Monthly Recap - 5 Suitcases

Man, 2023 was jam-packed with adventures for us! The kids added a new state to their list of places they’ve been (Kentucky) and collected a handful of stamps in their National Park passports. They added St. Maarten to their list of countries they’ve visited and visited 2 new US territories (USVI and Puerto Rico) on our 8-day cruise to the Caribbean. We also took a grown-ups-only trip to Iceland.

In between all of that, we also visited SeaWorld Orlando, and several Florida State Parks, and took a road trip to North Carolina.

A Condensed Version of our 2023 Recap

We visited several National Historic sites including Fort Mantanzas, San Juan Historic Site, Mammoth Cave, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace National Historical Park, and more.
We celebrated Smiley’s birthday at SeaWorld Orlando. Mama Elle also covered the Seven Seas Festival in March.
We took trips to Blue Spring State Park, Kelly Park/Rock Springs, and Wekiwa Park to hang out at the springs.
We took a road trip to North Carolina.
We had our first sponsored trip! We were hosted by Jellystone Park at Mammoth Cave. We explored Mammoth Cave, visited Lincoln’s Birthplace National Historical Park, and even took a boat ride through a cave.
The Moms took an 8-day trip to Iceland to celebrate Mama’s 40th birthday.
We hung out at a timeshare in Orlando where we checked out Medieval Times.
We took an 8-day cruise for the twin’s 6th birthday. We visited the Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Puerto Rico.

Our 2023 Goals, Revisited

Visit SeaWorld– In January, we drove down to SeaWorld Orlando to spend the day riding rollercoasters and catching animal shows. Elle went back to SeaWorld in March to check out the Seven Seas Food Festival.
Take a Cruise– In November, 23 took an 8-day cruise to celebrate the guys turning 6. We visited the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.
Spend some time in the mountains– Ashley took the kids up to the mountains in January. We spent Memorial Day weekend in the mountains and hung out in Kentucky over the summer.
Visit at least 3 new springs– We visited Blue Spring State Park in January and in March, Elle visited Rock Springs and Wekiwa Springs. Technically we didn’t meet this goal since we’ve been to Blue Spring State Park many times.
Visit at least 2 National Park Sites- We visited Fort Matanzas National Monument in St. Augustine early in January. We visited the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in March. In June we went to Mammoth Cave and Abraham Lincoln’s Birth Place National Historical Park. In November we visited the San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico.
Add a new state to the list of places we’ve been- Ashley and the kids added a new state to their list this summer during our road trip to Kentucky.
Plan our Christmas trip– This year’s Christmas trip is going to look a little different…we’re not going on it until the summer. We’ll be hitting the Florida Keys with some friends.
Accrue airline miles
Increase Instagram followers by 10% (4719)
Increase blog traffic by 50% (85,417 visitors)
Add content for 1 state and 2 countries– New content has been added for Kentucky, Puerto Rico and Iceland!
Create 12 YouTube videos
Generate $1,000 in income from 5 Suitcases

2024 Goals and Plans

We have our eyes set on some new destinations in 2024.

The Florida Keys

Believe it or not, I’ve lived in Florida for over 30 years and I’ve never been to The Keys! This summer we are visiting Key Largo with some friends. We may sneak over to Biscayne National Park while we’re in the area so we can add another stamp to our National Park Passport.

Hitting the High Seas

Smiley picked a cruise to celebrate her 10th birthday. We’ll be visiting 2 new ports, Bimini and Freeport, both in The Bahamas. I’ve been to The Bahamas countless times, but I haven’t been to either port so I’m really excited to check it out.

Visit More National Parks

We bought National Park Passports for each of the kids so that they can keep track of which parks they’ve visited. I’d like to visit at least 2 more National Park sites this year.

Hit up the Theme Parks

This year the boys asked to go to Disney for their birthday. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve visited the House of Mouse so it’ll be fun to go back!

Heading North

For the last couple of years, we’ve given the kids a trip as one of their Christmas gifts. We’ve visited Margaritaville @ Lanier Islands, Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, and 2023’s gift was a trip to The Keys. This year, we decided to cut out the gifts altogether and put more money towards a trip for them.

We put the names of all of the states that the kids haven’t visited into a New Year’s hat and had the kids each pick out a slip of paper. Next, we put just the states that they selected (West Virginia, Oregon, and Minnesota) back into the hat and Ashley selected one at random. We ended up selecting West Virginia as our Christmas trip destination.

The Kids 2024 Goals for Travel

For the first time ever, all 3 kids have the same travel goal for 2024- they all want to go on a cruise! We booked a cruise for later in the year. We’ll be visiting two new-to-us ports in The Bahamas: Freeport and Bimini.

More 2024 Goals

Add a new state to our list of places we’ve been. Last year we added Kentucky to our list of states visited. This year we are planning on visiting West Virginia and may pop into Pennsylvania and/or Maryland.
Plan our Christmas Trip. For the last couple of years, we’ve been gifting the kids experiences for Christmas. This year we put the names of all of the states that the kids haven’t visited into a New Year’s hat and had the kids each pick out a slip of paper. Next, we put just the states that they selected (West Virginia, Oregon, and Minnesota) back into the hat and Ashley selected one at random. We ended up selecting West Virginia as our Christmas trip destination.
Accrue airline miles. This year we’ll continue to rack up airline miles.
Increase Instagram followers by 10%. (6741)
Increase blog traffic by 25% (168.212)
Create 12 new YouTube Videos
Add content for 1 state and 2 countries

Follow Along to See How We Do With Our 2024 Goals!

We hope that you’ll join us as we explore the world around us and continue to give our 3 littles a broad view of the world. Our plans for 2024 include sun, sand, and the high seas.

If you aren’t already doing so, be sure to follow us on our socials! We use Instagram to share pictures, Reels and Stories about our day-to-day life. We also use Facebook and Twitter to share our new content.

We look forward to connecting with you and sharing our adventures with you in 2024.

We have had quite an adventurous month! After being quarantined for four months, we became a bit stir crazy and began spending a lot more time checking out our local parks.

We took a few trips to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens where we got up close and personal with a ferocious tiger! We spent a lot of time checking out our favorite animals, the bonobos.

This month we also visited the El Faro Memorial where we accidentally acquired a new kitten. We named him Captain Independence in honor of the fallen seamen and the 4th of July (the day we found him).

Our family checked off several local parks with visits to Sheffield Park, Castaway Island Preserve, and Blackrock Beach.

We spent a day exploring Washington Oaks Gardens State Park and Helen Mellon Schmidt Park in St. Augustine, Florida.

We spent a long weekend exploring central Florida with stops in Gamble Rogers State Park, Disney Springs, and Blue Springs State Park. We also visited smaller parks like Gemini Springs.

Smiley and Mama Elle had a “Mommy and Me” day that included a day trip down to St. Augustine. We enjoyed yummy donuts on the walls of Castillo de San Marcos before heading south to Marineland.

Later in the week we visited The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Memorial Park and Riverside park in our hometown of Jacksonville.