit EVER.
We had an awesome time and I really enjoyed showing them around, and taking them to different spots that me and my husband have discovered on our own trips to Venice. I felt like a Venitian tour guide haha.
Here’s what we got up to!
We stayed in a lovely air b n b apartment… a great location only 30 mins from St Marks Square.
It was perfect for our short stay, very comfortable, clean and cosy. It was right by a canal so it was great to watch all the various boats go by at different times of the day.
My Mum had a list of things that she wanted to do/see… (in no particular order)
1 Rialto Bridge
2. Visit the Islands, Murano, Burano, Torcello
3. Gelato! 🍨 Pasta 🍝 Pizza 🍕 Campari 🥃
…all the good stuff.
4. The Bridge of Sighs
5. St Marks Square inc the Basilica & the Bell tower
We also visited some lovely early gardens.
6. Exploring the little canals and streets.
7. A gondola ride
8. Enjoy the Venice Vibes ✌🏼
We all had a great time, and most importantly Mum did!
Venice is such a beautiful and unique city, it is like nowhere you will ever visit and I love it. I can’t wait to go back already!!
This weekend we stayed at an air bnb in Hollingbourne, Kent with my husband, mother in law, my husbands Grandad, Auntie and cousin.
We drove down on Friday after work in order to make the most of the weekend.
It was a good drive and we had a few hours to look around our accommodation and relax together.
We spent Saturday visiting a few places nearby, including a little railway and the town of Maidstone. We had a look around, went to the local museum and had a delicious lunch at the Muggleton Inn (love the name!)
We spent the afternoon relaxing, reading (ofc) and then we had a lovely dinner outside in the beautiful warm evening. The weather has been amazing.
We rounded off the first day with some snacks and games after dinner ☺️
On Sunday, Me, Tim, Tim’s Auntie and Cousin visited a nearby, local Goat Sanctuary (the first completely dedicated Goat sanctuary!!)
It was a very lovely, calm and relaxing place. We had a lovely time. The goats were lovely. I went in to one of the smaller pens but I didn’t go into the main one haha – I left that to the others.
I decided to use my birthday money to adopt a one of the goats, Blaze ☺️🐐
He’s a lovely tan and white colour and was very calm and friendly. I fed him a bag of goat food and Tim fed him too.
Such a lovely chap 🙂
Such a cool place! Id love to come back and take a goat for a walk!! (And visit Blaze ofc)
We all met up for a delicious roast dinner, for lunch. The pub was lovely and the food was really yummy.
We enjoyed looking around a little nearby village, called Lenham, before we headed back to chill out before we packed and headed home. We have been so lucky with the weather this weekend.
Another lovely Biannual Byford/Bailey May Half Term Holiday, together.
In the Easter holidays me and my husband were very lucky to be invited on a very exciting family holiday. The holiday was to celebrate my father in laws 70th Birthday (which took place whilst we were out there)
We went to DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida!!! For 10 magical days ✨️
This trip was a nostalgic trip for my husbands family as they used to do these kinds of trips when Tim and his brother were younger.
It’s been a couple of years in the planning and I can’t believe its finally happened. Time flies all of a sudden!!
It was a brilliant trip, such a fun time! And to somewhere I love, that I honestly thought I wouldn’t ever visit again!
I thought I would share a few holiday snaps and write a little bit about whay we did and enjoyed im each park.
Let’s take a look!
Epcot ✨️
Epcot is a brilliant park and when we visited in 2018 we definitely didn’t give it the time it deserved! It’s so fun and really interesting!!
The iconic ball when you enter the park is quite a sight to behold. I particularly enjoyed it little up at night time.
I love the different countries around the lake that you can visit, try the food and drinks and even go on a fun themed ride, in some of them.
We sampled a delicious pizza slice at Italian pavilion, a delcious Mexican rice bowl with crispy shrimp at the Mexico Pavillion and the most refreshing pineapple Dole whip at the edge of the lake too!
My favourite ride of the whole trip was at Epcot. The Guardians of the Galaxy ride is absolutely BRILLIANT. It’s great even if you don’t like or haven’t seen the films, its even better if you have. Its a must!!
The firework/light/water show that they do in the evenings is phenomenal too. Its so clever and enjoyable to watch. It is defiantly one of the best to see if you visit.
