After our fun Memphis stop, we headed on to Arkansas to see some family! Our first stop was in Augusta to give Susu a big hug!

Here we’ve got 6, 2, 4, and 94! Pretty impressive!

We then had lunch at the Bulldog…

and then hung out at Susu’s a little more…

while the boys played golf. My dad played for the first time in years! woohoo!

That night we all got together at John and Cara’s house in Searcy where the cousins loved getting to play…

and everyone loved getting to hold baby Bennett!

The next day was July 4th and, before heading out, we were treated to a fantastic magic show by the one and only Uncle John! The crowd was excited…

and the illusions were great! Everyone loved getting to participate too!  🙂

I even got cut in half! oh no!

Thankfully Uncle John was able to put me back together. Phew!

The crowd thought the whole show was awesome!

It was also awesome to see Granddaddy with almost all of his great grandkids! Just missing Nate, DeLaney, and baby Isaac. Granddaddy is 93 and holding strong!

The three Maxwells!

We then checked out John’s plane…

and said our goodbyes before loading up and making the drive all the way back to Birmingham.

It was a fun road trip with just enough adventure for all of us. A good way to spend the 4th of July weekend!

see you tomorrow!

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Happy Monday! Circling back to our Florida trip last month, after 3 great days at Disney, the kids and I headed on to Naples with GJ and Daddo. Sadly, Robert had to go home to work but the rest of us enjoyed an extended vacay! As always, we did a whole lot of nothing in Naples! and it was glorious!

Of course, all of that nothing included some of our favorite things like daily swimming…

breakfast at Skillets…

playing with awesome new toys…

getting ice cream…

going to Target for even more new toys…

taking super bubbly bubble baths…

driving the little race car…

hanging out with cousins…

and watching tons of movies at home, going to see movies at the theater, and playing nightly slots!

Naples living is the best! I wish we could just stay all summer long!

On our final day at Disney, we hit up Epcot. When I originally planned the trip, I wasn’t planning to take Samantha to Epcot as I didn’t think there were very many rides she could really enjoy. Instead, GJ was going to take her back to Magic Kingdom for the day while Robert and I took the boys to Epcot. Well, from the time I planned our FastPasses to the day of our actual trip, Samantha’s Frozen obsession grew exponentially! Considering that both the Frozen ride and the Elsa and Anna meet and greet are in Epcot, we decided to change our plans! But, that meant we had no Fast Pass for the Frozen ride and the line for it can get really, really long. So, what did we do? We got up bright and early and made a run for it, of course!  🙂

At Epcot and ready to go!

We were there before park opening and lined up with the masses to make our way to Norway at rope drop. There was a huge crowd headed that way but we had no problems and only had to wait about 5 minutes in line.

After the ride we waited about 15 minutes to meet Elsa and Anna – it was totally worth it! Look at Samantha’s face!  🙂

Samantha even picked something special for Elsa! 😉

We then got to meet Anna who was pretty funny telling some sort of story all about Sven and Kristoff!

We then waved goodbye to the two best VIPs of the trip in Samantha’s opinion…

and then, of course, we hit up the gift shop! Samantha walked out with an Anna doll to match the Elsa doll she already had.

She was one happy little girl! I’m so glad we changed the plans to get her over there!

We spent the rest of the morning riding Figment, The Seas with Nemo, and Test Track (which was so awesome!).

We then made our way to Italy for lunch and toured some of the countries in the World Showcase…

including a stop in France for dessert!

The boys then wanted to get their faces painted…

and Samantha was worn out!

While she was asleep, Robert and the boys and I went inside to ride Living with the Land and Soaring (hands down my favorite ride at Disney now!). When we came back outside, it was POURING rain! Oh no! Luckily, it was the end of our day and we all had ponchos so no biggie.

We made it back to the car and back to the hotel where everyone was tired from the big adventures. The next morning, we had one last club level breakfast (these kids are living the life right here!)…

and then said goodbye to Disney!

It was truly a GREAT trip. Despite threats of rain every day, we got SO lucky with the weather. All of the kids got to see and do things they were super excited about…and Robert and I got to watch them be super excited! 🙂 Also, despite late nights, early mornings, and hot weather, we had virtually no meltdowns and very little whining from the kids. They were Disney troopers for sure! As always, a HUGE thanks to GJ and Daddo for making it all happen. Now, when are we going back???!!!!

Even though we had a late night on Saturday night watching the Star Wars fireworks, we were still up bright and early on Sunday to hit up the Magic Kingdom! As another special treat, we bought the Early Morning Magic special where you get to get into the park at 7:45 (before official opening at 9:00) and had unlimited access to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh with breakfast included! We obviously did it for the Seven Dwarfs ride and it was totally worth it!

The boys LOVED it and got to ride it a total of 4 times in a row. We honestly could have ridden it way more but they did the other rides too.

We all had to split up a bit because Samantha couldn’t ride Seven Dwarfs and didn’t really like being left out.

Thankfully they started running the carousel at about 8:15 and she was happy as could be riding that over and over and over!

Right before rope drop, Robert and I got ready to hustle over to Space Mountain while the kids went with GJ and lined up to meet some princesses. Maxwell had planned to ride Space Mountain for the first time with us, but after the Tower of Terror incident, he changed his mind. 🙂  Robert and I beat the main crowd over to Space Mountain and the kids met some VIPs. There were hugs for Cinderella…

and plenty of love for Elena of Avalor!

We spent the morning riding Buzz Lightyear, The Little Mermaid, Small World, Dumbo, and Barnstormer – it was Samantha’s first time and she LOVED it!

After lunch, GJ took Samantha back to the hotel to nap while Robert and I took the boys on some of the bigger rides. Everyone was a bit tired by this point…

but with the help of some ice cream, they remained all smiles!

And they obviously loved Splash Mountain…

and also got to ride Big Thunder for the first time. A huge hit!

We were then able to pick up another Fast Pass for Tomorrowland Speedway where the boys both proved they are excellent drivers! By that point it was late afternoon and the rain was coming so we headed back to the hotel for some room service that night! Perfect! After two FULL days we were all feeling about like this…

But we still had one day left! See you tomorrow!