{Five on Friday // Wander Inn , Hockey, Hockey, and more Hockey, Summer Vacations}

Happy finally Friday!! I hope that you all have had the most beautiful week. We sure did! Soaking in these final summer days before our lives start to get even more busy!! With school and league starting, I know that we will have a busy schedule. I am excited about those two things, though. Mason will be starting 8th (gasp) grade! One more year of junior high and then it's high school. Goodness, that happened fast. And before I start crying, let's move on. Here's a look at our week as well as some randomness. 



O N E //

This week started off so, so good. Sunday evening I was doing my Bible study and saw a notification come across my phone from Junk Gypsy saying that I won the giveaway! I may have squealed a bit and then went to verify it was legit! It was! I won a free stay at the Junk Gypsy Wander Inn!  You can check out the post here. So dreamy, right? I absolutely cannot wait. This place has been on our radar for the longest. We love the town of Round Top and love visiting during the antique weekend. Junk Gypsy is one of those places we always go to while there! 




I absolutely cannot wait to go and take pictures of this beautiful place!! Eeeeekkkkk, I am so excited!! We chose the Stardust Room in the Star House. 




T W O //

Monday night we took Mason to an open hockey at the rink. The open hockey was for ages 13-18 and was his first one in this age group. Mason is still a very young and small (comparatively speaking) 13-year-old. He took the ice and within minutes it was starting to fill up with teens much older and bigger than him! At first, they were all just skating around, practicing stops, shooting the puck, etc. Then they all grouped in the middle to divide into two teams. I fully expected Mason to get overwhelmed and intimidated, but I am happy to say that wasn't the case at all. These kids have all been playing hockey for years and are all on "elite" teams. Mason just started in February after never even stepping foot on an ice rink (except for a 30-minute stint at a Christmas event - and even then he held on to the wall the whole time). Then a very intense hour-long game started!  These kids were playing full-on contact and going hard! At first Mason kind of just stood frozen in amazement! Then he started to get into it. These kids were all so immensely kind to him and passed him the puck many times! They even took the time to teach him things. It warmed my heart so much that they welcomed him, arms wide open, even though he was nowhere near their level. He had the best time and couldn't stop talking about it the whole way home. I love this rink and how willing everyone is to help the newer kids! 





T H R E E //

Before we left for Hockey on Monday we got an email about a Prep League starting this Wednesday. It's a high-intensity training for kids that are interested in starting league this fall/winter. The link showed it was for ages 12 and under so we talked to the manager at the rink about it. He said that since Mason just barely turned 13 that he was welcome to join the prep league and highly encouraged it. So, Mason will be doing this for the next 5 sessions instead of his normal Hockey Academy. I'm excited to see what he learns in these classes. He's excited too! He had his first class this Wednesday



F O U R // 

Summer vacations...

I keep seeing posts about vacations and how families travel to the same destination summer after summer. It got me thinking about this a lot and I realized that I am completely torn between wanting to have that "familiar" summer vacation and traveling to somewhere new every summer. I love that a place can become nostalgic and you can build upon memories every time you visit but then there is just something so exciting and freeing in seeing new parts of the world. In doing something different. 

And, I just realized that this sums me up to a T! I have a bit of a gypsy soul but I also find so much comfort in familiar places. 

I guess it's not a bad thing. The best of both worlds. 

Anyhow, do you go to the same destination every summer or do you go to new places every summer? And why? 

For the most part, we travel to new places each summer. We have "places" that we frequent and have become a part of our family's history and memories but we do not have a specific place that we travel to at the same time every year. For the last couple of years, our summers have consisted of small weekend trips here and there and then a cruise for our "big" summer vacation. We love cruising and getting to see new places at different ports. This year we will not be going on a cruise (unless we book something super last minute) but we do have several fun trips coming up! We do have a cruise booked for July 2024, though. 

August - Round Top TX to stay at the Wander Inn

Sept - Fredericksburg over Labor Day weekend, California 

October - Halloween camping

December - somewhere after Christmas (not sure the destination yet)


F I V E //

I took a PTO Day today and I am so excited!! Spending the entire day with my boys doing whatever we want! 


Posts from this week:

Monday // Weekend Wrap-up 

Tuesday // Health Journey

Wednesday // Locks of Love 



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