Animal Kingdom 🌳
Animal Kingdom is a fun, really well themed park. Although not small in size there is a lot less rides there but of course you have the lovely animals, the safari and the wonderful shows to watch, from the Lion King to Finding Nemo.
We spent a special day here celebrating my father in laws 70th Birthday (the reason for our trip) and we had a great tim. We had a really lovely lunchtime meal at the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate 🥳 its the largest one!
My favourite ride at Animal Kingdom was the Avatar ride. Its a simulator style ride and its fantastic, such a immersive, beautiful ride so well executed! And a really good length too considering how long the queue is all the time haha!!
Magic Kingdom 🏰
Magic Kingdom is my all time favourite park – it doesn’t get much more magical than here ✨️
There’s nothing quite like walking down Main Street USA, turning round the corner and seeing the Disney castle there infront of you. Pure magic.
What I described above, (Although indescribable really, you’ve got to experience to truly feel it) makes this the the best, but it also has so many awesome rides.
My favourite ride (of all time) and in this park is Big Thunder Mountain!! Such a good ride, sadly it was closed during our visit 😭😭 devastating. But, some other faves are Pirates of the Carribean, It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion. Absolute classics.
We had some top tier food from Magic Kingdom this time round, I had researched some of the most recommended eats and I managed to find them all which was awesome!! My favourite snack was the Cheeseburger Spring Rolls from the cart outside Adventure Land – SO delcious (we went back several times haha) perfect with the pickley, burger style sauce.
Some other delicious eats were found in Gastons Tavern 🍺 we had the ham and gruyere crossiant, so yummy, savoury and delicious – the best one I’ve had. We also tried the popular Creme Brulee crossaint which was packed full of a yummy sweet vanilla custard and a crunchy brulee topping. Really good. Another great food spot is Casey’s Corner on the corner of Main Street.
The Happily Ever After Fireworks are phenomenal and I just love them. They are SO magical. A must see! Just be aware and ready for the madness getting out afterwards, a must do at least one a trip though! A must see is a parade, these happen throughout the day and you get to see lots of the classic Disney Characters inc Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, The Princesses and lots of your other faves. Me and my husband also watched the Starlight Parade which is a beautiful parade of light covered, character themed floats that go around the park and the castle. So pretty.
Hollywood Studios 🎥
Hollywood Studios is such a cool park. It uad a really cool, old skool Hollywood vibe about it and all the palm trees and lights really add to the atmosphere of the park. There are a few cool rides in this park, lots of variety, as well as great selection of shows.
Our main day in this park was also the hottest day whilst we were there – absolutely boiling 🥵 it had the most delicious cold brew float though which tasted phenomenal in that heat.
Some really good shows at this park are the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, the Little Mermaid Show and the Light show in the evenings.
When we came last time (2018) they were building ‘Galaxy’s Edge’ a special Star Wars area, this was open this time my husband was very excited about it!!
And I have to say, as someone who isn’t really a Star Wars fan, even I could appreciate just how well executed this part of the park was. It was amazing and the attention to detail and the vibe was perfect, you really felt like you were wandering through another world, into a market full of droids and Spaceship parts.
The two rides, Rise of the Resistance and Smugglers Run were epic. Both different but really good rides and they are definitely both worth trying out. I wish we’d been able to get on them a second time but the queues were crazy.
These were probably my favourite rides in this park.
I also really enjoy Toy Story Land but I feel like it was just crazy busy all the time, this time round, which was a shame.
I got to meet Goofy again here too, which was awesome AND for the first time ever, his son Max! So that was pretty cool as a big time Goofy fan 🧡💚
Blizzard Beach 🌊
Blizzard Beach is really good fun and lovely on a sunny day in Florida!
There are lots of different slides and flumes to go on, a lovely lazy river, that I have to say was probably my favourite and a wave pool in the middle of the park.
Me and my husband had a go on a couple of flumes and slides but they are a bit scary to me, when you aren’t strapped in or anything.
It was a (mostly) sunny day when we were there and we had a lovely time in and out of the water.
There were lots of tasty treats there to enjoy, the lunchtime food options were really good (I can’t fault any of the Disney Food) they also did funnel cakes which are absolutely sensational and a Disney MUST. I also had a delicious iced mocha from Joffreys that really hit the spot.
