D-Now 2026

Every year our church hosts D-Now in January on the long holiday weekend. 2 years ago, we hosted the 6th grade girls at our house so Sadie could go but she had a soccer tournament that made it a little harder hosting while she was out playing. Last year she went again, but another family hosted because again, she had a soccer tournament. This year she had to miss while we went to Orlando, but this was Sophie's first year she is old enough, so she was SO excited:

I had her all packed before I left so her & Bryan went to dinner Friday night, on a gluten date to Raising Cane's of course before he dropped her off:

She has a pretty close group of friends at church & they stayed at one of their houses. We didn't talk to her much all weekend until Bryan picked her up on Sunday afternoon but thankfully, they sent pictures & clearly, she had a good time:

They spent about half of the time at the church & the other half at the host home:

They had 2 college leaders from UT that the girls loved! And Saturday night was themed night, so their group went with Barbie:

Sophie was beach Barbie!

I love our church & say it all the time, but we have the best youth group! I think it speaks volumes that Sophie chose a youth retreat at home with her friends over a private tour to Universal Studios. Ha!

Hopefully next year it will work out so they can both go together. 

Universal Studios, VIP Experience

When we heard we were going to Orlando, I immediately started thinking of what we could do. We have done Disney numerous times, in fact we have done Disney World in Florida 4 times already, but we have never done Universal Studios. I had always heard it was better for older kids so that was my plan, of course we couldn't make plans until we knew our schedule. Thank goodness they posted it back in December, so I was ready. Friday night she had the latest game time so I knew that was our best choice, but I didn't want to waste too much time at the park since I knew it would be busy on a holiday weekend, so I discovered their VIP guided tour & booked it right away:

They pretty much promise you can do 2 of their parks, Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure in 7 hours. That included valet parking, buffet breakfast & lunch, plus skip the line passes & behind the scenes access. The park didn't open until 10:00 but we got in at 9:30 & was amazed to have the park to ourselves!

They took us straight to Cafe La Bamba where we had breakfast:

And I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had plenty of gf & df options for both of us, just like Disney:

After a quick breakfast, they loaded us up with water bottles & we headed out. Out tour guide was Abner & we were in a group with 12 of us. I had booked the tour for our family of 4 but instead of cancelling Bryan & Sadie's tickets, we invited her friend Reese & her Dad, which Sadie was even more excited about:

We started at Universal Studios & walked from Los Angeles to New York, where we did the Jimmy Fallon attraction:

Then we walked through San Francisco 

to get to London so we could visit Daigon Alley from Harry Potter:

We had free time to walk around the stores, shop, do a few attractions & then we got dessert:

Sadie went for frosted butter beer while they got ice cream:

Once we finished this park, we took the Hogwort's Express train from Universal Studios to the Island of Adventure:

This is where the adventure really began. Universal Studios is based on movies and has more 3D attractions/virtual reality, but Islands of Adventure is based on books & is definitely more adventurous, mostly thrill rides! We stepped off the train & landed in Hogsmeade: 

We went straight to my favorite ride of the day: Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure. The wait time was 140 minutes, but our tour guide took us through the exit, straight to the front of the line & he literally put Sadie & I in the very first cart. We literally walked in, rode it & were out in 10 minutes. SO worth it!

We quickly went through Harry Potter, Jurassic Park & Skull Island. Before we knew it, it was 4:30 & we had already finished both parks! Our tour guide was amazing & did a great job teaching us about the parks, explaining all of the rides, making sure we had the best seats in the house & showing us a great time. We all agreed if we go back, we will request him again:

We had never done a VIP tour before, & even though it wasn't a private tour, it was worth every penny. The valet parking had us so close to the park, we didn't have to walk far & surprisingly, there wasn't a line when we went to pick it up. And by the time you factor in the cost of parking plus our buffet breakfast & lunch, the tour itself didn't cost much more. I would highly recommend to anyone going! Next time we'll have to go back with Bryan & Sophie so we can try Epic Universe!

Disney Soccer Showcase

I know we were in Orlando 2 weeks ago, but Sadie & I went back this past weekend for a soccer tournament:

When we booked this back in the fall, the plan was for all 4 of us to go, but Sophie decided she didn't want to go anymore because she had plans at home. And Bryan has felt overwhelmed coming back from the holidays, so he stayed behind with her. I picked up Sadie early from school on Thursday & we had lunch at one of our favorite gf breweries by the airport in Dallas:

Can you tell she was a little bit excited about her sparkling pink lemonade?! And everything there is gf - fish & chips, chicken tenders, fried okra, fries, etc. Sadie loved every bite of her buttermilk fried chicken, but I had to go with the grilled chicken tenders instead:

We finally made it to the airport & she was even more excited to meet up with one of her closest friends on the team:

We made it to Orlando, picked up our rental car & arrived at our hotel late Thursday night. We were excited to stay at Disney Springs, so we were close to everything, but I was even more excited when we walked into the marketplace at the hotel & saw their gf section:

I will warn you now. Most of this blog will be about soccer & food. Ha! That's what did - we flew to Orlando to eat & I loved every bite! I forget how allergy friendly Disney is, so we had so many options everywhere we went. 

