We woke up New Year’s Morning with breakfast at Emma’s Patisserie on the first floor of our hotel. Jillian & I shared the ham & cheese croissant, Jason had a blueberry muffin, and Jena had a chocolate muffin. All were absolutely delicious.

Next we walked the grounds of WEC for a bit, catching some of the competition and shopping (of course!).

Unfortunately the shop Jillian was really wanting to visit, LeMieux, was closed for the holiday, so we left that storefront with promises to stop by on our way home, if our schedule allowed.

We watched some amazing jumpers, and dreamed some big dreams. She’s already expressed to her trainer that she wants to get down here to compete with her pony one day. We are all for it!

Our longest shopping visit was at Mr. Pickles & Sailor Bear Toy Shoppe, again in the hotel. Think a regular toy store, but with every horsey toy a little girl could dream of! So many Breyer horses, life size stuffed ponies, and Lemieux ponies & accessories for days. And for a bonus attraction for us older folks, they are home to the original Geoffrey the Giraffe, from Toys R Us!

Speaking of our hotel, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our amazing stay at The Equestrian. Beautifully appointed in an equestrian theme, fantastic customer service, with a wide array of stores & restaurants on site. Definitely a must-stay, even for one night, if you have an equestrian in your life.

After checking out of The Equestrian we headed south… to Disney!

We checked into The Art of Animation and headed to Disney Springs. We usually travel in the off-season, so even though it was after the holiday Disney Springs was the most crowded we had ever seen it! There was a 3+ hour wait at every restaurant we checked, so we ended up sitting at the bar at Rainforest Cafe. Not bad for only a 20 minute wait. We did a little shopping, enjoyed the Christmas decorations, then decided we’d had enough of the crowd and headed back to the resort.

All in all, not a bad way to start 2025 at all!