The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Naples

Last week Robert and I went to Naples for a little vacation.  The good part of the trip?  We got to see my family.  The bad part of the trip?  It rained every single day we were there.  So much for the beach!

On the plane bright and early ready to blast off at 7am!

We had a layover in Orlando and Maxwell took full advantage of the open spaces in the airport.  I think we can officially say that Maxwell is a walker.  Check out the video here.  He cracks me up.

While it might not have been blue skies and sunshine in Florida, we still had fun watching Maxwell, Delaney and Nate play…those 3 are a hoot together!

I love this first picture.  Delaney is dragging GJ away by the finger (“C’mon J!”), Maxwell is stealing a toy from Nate, and poor baby Nate is just completely unsure as to what all is going on…

Robert got in on all the baby-playing fun…

and let’s all hope this is the last time we see Maxwell behind bars!

Cute Nater-Tater…

The kids had fun playing with several of mine and Keath’s (me and Keath’s?) old toys, like this Fisher Price Barn…

and old rocking horse.

Maxwell then decided that playtime was over and it was time for a workout…

But then realized that working out is over-rated…

and eating is way more fun!

The next morning Delaney modeled her awesome Alice in Wonderland halloween costume that GJ made!  Is she not the cutest little Alice you’ve ever seen?!

Meanwhile, Maxwell found time to fit in another workout.  He started with the dumbbells…

and then went for a spin on the bike…

(poppin a wheelie too!)

and then finished it up with a little stairmaster action…

He even inspired Nate to get a little exercise (in full protective gear of course!)  🙂

I have to note here that Maxwell truly became a “stair master” on this trip.  We have another big staircase going up to the second floor and he probably went up it 5 times in a row. There is no stopping him!

After the strenuous workout, Maxwell took a breather to stop and admire a cute baby…wonder who that could be?!

Later that afternoon GJ, Robert, Maxwell and I made a trip to Toys R Us to get a special treat.  A red, sporty special little treat…tune in tomorrow to see!

Around the house

What a week we had!  Robert, Maxwell and I were in Naples last week visiting my parents and had a great, albeit rainy, visit.  We ended up heading back to Birmingham a few days early because we were afraid Maxwell was getting an ear infection again but, after a visit to the doctor, he got a clean bill of health.  That was great because Robert and I had plans to go to Nashville for the weekend for my Vanderbilt 10 year reunion.  GJ came to B’ham to stay with Maxwell and we had the BEST time on our trip.  I loved seeing all my friends and visiting our old haunts.  The best part of the trip though?  Pulling back in at home and seeing Maxwell smiling and waiting!  Plus all new pansies planted in our yard by the one and only fantastic GJ!!  Awesome!  Lots of details about both trips to come this week but I need a night to recuperate.  In the meantime, I’ve got some more pictures from two weekends ago in the yard…

There’s always work to be done around the house.  Luckily Robert is pretty handy with tools…

and this provides great entertainment for Maxwell.

There’s also always photo opportunities around the house.  Luckily I’m pretty handy with the camera…

and this also provides great entertainment for Maxwell (or maybe that’s just the leaves).

There’s also always bugs around the house.  Luckily they aren’t all scary, hairy spiders like this one…

eeeewwww.

I’m outta here.

But not before wishing my cousin Amy a VERY happy birthday!!  Hope it’s a GREAT one!

A birthday special

Happy Birthday to Susu!  Maxwell’s great-grandmother is just about the best there is!

Susu, we are so glad we got to visit you just last month and hope we get to see you again soon! We love you!

Aspen! Part 1

My mom, Maxwell’s GJ, is one special person.  I knew I wanted to do something fun for her 60th birthday and I thought a trip to Aspen was just the thing!  I have been to Aspen in fall in the past and I knew it would be a great place to take her.  Considering she doesn’t get much fall in Florida, I suspected that she would LOVE seeing the fall leaves and breathing in the crisp, cool mountain air!  My suspicions were confirmed the moment she stepped off the plane in Aspen…

Grinning from ear to ear!  It was a FANTASTIC trip from start to finish!