Friday morning, we woke up early & had a day planned at Universal Studios:

We had SO much fun but of course I took a ton of pictures so I will do a separate post about that. 

After a fun day, we had our car packed for soccer & we headed straight to the park for their first game of the weekend Friday night. Did I mention they played at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex? Thankfully it was just a few miles down the road from our hotel, on Disney's property:

I mean not a bad place to play soccer:

There's just something about palm trees on the side of the pitch. The weather was unpredictable - freezing Friday night, up to 70 on Saturday & we were all overdressed & hot. What I didn't get pictures of was how crowded it was. They were having the UCA/UDA collegiate championship & every college you could think of was there - bands, dance team, cheer teams - it was CRAZY! Sophie would have loved it! Their first game was evenly matched & we ended the game tied 0-0 but towards the end of the game, Sadie was taken out by the other team when another girl fouled her. Unfortunately, it was a bad hit & the other girl got a yellow card while Sadie got hurt. I thought it was her tailbone because she was slow to get up & was holding her back. She played a few more minutes & I didn't realize until I watched the film later that she was crying & when she started running, she was holding her left arm. Then I noticed she went to the medical tent & stayed there until the end of the game. Turns out the medic had been trying to call me, but I thought it was spam & didn't answer. He suggested we take her to an urgent care facility so that's where we headed at 11:00 that night:

They took an x-ray but the doc on call said he didn't see anything & that a radiologist would call us back. But they did wrap her arm & help make it stable to help her get through the weekend. She slept with it elevated, took a lot of pain medicine & somehow powered through:

Unfortunately, she didn't play again the rest of the weekend, but she dressed out & sat on the bench with her team:

By the end of the weekend, we had several girls down! Poor Gracie in the back got hit hard in the face & had a horrible bloody nose & Kori hurt her hip & had to be wheeled out in a chair:

Saturday was a hard loss to a team they should have beat and Sunday was the best they played but they just fell short & lost 3-2. On Saturday & Sunday when they weren't playing, we spent a lot of time at Disney Springs since it was within walking distance. We had fun walking around, shopping & most importantly, eating! Ha! This is where we came for New Year's & as much as we wanted to go back to that restaurant, we wanted to try new places this time. 

Friday night even though Sadie was hurt, she was starving so we went & got burgers with incredible fries before we headed to the clinic:

On Saturday I was excited to try this pub that I read had really good fish & chips, along with fried chicken & onion rings. Yes, onion rings. I can't remember the last time I had one:

Then we met up with friends for dessert:

I remember last time we were at Disneyland they had a dairy free ice cream sundae, so I got that again & it was AMAZING! Even worth the $25 I paid for it! 

On Sunday, we knew the girls were already out of the championship game & would not be playing on Monday so Sadie & I packed up early to catch the latest flight out. It was a nice morning but after lunch a cold front blew in with high winds, rain & much cooler weather. We braved the elements for one last stop at Disney Springs before we headed home:

We ate at this bakery in New York & it is 100% gluten free & vegan. We had stopped earlier this trip & I bought a cinnamon churro cupcake top with caramel in the middle & it was delicious:

This time we picked up a sampler box for breakfast with cinnamon cake, cinnamon roll, donut & banana bread:

We only ate half for breakfast & had the rest on the plane. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed that night but thankfully we made it home around midnight. The rest of her team stayed until Monday, but I was glad to get her back because they didn't have school on Monday & I wanted to take her first thing to the fracture clinic at Scottish Rite. Thank goodness we did because as of today, I still have not heard back from the radiologist in Florida. But they confirmed that she fractured her scaphoid in her left wrist so she did get a cast that she will wear for the next 3-4 weeks until she has follow up x-rays:

Besides her injury, we had a great weekend! So much fun just the 2 of us & bonding with her team. Ironically, 2 years ago she went to a soccer tournament in California with her old team & fractured her wrist in the exact same scenario, except for it was her right wrist. This time it is much harder since her left hand is her dominant hand. Thankfully she had a good attitude through it all & is already planning her next soccer adventure since they let you play in casts.