The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

More Memphis

Day two in Memphis!

memphis

We grabbed some breakfast and popped into The Peabody…

peabody

Unfortunately the ducks only walk at 11:00 and 5:00 so we missed them. But the kids didn’t care because they got to go swimming at Lyndsay’s new house! woohoo! We had a great day seeing her new neighborhood, swimming, letting Phillip man his awesome grill for us, and just hanging out. The kids especially loved getting to climb into Lyndsay’s giant truck! 🙂

memphis

They were worn out from all the fun…

car

but quickly perked up when we took them back to the Bass Pro to the Fish Bowl! They honestly had the best time bowling. Samantha could carry that heavy ball, Spencer loved using the “ramp”, and Maxwell would sling that ball sideways down the lane!

fish bowl

bowl

We even got a visit from Johnny and Jeanette! That night, my parents stayed in the hotel with the kids while we went out to Houston’s (yummmmm!) and had a great dinner with Lynds and PI.

memphis

The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast and one last hug from Lyndsay…

memphis

and then loaded up all of our Bass Pro purchases (you didn’t think the kids would leave empty handed, did you?!)…

bass pro

and headed out for part 2 of our road trip adventure!

road trip

More tomorrow!

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Memphis

Over the 4th of July weekend we all piled into the car and took a little road trip to see the pyramids!

pyramid

Well, one pyramid…in Memphis…that’s also a giant Bass Pro and a hotel! We went to Memphis to see Lyndsay’s new house and stayed in the Big Cypress Lodge that is inside the Bass Pro. Yep, the hotel is inside the store and the balconies of the rooms overlook the store! It was really cool and the kids thought it was awesome obviously!

bass pro

memphis

memphis

bass pro

Our room was a giant suite and really, really nice! I did sort of feel like I was in Vegas though because there are no outside windows so you don’t know if it’s day or night!

memphis

We ended up eating there the first night because our babysitter had gotten delayed because of a little hospital stay!! Don’t worry, GJ is fine and they came on to Memphis the next day. But, since we had no sitters, the kids came to dinner with us and Lyndsay and Phillip at the restaurant on top of the pyramid – which you get to by riding the largest free-standing glass elevator in the world. The elevator was…well…like an elevator ride! But the views from the top were pretty great…wish I could say the same thing about our food.

pyramid

By that night, everyone was worn out from our Bass Pro adventures!

sleep

More Memphis fun tomorrow!

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

The Beach

While down in Naples, we spent the majority of our days swimming at the pool at the house. The beach club pool was under construction so there was little motivation to go down to the beach…until I saw this one morning on the door!

beach

Maxwell decided it was time to head to the beach so we did just that!

beach

beach

beach

Everyone loved getting their beach fix!

beach

beach

beach

We made it back to the beach once more during our trip…

beach

beach

The boys got pretty adventurous out in the water on their own! I was proud of them!

beach

beach

Samantha loved digging for shells…

beach

beach

The beach was great but it just isn’t as fun without Robert! By the end of the two weeks, we were super sad to say goodbye to some of our favorite people…

naples

but were super excited to get home to our other favorite person!

beach

Btw, the plane ride home was the first time Samantha flew without her carseat! She did GREAT! bye bye car seat!!

plane ride

See you tomorrow!

SaveSave

Naples

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!

naples

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

naples

breakfast at Skillets…

skillets

playing with awesome new toys…

toys

getting ice cream…

ice cream

going to Target for even more new toys…

naples

taking super bubbly bubble baths…

bubbles

driving the little race car…

race car

hanging out with cousins…

daddo

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

naples

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

Epcot

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!

epcot

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.

frozen

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

elsa

Samantha even picked something special for Elsa! 😉

elsa

elsa

elsa

elsa

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

anna

anna

anna

anna

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

elsa anna

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.

anna

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!).

test track

test track

test track

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

asia

including a stop in France for dessert!

france

The boys then wanted to get their faces painted…

face paint

face paint

samantha

and Samantha was worn out!

baby

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.

ponchos

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!)…

breakfast

and then said goodbye to Disney!

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???!!!!