The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Highlands for Thanksgiving 2

On Friday we headed into town for breakfast and then back to the house to walk over and check out the waterfall!

waterfall

waterfall

waterfall

waterfall

waterfall

Robert tried to throw a trick pass with the football and it backfired and ended up in the creek! Robert made a mad dash to save it – thankfully he got it and he didn’t fall in!

waterafll

The kids were playing in the water too and thankfully they didn’t fall in either!

waterfall

waterfall

After lunch, I got Samantha down for a nap while Robert took the boys over to see Patrick and Henry and hike up Satulah! We definitely wore them out this trip!

mountain

Samantha didn’t miss out though – she had plenty of fun playing with Baby Margaret all weekend!

highlands

Even more mountain fun tomorrow!

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Highlands for Thanksgiving

Like the previous two years, we traveled up to Highlands, NC with Robert’s side of the family for Thanksgiving. This year we had Mary Beth, Holland, and Margaret join in addition to Lulu and Granddaddy and it was a great trip! It was also a silent drive up!  🙂

drive

Once we got there, Samantha quickly found some seasonally appropriate toys and made herself at home! ha!

highlands

We took full advantage all weekend of the beautiful weather! The kids are a little older now so we challenged them with some new hikes and they did great! On Thanksgiving morning, we all hiked up Whiteside Mountain. Samantha walked herself the whole way!

mountain

We went up the easier side of the mountain which was the smart decision. We even saw one of my college friends, Amanda, and her family on the mountain! Small world!

mountai

Maxwell kept finding every opportunity to go “off trail”!

mountain

The views were worth the hike once we got to the top!

hike

whiteside

hike

moiuntain

whiteside

whiteside

I mean…how beautiful! The scenery and my babies!  🙂

whiteside

whiteside

I think this is what you call a “framer”!!

whiteside

We went down the more difficult trail side of the mountain and it was pretty fun to go down – and would not have been as much fun to go up! We definitely earned our pie and had a great Thanksgiving meal that afternoon! After we ate, we were outside again to throw the ball and work off that pie!

catch

tgiving

Check out this awesome catch!

Don’t worry, there was plenty of laying around too!

tgiving

A great start to a fun trip!

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20 years!

While Robert and Maxwell were freezing in a tent, I was in Little Rock celebrating my 20th High School reunion! I stayed at my friend Laura’s house which was great because the pre and post parties ended up there both nights! It was fun to see so many familiar faces…

reunion

reunion

reunion

reunion

20 years seems like a long time but I’d say most people hadn’t changed much. We’ve all aged like a fine wine!  🙂

On Saturday they were giving a tour of my old high school – which has changed a LOT since we graduated. Lucky for us, no one else showed up for the tour so Laura, Andee, and I got a personal tour from Betsy!

pa

pa

pa

While my friends might have aged like a fine wine, the halls of my old school are showing their age! Eek! The school has expanded a ton and the newer buildings are awesome and state of the art but the original building where I spent my 18 years is looking pretty old and tired. Sad.

pa

It was a beautiful fall day and I loved being back in Little Rock driving around my old stomping grounds and getting to see some of my friend’s parents.

LR

Before the official reunion party that night, I went for cocktails at the home of one my friend’s parents. They live in my old neighborhood and it was honestly really hard to be back that close to my old house. I took the long way around the circle and didn’t drive by my house – I just couldn’t do it. I like to imagine it’s still standing exactly as we left it with all of our furniture and things inside. 🙁 I’m sure the Connors thought I was crazy when I kept crying all night but I just couldn’t help it – too many memories were flooding in. All good times that I’m very grateful for!

connors

The reunion party was fun and we had a pretty decent showing out of a class of only 89! It was nice to catch up with everyone and talk about the “glory days!”

reunion

reunion

Robert and GJ were holding down the fort back at home. Before he took Maxwell camping, Robert got all the kids up and out to breakfast Saturday morning! Super Dad!

breakfast

breakfast

GJ then attempted a campout at the apartment Saturday night for Spencer and Samantha. Super GJ!

tent

The setup was great, Spencer was all about it, but little Miss just couldn’t ever settle down enough to go to sleep over there! They ended up back at the house around 9pm where everyone got a good night sleep.