Disney Springs inc the Artemis 2 launch 🚀
Disney Springs is a Disney shopping village with lots of restaurants and entertainment spots. I hadn’t been before so it was cool to see it. I managed to pick up a few souvenirs for myself and others too.
This was also a brilliant place to watch a fascinating partof history, the launch of the Artemis 2 rocket. This was amazing. We had looked it up and it said that the multi storey car park at Disney Springs was a great viewing point so thats where we headed 10/15 minutes before the lift off!
It was an incredible sight to see infront of your eyes (and we were ages away) but still got a good view. If it had been a little less cloudy it would have been even better. So awesome and something very memorable to witness.
& of course, Disney food 🤤
These are some of the delicious foods Ive mentioned throughout this post!
Top Left: Cheeseburger Spring Rolls, Adventureland Cart, Magic Kingdom.
Top Right: The Ham & Gruyere Crossaint & the Creme Brulee Crossaint, Gastons Tavern Magic Kingdom.
Bottom Left: A Cold Brew Float, Hollywood Studios.
Bottom Right: Mickey Ice cream Sandwich, Mickey Pretzel, Available all round every park.
Mini Corndogs & fries, Casey’s Corner, Main Street USA, Magic Kingdom.
These were some of my faves.
Our Disney themed room, in our villa, was awesome!
I loved it!
Our villa was perfect for our stay and we had a cool games room, cinema room and best of all a lovely pool and jacuzzi which we used alot. It was perfect having the pool to cool down in after a long, hot morning at the parks.
Such a fun trip – I can’t believe how quickly it goes 🥲
There truly is no place like Disney. I don’t know if we will ever go back to DisneyWorld (never say never) but I’ll be dreaming about it until our next Disney adventure (in Paris)
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
Here is my fourth and final quarterly memories update to capture 2025, we made it!!
These are the final three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
October
October was a fun month of pumpkin picking, autumn reads, football, trips to London to see Ruth Jones & James Corden at the Palladium and to see my uni friends – all topped off with a Halloween wedding.
The inaugural Ipswich Book Festival was a highlight of October ❤️📚 I went along on the Saturday and spent the whole day enjoying the talks, I went to three in total, visited my local bookshops, read, had some yummy food and bought some books. A brilliant day.
This was my highlights- meeting my favourite author Heidi Swain. Me and my Mum went along to her event at the Norwich Book Festival. It was so cool! She was lovely and she even recognised my Instagram!! Such a great evening that I won’t forget
November
November saw firework night, the start of the festivities. Lots of christmas lights, decorating, wreath Making, Christmas reads, Christmas nails and the first of the season 5 Stranger Things releases.
December
A super fun and festive month!
Christmas really has begun, even at the start with more decorating, at home and at work, we went to two Christmas light trails, including our usual trip to the Enchanted Light trail at Colchester Zoo. I went to a Christmas tree festival, did festive baking, Christmas reading. Christmas nails and lots of wrapping whilst watching Christmas films.
Christmas itself was great with lots of family time, present opening, yummy food, laughs, games and relaxing. Perfect.
I hope you’ve had a happy 2025! Here’s to another good year in 2026 – let’s see what it brings.
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
Here is my third quarterly memories update to capture 2025, we are three quarters of the way through the year!!
These are the third three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
July
This summer was a lot of fun! It was the first one I had properly had off (excluding 2020) what made it even better was that my husband also had it off. We had lots of adventures.
At the end of July we went to Disneyland Paris together. We last visited in 2019 and this is our second visit to the most magical place on earth. Me and my husband went with my twin sister, her husband and my two nephews. We went on the ferry this time which was fun.
It was such a fun, magical (as always) trip ✨️
We stayed at the Disney Santa Fe hotel this time round and it was so cool. Me and my Nephews watched ‘Cars’ the weekend before in preparation and it did not disappoint. Disney themeing is always on point.
Our room was in the Mater section which was awesome as he was our favourite.
We had a brilliant time, we went on loads of rides, new and classic, saw some shows including ‘The Lion King, spirit of the pride lands’ and the Pixar show too. The Disney dining was delicious and such great value as always, we tried some new places too. The new Avengers area was cool.
It was really cool that now my nephews are older they can go on more rides too.
