The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

More Florida

We had a nice stay in Naples with plenty of time to go to the pool…

naples

(Samantha looks like a little figure skater! ha!)

and the beach!

beach

beach

beach

We only lasted about 15 minutes on the beach before the boys started asking to go up to the pool! Not surprised! Of course, there was also time for breakfast at Skillets…

skillets

playing outside…

naples

naples

plenty of good food…

pie

and, when the temps dropped a little, movies! We saw Sing and Rouge One. Both really good! I promised to take the boys to get ice cream after Sing and, note to self, take something other than your Amex with you to the ice cream shop because you can’t pay with that! Luckily Robert drove up with cash and saved the day!

ice cream

ice cream

Overall, it was a lot of fun…

naples

and Robert and I loved getting to spend quality time with our 3 favorite people…

naples

Unfortunately, the week came to an end so we had to hug everyone goodbye…

naples

naples

naples

and make our way back to the airport to head home.

naples

It was a great trip and we can’t wait to go back! Bye bye!

naples

See you tomorrow!

FL or bust!

After Christmas we had one day at home to play with new toys (yay!), get all the Christmas decorations put up (ugh!), and apparently get strep throat (double ugh!). Yes, by Christmas night Maxwell was in tears because his throat hurt so bad and when the fever came too, I knew it was strep. We were up at the doctor first thing the morning of the 26th and got that strep positive test! So thankful we had a day at home to rest and start a round of bubblegum medicine!

hangover

I was also pretty proud of myself for getting the tree down and ALL the inside decorations put up that day. I knew I wasn’t going to want to come home from the trip to a decorated house so I made myself get it done. Check check!

By the morning of the 27th, we were feeling good and ready to head to sunny Florida!

backpack

With thanks to GJ, Samantha now has her own “baby iPad” to use for trips! Between that and plenty of gummies, we did just fine on the flight!

gummies

When we got there, the kids wasted no time making themselves at home…

florida

and then opened more presents!

florida

My favorite gifts were these hilarious Star Wars masks (Chewie was the best!)….

masks

naples

The boys’ favorite was these light up cars and track…

cars

and Baby loved her purse and sunglasses!

florida

Fun fun! We sure were glad to be there in the sunshine! See you tomorrow!

More Mountains

We stayed up in Highlands through the weekend as there was plenty of fun to be had. On Friday we met up with our friends and explored town a bit…

highlands

and then, while I let the baby nap on me, Robert took the boys to a gingerbread house workshop where they decorated quite the masterpiece!

gingerbread house

Saturday brought a healthy breakfast…

breakfast

breakfast

and then another hike to work off that healthy breakfast!

hike

After carrying baby on my hip on the last hike, I knew we needed a better solution for her. I still had my infant carrier in the car so, despite the fact that it has a 25 lb weight limit and is made to carry your baby in the front, I strapped my 30 lb baby onto my back and made it work!

hike

It was totally worth it to get this view at the top!

hike

hike

After everyone was good and tired, we had plenty of football to watch that afternoon! Roll Tide Roll! We were supposed to go into town that night to watch the tree lighting and see Santa, but the crew decided to just stay at home and eat some ice cream instead. We packed up Sunday morning and headed back to Birmingham to get ready for Christmas!

It was a fantastic Thanksgiving trip and we can’t thank Lulu and Granddaddy enough for their hospitality! Let’s do it again next year!

Thanksgiving

As I mentioned yesterday, we went up to Highlands, NC for Thanksgiving with Robert’s side of the family and had a great time. The kids got to hang out with some of their cousins, we all got to go on some hikes, and everyone ate plenty of good food!

Ready for the drive trip up on Wednesday!

tgiving

We then had a great Thanksgiving with cousin time, turkey, and a post-meal hike to work off that pie!

thanksgiving

thanksgiving

hike

hike

hike

hike

Gobble gobble! More tomorrow!

Mountaintop

We went up to Highlands, NC for Thanksgiving and had a great time. We got back Sunday mid-day, unpacked and got our Christmas tree! All fun stuff but I’m still playing catch up. So, today you get a picture of us on a mountaintop…

mountains

and one of the boys on another mountaintop…

mountains

and, for good measure, one of Samantha in her mountaintop gear!  🙂

mountaintop gear

See you tomorrow!