Our Kaotic Life: Mom

Showing posts with label Mom. Show all posts

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Our Koffee Trail: Joffrey’s Holiday Coffee Challenge for WDW Annual Passholders

Date: December 9-12, 2025

Location: Joffrey's Holiday Coffee Challenge, Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, FL

Rating: ❤️ (Love)

For the 2025 Holiday season at Walt Disney World, Joffrey's has a Holiday Coffee Challenge for Annual Passholders. Mom, Mik, and I decided to try them all.

Disney's Animal Kingdom - Cocoa & Spice

We started with the Cocoa & Spice at Disney's Animal Kingdom. This one isn't actually a coffee, but rather hot cocoa with pumpkin pie syrup. This ended up being Mik's favorite.

EPCOT - Yuletide Log Mocha

On our second park day, we started at EPCOT and got Yuletide Log Mochas (latte with dark chocolate sauce and marshmallow syrup) while we were eating our way through EPCOT and doing the Holiday Cookie Stroll.

Hollywood Studios - Cookie Butter Gingerbread Latte

Also on our second park day, we park hopped over to Hollywood Studios to ride Toy Story Mania and try the Cookie Butter Gingerbread Latte (latte with cookie butter syrup, cinnamon syrup, and spiced brown sugar syrup).

Magic Kingdom - Cheerful Elf Latte

We started our third park day at Magic Kingdom. While waiting for our Jingle Cruise return time, we got Cheerful Elf Lattes (latte with peppermint and vanilla syrup).

Disney's Springs - Santa's Thumbprint Cookie Latte

After Magic Kingdom, we headed over to Disney Springs to do the Christmas Tree Stroll and finish Joffrey's Holiday Coffee Challenge with Santa Thumbprint Cookie Lattes, which was my favorite. For completing the challenge, we got luggage tags.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Check out some of our other Orlando area posts:

Monday, December 8, 2025

Our Koffee Trail: Streetcar Espresso

Date: December 8, 2025

Location: Streetcar Espresso, Ashburn, GA

Rating: ❤️ (Love)

Yesterday, I had planned a coffeeshop stop in Chattanooga, but Dad wasted our coffee stop time on getting a car wash. This morning we had plenty of time to waste on our way down to Florida, so even though we purposely got a slow start we still were able to do a coffee stop. I found Streetcar Espresso as a drive thru near I-75.

Right away we enjoyed Streetcar Espresso just for its Christmas decor.

We also liked their festive sleeves. Mom got a Peppermint Mocha. I got a Caramel Brûlée Latte. Dad got a Latte. Mik got Apple Cider.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Our Koffee Trail: Dollop Coffee Co.

Date: December 3, 2025

Location: Dollop Coffee Co. (Streeterville), Chicago, IL

Rating: 👍 (Like)

Dad and I noticed Dollop Coffee when we went grocery shopping yesterday and decided to try it this morning.

I got their Streeterville location exclusive seasonal Cinnamon Bun Mocha. We got Mik the same as a hot chocolate. For Mom, we got the Candy Cane Lane Mocha. Dad ordered a Honey Cinnamon Latte, but it did not end up getting added to the order and by the time we had the other drinks and realized there was too much of a line with only one barista to be worth ordering as the other drinks would have been cold by the time we got his.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Check out some of our other Chicago area posts:

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Our Koffee Trail: Cupitol

Date: December 2, 2025

Location: Cuptiol, Chicago, IL

Rating: 👍 (Like)

Mom actually has a fancy Kuerig that can do lattes in Chicago, so we do not usually get coffee when here, but this morning we decided to treat ourselves at nearby Cupitol.

I got a Nutella Latte. Dad got a Inca Latte. For Mom, we got the seasonal Peppermint Latte. For Mik, we got the Mint White Hot Chocolate.

So we didn't get our drinks mixed up in the condo (i.e. Mom didn't keep asking which is hers...), Dad put our names on our cups, but he misspelled Dreadfully Annoying Dad.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Check out some of our other Chicago area posts:

Saturday, November 29, 2025

U.S. Botanic Gardens Seasons Greenings 2025: Dino-Mite!