August
We did lots of fun things in July/August including celebrating birthdays, games nights with family, Hare hunting round our hometown which is always a fun activity, especially with my niece and nephews. We also went for a trip to the seaside, lots of trips to the cinema, went to see a show with my Uni friend in London, visited Colchester Zoo and had an amazing Sun Bear experience – this was one of my highlights. I also had mt leaving meal as I left one of my jobs that I’d been at for 14 years!! (Hence the summer off, woohoo)
One of the best bits about August was that me and my husband went on an impromptu European train holiday for 5ish days. This was so fun and such a different trip to ones we have done before. We travelled on the eurostar, this was my first time, and then used trains in between places to visit Paris, Ghent, Belgium, Pairi Daiza, Rotterdam and Brussels.
This was so much fun. We just had a rucksack each and that was all.
It was so cool to visit so many different places! Paris was lovely and I would definitely go back in a cooler month!! Its was 35° 🥵 it was lovely to see the sights though, including the Effiel tower of course.
Ghent was the biggest suprise for me, it was such a beautiful and unique city that I would highly recommend. We had our first Waffle here, which was delicious. We also did a boat tour of the canal and a Medieval walking tour, which was fascinating – a great way to learn about the city. We also got a great recommendation from our tour guide for the best frites and flemish stew – a food highlight of the trip.
The architecture was amazing and it was so picturesque.
The pictures below are from our favourite part of the trip – Pairi Daiza in Belgium.
The open bat enclosure was one of my favourite parts. I love bats and to see them flying around me was amazing. These fruit bats were so cute.
This place was absolutely incredible, I can’t put into words how amazing it truly was to see with your own eyes. I heard about it on a tv show at work and it was beyond anything you could imagine. It is one of the largest zoos in Europe and is split up into areas for each continent. The variety of animals and the beautiful enclosure they have are incredible. We were there for a whole day and spent it seeing it all. It was the best day of our 2025.
The picture below shows how happy we were. It is such an incredible, beautiful place that you can’t really describe, you need to experience it.
Rotterdam was an interesting city but probably my least favourite of the trip, as it was quite plain compared to the other places we had been. We went to a cool little ‘Miniworld’ that had tiny models of the city of Rotterdam. This was really cool and it was so interesting to look around. It also had a cool day/night feature so the lights slowly dimed when it was night and the lights in the streets/buildings etc would come on, so you were able to see it at day time and night time, two incredibly different perspectives. Very cool.
We also went to a yummy indoor food market which was amazing. We tried lots of yummy things including a authentic Stroopwafel. The one filled with Nutella was my favourite.
We went home on the eurostar from Brussels so our final day was spent there. We had a tour of a Belgium chocolate museum with lots of free samples and a live demo of how they make authentic Pralines. After a little lunch of some Frites we got on our bus tour for the rest of the day, we stayed on the open top bus, enjoying the sunshine and looking at the sights. This was a good way of seeing the sights if you only have a day like we did. One last waffle and then we headed to the Eurostar.
A truly incredible adventure that we won’t ever forget.
September
September was a bit back to normal for us! My husband started his new job and I started a new term at school.
Some things that we did include more birthdays, my Mum and my nephew! We watched more football, kept up with the gym and hung out with friends.
We also went to the ‘Farewell to the Hares’
As I mentioned above, we had the Hare hunting in our local town throughout the summer and this event at the end of the trail means you can go and see them all in one place. We all go together as a family to this. Its nice to see them all together and spot ones you missed.
This year’s ‘Holiblog’ post (holiday blog post for those who are new here) is a bit of a different one as we booked an impromptu train trip around Europe (well, a small part of Europe)
We went for a 5 day trip getting to and from using the Eurostar, and then local trains in-between. So, with just a rucksack, each we set off (at 4.30 am in the morning 😭)
Here’s how it went…
Paris, France
A brilliant first day of our little European adventure!
Our first stop was Paris 🇫🇷
We found some delicious pizza 🤣🍕 and we walked to the Effiel tower (which really is quite massive) very cool.
A highlight was the River Seine boat sightseeing tour. 🏞⛴️
It’s been 33° so it was a welcome shelter/rest from the sun, and we were able to see lots of the sights of Paris that we wanted to. 🌞
Traditional pastries acquired ready for tomorrow mornings early train to our next destination 🥐
Pairi Daiza, Cambron Casteau
Today was amazing. 🇧🇪
If you ever in Brussels you’ve got to visit ‘Pairi Daiza, Kingdom of Animals’
It’s so much more amazing that I could ever have imagined – what a beautiful place with some amazing animals, I’ve never been anywhere like it.
