The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

More Naples

We started Friday with a trip to Skillets, of course. We then hit up the beach.

That night we headed downtown to Campiellos! Yum!

Maxwell took down this breaded and sautéed 1 lb lobster tail with no problem!

The next day we went to see Wicked (so good!) and then watched some football! Roll Tide! Right before the game started, Maxwell called us outside because we had a visitor!!

Gary the Gator was back! He’s SO big and we got a close look at him this time – he’s got a mangled right arm and a nub for his left arm! Gary’s been in some fights!

It’s always fun to see Gary and we’re very thankful he can’t climb up a ladder!!

Sunday we sadly had to head back to Birmingham but are so glad we had such a good Thanksgiving in Naples! Thanks for everything GJ!!

Thanksgiving at the beach

Thanksgiving in Naples was a beautiful and sunny day! Keath and his crew made it over around noon and we feasted on GJ’s turkey and dressing, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, broccoli salad, apple pie, pecan pie – there is simply nothing better and I can confirm it tastes even better at the beach! I even managed to set up my phone so we could get a group selfie. The kids and I tried it out first…

giving

and then we got the whole gang! Hooray!

giving

After our food settled and some (Robert) took a quick couch nap, we made it down to the beach for sunset.

Of course the boys threw the football…

and Samantha flipped around!

It was a perfect evening.

We then went back to the house for more pie! That’s how you do Thanksgiving!

Naples

After spending the last several years in the mountains for Thanksgiving, this year we left the cold behind and headed down to the beach instead! We left Tuesday afternoon…

and made it down there that night. We were glad to see GJ and glad to hit up the beach Wednesday!

This nice brother swam out to the sand bar with her when I wouldn’t!

We tried a new place for dinner that night and I won’t go back, but they did have this balloon arch so…there’s that!

The real question though…would turkey and dressing still taste as good at the beach?! Find out tomorrow!

Disney

After two fun filled days at Universal we had to get in a little Disney time too! We stayed at the Contemporary this time which turned out to be fantastic. Even more fantastic? We had a VIP guide both days! We weren’t exactly planning to have one for two days, but there were cancellations because of the hurricane and they had one available, and…why not?! Joey picked us up from the hotel on Sunday and took us through the back entrance into Hollywood Studios!

disney

We of course rode Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster right away and then proceeded to ride everything in the park as much as we wanted! There was plenty of Star Wars…

disney

disney

disney

including an encounter with Kylo Ren! Run Samantha!

disney

disney

disney

It was a super fun day all around!

disney

disney

We said goodbye to Joey late afternoon…

disney

and then also had to say goodbye to Robert! He had to get back to Birmingham for work on Monday. Boo.

The rest of us stuck around the park for dinner at Sci-Fi…

disney

and a little after dinner treat!

dinner

Also, this is what happens when you ask Maxwell and Spencer to take a picture! ha!

We then watched Fantastic which none of us had ever seen before and was really neat!

We headed back to the hotel tired and happy after the best day in the happiest place on earth!

See you tomorrow!

More Universal

Day 2 at Universal we picked up another passenger!

universal

Robert flew in Friday night and joined us for the very best day at Universal. We had a VIP guide and got to literally walk onto all of the rides as many times as we wanted! So, so fun! We rode them all and rode them again. We had lunch in Simpson’s land and went to gate 9 3/4 to ride the train to Hogwarts and got more butter beer. Can’t beat it!

universal

universal

beer

See that giant coaster in the back? We rode that! Plus Hagrid’s and Velcicoaster and Hulk! Yes, I got Samantha on Hulk. She might have had some tins of mints in her shoes and she might have set off the metal detector you have to go through to make sure you aren’t taking your phone on the ride, but we didn’t get caught and she made it on!

A fantastic, full day!

universal