When we lived in Virginia in 2014, Mik and I made it an annual tradition to visit the Seasons Greenings train exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Gardens. Even though, we have now lived in Myrtle Beach for over five years, we still have managed to visit the trains most year. Because dinosaurs did not sound interesting and the quick weekend DC trip turned into the start of a 19 day trip to DC, Chicago, and Florida, Mik decided to stay in hotel to stay warm and rest his butt while Mom, Dad, and I visited the train exhibit.

While we still prefer the way you wandered through the train exhibit when it was inside versus around it outside, the large scale of the dinosaur theme does seem more fitting outside.

One of the more detailed (or graphic?) ones was the Repenomamus with a Psittacosaurus in its mouth.

I think my favorite area was the Ankylosaurus and the Pteranodon under the bridge.

And of course, there was a T-Rex.

Our Koffee Trail: Tatte Bakery & Cafe

Date: November 29, 2025

Location: Tatte Bakery & Cafe, Arlington, VA

Rating: ❤️ (Love)

We first attempted to go to another coffeeshop, but maps seemed to be directing us into the Crystal City underground and the way it wanted us to go was not open. We did eventually find where we wanted to go, which was not actually in the underground, nor was it open at 7am as maps indicated. As it wasn't open for another 20 minutes we headed back towards the hotel and ended up at the other coffeeshop I had considered for this morning.

Tatte Bakery & Cafe was not my first choice because is a chain with a decent amount of locations, but it seems to only be in a few states.

I enjoyed the Pumpkin Tahini Latte. We got Mom the same. Dad had a Pistachio Latte and we got Mik a mocha.

See full list of Our Koffee Trail stops here and Our Koffee Trail Google Maps list here.

Check out some of our other DC area posts:

Thursday, October 9, 2025

Mini Golf Adventures: Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf - Gold Course

Date of Visit: October 1, 2025

Location: Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Course: Gold Course

After playing the Diamond Course, we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for lunch before returning to play the Golf Course. The Diamond Course was the more challenging course with several holes that were not straight on shots (either around the corner or multi level). As part of making it a field trip, we did some science experiments on the multi level holes hypothesizing which was the best and then testing our hypothesis.

Hole 1

Hole 2

Hole 3 Top

Hole 3 Bottom

Some of the Themeing

Hole 4

Hole 5

Hole 6

Hole 7 Start

Hole 7 End

Hole 8

Hole 9 Start

Hole 9 End

Hole 10

Hole 11

Hole 12

Hole 13

Hole 14

Hole 15

Hole 16

Hole 17

Hole 18

Final Scores

Nora - 57
Kjersti - 54
Mom - 59
Dad - 46

See full list of our Mini Golf Adventures here.

Check out some of our other Myrtle Beach area Mini Golf posts:

Cancun Lagoon Golf

Hawaiian Rumble Golf
Hawaiian Village Golf

Pineapple

Jurassic Golf

Ice Age

Mt. Atlanticus Minotaur Golf

Red Dragon Cove Adventure Golf

Ripley's Crazy Golf
Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf

Diamond Course

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Mini Golf Adventures: Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf - Diamond Course

Date of Visit: October 1, 2025

Location: Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf, North Myrtle Beach, SC

Course: Diamond Course

For my birthday, I decided we should go play mini golf at Professor Hacker's Lost Treasure Golf because I had been seeing ads for it in my game apps and it looked interesting that it involved a train ride. As it was a school day, we made it into a field trip with Nora somewhat reluctantly doing the adding for the running total score after each hole.

The experience starts with a train ride to the top of the mountain where the courses start. We choose to start with the Diamond Course, which the conductor told us was the easier course. We enjoyed the variety of holes including some in caves, ones with obstacles to aim through, and one where you used the river to get down to the hole (Mom and Dad both managed a hole-in-on-one on this one).