The themeing of each continent area was spot on, and we saw animals we had never seen before absolutely thriving in the most amazing exhibits.
It’s been a full-on, hot day, and my feet ache a lot (10 hours there and 30,000 steps) but boy, did we enjoy ourselves – we didn’t want to leave!!
Ps – the bats were awesome 🦇
Europe Day Two- done ✔️ 🇧🇪
Ghent, Belgium
Today, we started off with breakfast in Brussels before we headed to today’s stop – Ghent. 🇧🇪
I’d never heard of it before we booked this trip, but I am so glad we came. This place is so lovely to walk around. The architecture is beautiful, and it’s so quaint with a surprisingly contrasting but infectious bustling night life. 🚤 The canals are really pretty, and as well as wandering around ourselves during the day and at night, we also enjoyed a canal boat tour and a Medieval walking tour.
The local culinary delights, including Leige waffles 🧇 DELICIOUS frites, topped with traditional blemish stew, gravy & mayonnaise, and Belgium chocolate of course.
Another brilliant day! Stop no 3, done ✔️
#Ghent #Belgium #Europe2025
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Day Four was Rotterdam! 🇳🇱
We started off the day having breakfast in Ghent before heading to our next stop.
We chose this (instead of Amsterdam) as it was suggested to be quite a contrast to Ghent, and that it was. We visited ‘Mini World’, which was really cool, and it was actually very helpful when spotting interesting landmarks around Rotterdam afterwards. The lighting at Mini World was very impressive i. Particular. We also had a walk around the plaza.
The highlight was the food market hall – there was so much to see and try. We had our first traditional Stroopwafel, which was delicious, as well as trying some other yummy cusines too.
We then headed to the harbour to have a look at the views, finished off the evening by chilling in our hotel room after a few very busy days!
Last stop today!
Brussels, Belgium
Our last day was Brussels 🇧🇪
We never got to look around Brussels when we stayed the other day as it was just the closest place to ‘Pairi Daiza’.
So, here we are! Doing it properly this time (plus, you can get the Eurostar from Brussels so win, win)
We started off by getting a train to the other Brussels station, Centrale, which funnily enough was much more in the centre of Brussels than Midi. It was also a 6 minute walk from our first stop – The Choco Story Chocolate Museum 🍫 it had to be done.
It was really interesting and I very much enjoyed the samples along the way, as well as a chocolatier demonstrating how they make traditional Belgium Pralines which were first made in Brussels (we got to eat those too! Yum)
After that, we grabbed a quick lunch of Frites & Mayo 🍟 in the sunshine 🌞
In order to see as much of Brussels as we could in our short time there, we got tickets for a hop on, hop off tour bus of the city. (Although we just stayed on it for 2 hours to see the full tour) It was a beautiful blue sky, sunny day and we enjoyed our little tour of the city on the open top bus 🚌 we saw lots of cool sights, street art and the Headquarters of the EU 🇪🇺.
And just to round off the day before we headed to the Eurostar, we grabbed some final waffles 🧇 We tried a savoury ham and cheese one which was very nice and a triple chocolate drizzled one. Belgium chocolate really is delightful
16 trains later (for the whole trip), and we’re back home! All in all, it was a success! And a very fun, jam-packed 5 days – we’ve done many steps, seen many things, visited many new places, and consumed many waffles! Europe 2025, you were a blast!
(& living out of a backpack really isn’t that bad!)
If you’ve been to Disney, you’ll know how magical and fun it is. It is like no other place you’ll ever visit.
We booked a Disney package, so we were staying at a Disney hotel and had a Disney meal plan.
We stayed at Disney Santa Fe hotel, themed like the Disney Pixar movie ‘Cars’. Like everything at Disney, it was themed to perfection. It was brilliant.
We all loved it, especially my two nephews.
The Mexican restaurant at this hotel is delicious, and they also have their own shop and a Starbucks too. It’s a little further out (15 min walk) but it is a lovely walk – and you can also make use of the shuttle bus if you wish, although we enjoyed the walk.
Let’s take a look at what we got up to!