I think it was an entertaining weekend for all parties. I’m really glad I ended up going to my reunion – always fun to catch up and remember old times!

reunion

PA all the Way! Go Hey Go Hey Go!

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30A day continued

On Sunday morning we biked/scooted into Rosemary for coffee and to look around…

beach

beach

and then packed up to head back to the beach!

beach

30a

beach

After lunch we went into Rosemary to take the kids to the Sugar Shack and check out all the shops. I wandered into one shop with Samantha in tow while Robert had the boys with him…at least that’s what I thought! When I met back up with Robert in the toy store, I asked where Maxwell was when I didn’t see him. When Robert said he thought he was with me, the panic set in! Not 3 seconds later, my phone rang and it was Maxwell!!!! He had gotten separated from us so had walked back toward the car. When we weren’t at the car, he found a nice lady, explained that he was lost but that he knew his phone number and she dialed it for him on her cell phone. Oh my goodness. That sweet, smart boy!! He did exactly the right thing and I was so glad to get him back!! Thank you Mrs. Edwards for teaching him my phone number!!

That afternoon everyone sacked our for some fantastic naps. They loved the bunk beds they got to sleep in all weekend!

beach

The entire house was really great and had the perfect set up for our group of 4 adults and 5 kids!

30A

beach

That night we all went to dinner at Cafe 30A…definitely the nicest restaurant we’ve ever taken the kids to.

cafe 30A

Perhaps not the most relaxing meal but we made it through!

Monday morning our friends had to head on out right after breakfast but we didn’t need to leave until check out at noon so we squeezed in one last visit to the ocean!

beach

bach

fish

30a

The most exciting moment came when a shark came swimming about 10 feet from the shoreline…while Robert and Spencer were in the water! whoa! After some beach fun, we got cleaned up, packed the car, stopped for lunch at Cowgirl Kitchen…

cowgirl

and then hit the road for a traffic filled trip back to Birmingham!

trip

It really was a great trip and I’d love to go back to 30A anytime!

30A

See you tomorrow!

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A different beach

Back over Labor Day weekend we headed down to a different beach for some fun! Some friends invited us to rent a house with them in the 30A area and it was fantastic. I’ve never been to that area of Florida but everyone from Mountain Brook goes there and loves to talk about it! ha! So, I was glad to finally get down there and check it all out for myself. We got a house in the Seagrove area which is right between Alys Beach and Rosemary Beach. It really was a good location and we had a fun weekend. We headed out Friday with scooters – and protective headgear! – jammed into the car…

beach

That night we got dinner at The Hub where the kids totally enjoyed the live music, especially my dancing queen!

the hub

Everyone couldn’t wait to hit up the beach the next day. You have to take a tram to the beach access but the kids thought that was pretty cool!

tram

Despite a yucky forecast, we ended up with beautiful weather the whole weekend!

beach

I loved these two snoozing babies next to us – they made themselves comfy!

beach

My baby made herself comfy too!  🙂

comfy

And while I have to believe it was pretty uncomfortable, Spencer sure looked comfy here! ha!

beach

After a few good beach hours, we headed back and had lunch at George’s at Alys Beach.

georges

After some naps, I ventured out to the pool with the kids while Robert watched football.

pool

Let’s just say riding scooters to the pool looked more fun than it was. Baby was struggling and I ended up carrying her scooter back most of the way. Our trip to the pool also looked more fun than it was thanks to a little poop incident! Oh yes…that’s all I’m going to say about that! 😳

That night we grilled some steaks and stayed in so everyone could cheer on the Tide!

beach

By the time bedtime finally came, everyone was worn out! A good first day at the beach!

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