The trip started out on Thursday with a bang – in the Denver airport we saw the former Bachelorette Trista with her husband Ryan and their two kids. Apparently their little boy’s name is Maxwell because it said it on his monkey backpack. I knew they were cool. Then we realized that Steve Forbes was on our flight from Denver to Aspen…our commercial flight. Not sure what that says about the economy! We later figured out that he was actually staying in our hotel. I think that says that we picked a nice hotel! 🙂  After arriving in Aspen, we were just walking around town, checking things out and who did we see? Ron Howard!  Opie himself was sitting on a bench talking on his cell. Celeb sightings were a great way to kick things off!

Like I just said, our hotel, The Little Nell, was ridiculous. It was possibly the neatest hotel room I’ve ever been in. My mom and I each had our own room and I think we had enough room for 20 people between the two of us. Heaven! And this was our view of Aspen Mountain out the window…

Not too shabby!

Thursday night we had dinner at the hotel at Montagna and it was delicious. The hotel knew that it was my mom’s birthday and we ended up with free wine and dessert…nice!

The next day we grabbed a muffin from Paradise Bakery and took in this view…

The perfect way to start the day!

We then rented bikes and biked the Rio Grande Trail.  It’s a 9 mile ride out to a great lunch spot called Woody Creek Tavern.  The ride out is pretty easy and mostly downhill…which means the ride back is not quite as easy and uphill!  We persevered though and made it with only a few stops!  🙂

Everything along the trail was just gorgeous…

and we even saw some guys fly fishing.

I used the self timer on my camera to take a picture of the two of us…

I think it’s a framer, don’t you?

After 9 miles, we finally made it to Woody Creek…

and I had this plate of yum for lunch…

Maybe, just maybe, that was part of the reason the ride back was a little more difficult than the ride there!  We ended up taking a few breaks to take in the scenery and enjoy it all…we were in no hurry!

We then tried again with the self-timer on my camera and got a much better result!

Now that really is a framer!

We were so proud of ourselves for biking 18 miles!  We celebrated later that afternoon with a cookie from Paradise Bakery and then had a great dinner (with terrible service) at Matsuhisa. Considering how badly I wanted good sushi (something that does not exist in B’ham), I didn’t even care about the super delayed sea bass that we ended up canceling. I think we were also too tired to care!  We were back in our rooms by 8:30 and happily called it a night!

While I was gone, Robert was at home holding down the fort (with a little help from Susan on Thursday and Friday). Now, I know you come to this blog to see pictures of Maxwell and not pictures of me and GJ (but we are cute, aren’t we?!) so I’m going to show you all the fun pictures that Robert sent to me while I was away. Let me tell ya, when you’re missing your baby, there’s nothing better than seeing his smiling face come through in an email!

The boys had a big time while I was gone!

Tomorrow – hiking, the gondola and Maroon Bells!  See you then!

Road Trip! part 1

On Friday of last week, Robert and I loaded up the (awesome!!) new car and headed to Arkansas.  The reason for the trip was a baby shower, but it also gave us a chance to stop in and see the grandparents.  Maxwell did fantastic during the ride.  He slept a lot and enjoyed his favorite Baby Einstein DVD on the new player we bought.  Technology is great.

On our way into Little Rock, we stopped through Searcy to see Maxwell’s Great Granddaddy, the original Max!

We had lots of fun checking out Uncle John’s new law office/airplane hangar.  Quite a combo!  Congrats to John on his first solo flight as well!

Granddaddy and Maxwell had a big time hanging out…

and doing a little reading.

Cara was there too and gave Maxwell some super nice birthday gifts that we played with the entire trip!

It was a great visit and I am so happy that Max and Maxwell got to see each other!

Tomorrow, on to Small Stone!