Monday 21st July 2025 ✨️
Today was a travel day really, drove down to Dover to catch the ferry this time round. The ferry trip isn’t long and stops at Calais. From here, we drove to the same hotel we stayed in last time, in Paris.
By the time we go there, we mainly just enjoyed our dinner of fresh baguettes and cheese and played a few games before bed.
Tuesday 22nd July 2025 ✨️
Today was our first Disney day! Our Paris hotel was only a little drive away from Disney, so we set off after breakfast to start our magical holiday.
Once we had checked in, we actually managed to have our first magical experience… Goofy was doing a meet and greet in our hotel foyer!!! Goofy is my all-time favourite Disney character, so I was buzzing that he was there!!
We queued up for a picture, of course! (& a hug 😄)
After that, we walked to the park enjoying the scenery from our hotel, the other hotels (some of which were only a building site when we last came!!) And the bustling Disney village.
We went to the main Disneyland Park first and enjoyed looking around, going on some rides, and just soaking it all up! I will never get bored of seeing that castle at the end of Main Street.
There was even a parade going on as we entered, so we of course watched this, my nephews loved it.
In-between rides, we also caught the end of Goofy’s magical, musical conduction of the fountains outside the Disney castle. Amazing.
Our first dinner was at Billy Bob’s tex mex in the Disney village. We came here last time and all really enjoyed it. It was just as yummy as we all remembered.
Wednesday 23rd July 2025
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This was our super busy Disney day!
We enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel before we headed out.
We got up nice and early to make the most of our ‘Magic Hours’, which are a perk of staying in a Disney hotel… and its where you get to go into the parks earlier than everyone else.
We went to the Disney Studios park this time. This one is super cool and has a very different vibe to the main park. It has some really cool rides too, and the relatively new ‘Avengers Campus’ that again was being built last time we came!
We went back to our hotel late afternoon to chill for a bit and me and my nephews and I started watching ‘Cars 2’
Our dinner reservation was at the Mexican restaurant at our hotel, ‘La Cantina’… The best Nachos 👌🏼
We returned to the main Disneyland park for more rides (the 5 min evening queues were very satisfying), and once we had done a few rides, we were ready to watch the evening fireworks show, a Disney tradition and a must see at least once during your trip.
I did 33,000 steps that day! Disney is not for the faint hearted 😂 achy feet is an understatement, thank goodness for the hotel bath.
Thursday 24th July 2025
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The weather was meant to be a bit worse today than other days, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to catch a few of the Disney shows. There are a few going on throughout each day and are well worth a watch (and are all included)
We watched the Lion King show ‘Rhythms of the Pride Lands’ which was brilliant.
We managed to meet Goofy again today 🤣 He’s really working over time atm, he is the character we saw the most (not that I’m complaining at all!!)
The weather didn’t actually end up being worse at all so we managed to get a few more rides in, in each park before seeing our second show of the day, ‘TOGETHER: a pixar musical adventure’ which was also really impressive.
We had our dinner for this day booked in at ‘PYM kitchen’ in the ‘Avengers Campus’. This was a new place for us as it wasn’t here last time we came. This place served an American buffet, and I was really impressed. The desserts were especially delicious. I think I enjoyed this meal the most, so I’m glad we managed to book a meal there and I would highly recommend it.
We managed to get on another 4/5 rides back in the Disneyland park before calling it a day.
Friday 25th July 2025 ✨️
Today was our last Disney day 😭
We enjoyed another delicious breakfast (top tier pastries) before managing to grab a Starbucks and then get on the shuttle bus to the park for another session of ‘Magic hours’ fun!
We went on quite a mixture of rides today, going on things we wanted another turn on, which differed from person to person, as well as going on some of our favourites together.
My all-time favourite ride is ‘Big Thunder Mountain’ but I also really enjoy ‘Ratatouille’, ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘Star Tours’ and ‘It’s a Small World’
We finished off our last Disney Day with dinner at the Cheyenne hotel, which is Disneys Wild West themed hotel nearby. This was really cool as the themeing again was on point, and none of us had been before.
The food was yummy and they even offered an outdoor BBQ section to the buffet, which was different to the others. The barbecued chicken skewers were yummy, and I love how each restaurant did a few desserts to match their Disney theme
And finally some more rides at the park. Another 30,000 step day haha. Our last ride was another go on ‘It’s a small world’.
It truly is the happiest place on earth 💖
We had a brilliant trip, it is such a fun and joyful place for a holiday. I can’t wait to start planning the next time, but that’s probably not for a few years. So until Next Time, bye bye Disney 👋🏻 it was a blast!
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
Here is my second quarterly memories update to capture 2025, we are halfway through the year!!
These are the second three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
April
Easter fun! Me and my Nephews and Niece did some Easter craft, Easter baking and an Easter Egg hunt. On Easter Sunday, we swapped Easter eggs and had our traditional family Chinese takeaway at my sisters. We enjoyed lovely walks and bank holiday board game days, as well as meeting up with my friend Hannah for nrucu to meet her little one and a day in Felixstowe with my friend Charlotte.
I also handed in my notice to my job at the after-school club where I’ve worked since I was 19 😭
May
May was a fun one!
This month includes mine and my twin sisters birthday. We had a fun time meeting up for a late lunch, and going a bit of augmented darts before heading to mums to open some pressies. We also had a family chippy tea at mine the Saturday before.
I made our birthday cake and made one that I have always wanted to try… meet Agatha the Caterpillar Cake! I’m really happy with how she came out.
Me and my husband went away for the May Half Term to a lovely place in Norfolk. We’d visited before, and it’s great for a relaxing and chill long weekend. It was lovely.
We also went to a cool exhibit in our hometown for our fave football team, had a beach day and did some good workouts.
June
We had another beach day as we had my nephews for the day and the weathers been great.
We celebrated my Dad’s 71st Birthday together with a garden Chinese, we also celebrated Fathers day (double celebrations, greedy 🤣)
Other fun things this month include a ‘Hare trail’ coming to our hometown… these are always fun for the Summer. We did a parkrun (first time thos year!!) Me and my work friends celebrated our friends 40th birthday with a fun party and my nephew came round and cooked us breakfast 🥹
Me and my husband also celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary this month. I can’t believe it’s been 9 years.
We had a delicious meal at our favourite Italian in town to celebrate.
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
So I thought as we are a quarter of the way through the year, I could do a quarterly memories update to capture 2025.
This is part one, the first three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
January
I’m not always a fan of January. It always seems such a miserable month after the festivities if Christmas, but this one wasn’t too bad! Me & my husband went to London together for the day, we saw ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’ (again) and had a delicious dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant.
There was more footie with my nephew and lots of reading this month!! I love making my new reading lists and new book purchases for the new year. I also had two baby showers to celebrate, which was lovely! Not a bad start to the year, really!
February
In February, we had some fun sleepovers with my Nephew’s and Niece, me and my twin sister played the OG ‘The Sims’ game on its re release anniversary special, so amazing nostalgia there! I went to London to meet up with my Uni friend Kirsty and we watched ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Musical… we also had dinner with another friend afterwards which was a great catch up (The show was really good).
Me and my Twin sister also saw a show, but in Norwich, we watched Giovanna Fletcher in ‘The Girl on the Train’. It was so cool to see Gi in a show and it was done really well on stage (I love the book!!) Speaking of books, Me and some friends from work started up a reading library in our staff room which has been going well and is nicely stocked now.
This month I also added some colourful accessories to our bathroom to finish it off, (we had it redone at the end of last year), and I have been meaning to add some colourful for a while! And we, of course, enjoyed a lovely Valentines evening together at our favourite Turkish restaurant.
In the February Half Term me and my husband went away for a long weekend. We stayed in Norfolk at a lovely inn and enjoyed a chilled weekend! The pub was lovely and cosy, the food was brilliant (breakfast included, always a winner with us!) And we had a little trip to Banham zoo, which I haven’t been to in years. We even had a Meerkat experience whilst we were there as they were only £15 each, bargain. It was a lovely relaxing weekend, much needed.
March
We had lots of fun in March, including the football and limited edition Ed Sheeran stickers!! My besties little boy had his first birthday party (under the sea themed), and our new sofas finally arrived!!
There was lots of yummy food, including a work meal at Prezzo, Wagas with my sister and our friend Dan, as well as our traditional Mothers Day homemade Afternoon Tea with my sisters and a Mothers Day lunch with Mum. I’ve also been ill a lot this month with coughs and colds, which is not ideal, so here’s to a healthier April.
Roseanne Byford 