The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

15 years!

Last weekend I headed over to beautiful Nashville for my 15 year Vanderbilt reunion. I saw lots of familiar faces and got to spend time with some of my favorite girls! It was a glorious fall weekend and we walked around campus, went to the tailgate, ate some good meals, and, of course, hit up the honky tonks on Broadway.

Before the class party…

nashivlle

Dinner at Le Sel…

nashville

Walking around campus and the Tri-Delt swing…

campus

tridelt

Lunch at Pinewood Social…

pinewood social

The tailgate…

vandy

Robert’s!!

roberts

and, finally, some random bar after Robert’s that I’m too old for!  🙂

bar

Nothing beats Nashville in the fall! Robert ditched me and Nashville to go see Phish in Atlanta and had a great time with his friends. The kids didn’t miss us one single second because they were at home with GJ and Daddo eating candy all weekend. Well, maybe not all weekend but they did make a Halloween candy house and I’m pretty sure Baby ate as much as she decorated with!

candy house

slide

A fun weekend for all involved!

Celebrating 40 with a BANG

For Robert’s big birthday this year, I planned something that actually turned out to be pretty great, if I do say so myself! We went out to Pursell Farms with Ronnie, Jenny, Mary Beth and Holland for some golf (for the boys), spa (for the girls), and shooting (for all!). It really was a fun trip and, coupled with a blowout win for AL over TN and it was the perfect getaway for the birthday boy!

pursell farms

It was a bluebird day and the guys had a fun (albeit slow!) game of golf while the girls got a massage…

golf

and then we headed to our awesome cabin to watch the game and hang out…

pursell

pursell farms

pursell farms

pursell farms

and then into our golf carts to head up to the clubhouse for dinner!

pursell

The next morning, we all went out to do 12 rounds of clay shooting. The guys LOVED it! Jenny had to leave a bit early so passed on the shooting but MB and I had gave it a go. Mary Beth is a sharpshooter! Me? Not so much. I did hit 6 clays though…out of 100. ha!

pursel farms

pursell farms

pursell farms

Regardless of anyone’s score at the end, we all had a really fun time. Thankfully, Susan was keeping the crew safe and sound back at home so we didn’t worry about them one bit.

home

It was a very special trip for a very special birthday for a very special person!

40

pursell farms

pursell farms

We love you Robert!

Disney part 2

After a fun first day at Disney, we all slept great and, thankfully, no one fell out of bed! We were up bright and early because we had a breakfast reservation at The Crystal Palace for 9:15. We learned a little trick – if you have a breakfast reservation for 9:15 or earlier, you can get into the park early and go on and get in line to ride certain rides right when they open at 9:00 before you go to breakfast. If you get really lucky (like we did!) they might even start running the rides early! It’s also fun to be in the park when it’s virtually empty and we got the photog to snap the traditional castle picture…

castle

Thumbs up to a good day ahead! ha!

castle

GJ went walking around with the baby while the boys and I went straight for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We got there about 8:45 and they were already running the ride so we go to walk right on and ride!!

seven dwarfs

and then we go to walk right on and ride again!

disney

Woohoo! We then made our way over to breakfast but stopped off at Peter Pan as it was only a 10 minute wait. Perfect! We then met GJ and Samantha at The Crystal Palace for breakfast where we got to see Pooh and friends.

pooh

The kids didn’t care that much about Pooh but I would definitely do that breakfast again based on location and food! Maxwell then said he was really wanting to meet Mickey so we headed over to Main Street to greet the main mouse!

mickey

mickey

Maxwell walked right up and gave him a big hug! Spencer needed a little encouragement from brother to get close but he did and was happy to show Mickey that he had a picture of him on his shirt!

mickey

Love this pic of Maxwell giving Spence a little nudge!  🙂

mickey

Baby didn’t want to get close to that mouse!

mickey

Mickey was chatting with the boys and brought up something about a lion and that was all they needed to show off their roars! Mickey was so impressed he decided to roar with them!

mickey

Going to see Mickey wasn’t in our original plan but I’m so glad Maxwell asked to do it because it might have been my favorite part of the trip!

disney

After Mickey it was the Haunted House and then a quick stop off to see my childhood friend, Andee, who happened to be there that day with her crew! What fun!

andee in disney

We then rode Aladdin’s carpets…

aladdin

aladdin

Managed to get a free Dole Whip pineapple ice cream…

ice cream

Got talked into buying 2 snakes…

snakes

and then rode the Pirates of the Caribbean before calling it a day!

disney

disney

We loaded up at the hotel…

hotel

hotel

got dropped off at the airport….

airport

and, thankfully, had an uneventful flight home!

flight

flight

Disney trips are always exhausting but always worth it! Thanks again for everything GJ and Daddo! See ya real soon!

Disney

After a fun day at Legoland, we made the quick drive over to Orlando and were happy to check into the Grand Floridian! There was a little hitch with our reservation and they didn’t give us connecting rooms which was far from ideal. Happily, they made it beyond right by giving us a 2 bedroom suite! Woohoo! It was the ideal setup for our crew and gave Robert a great place to watch the AL game that night! Roll Tide! While sorting out the room situation, Samantha was having a ball in the hotel lobby and even met a princess!

disney

Things were going great and, miracle, all kids had gone to bed early and were sleeping great…until 2:30am when I hear this thunk thud aaaaaaahhhhhh! Spencer fell out of bed and hit the nightstand WITH HIS MOUTH. There was plenty of screaming, blood, busted lips, and messed up teeth. Oh boy. What is it with me and mouth injuries?? We got him cleaned off and calmed down and back to bed. It then took me another hour to get Baby back to bed! The next morning, Spencer’s mouth was pretty swollen and I was able to text the dentist and get an antibiotic called in for him. Trying to avoid the dreaded gray tooth! Despite it all, Spencer was SUCH a trooper and ready for a day of fun at the Magic Kingdom – as we all were!

disney

Our first stop was Barnstormer and then we hit up Dumbo and Ariel…

dumbo

and the Teacups (which Samantha loved)…

teacup

really LOVED!  🙂

teacups

We then took a little frozen lemonade break. Refreshing in the scorching heat!

disney

It was then time for our Seven Dwarfs Mine Train fast passes…the best ride!

disney

disney

Keeping up with Samantha in the park is a challenge. She either doesn’t want to be in the stroller and wants to be held, or doesn’t want to be left behind when her brothers get to ride rides! GJ nicely volunteered to take Samantha with her to pick up Spencer’s medicine and then hang out at the hotel. Robert and I got to enjoy the park with the boys for the rest of the day while baby got to have a relaxing “air conditioned” lunch!

disney

The boys and I had some lunch and then headed over to Splash Mountain. The wait was long but we decided to go for it. Spencer was SO excited that he was finally tall enough to ride!!

splash mountain

They both obviously loved it and it was well worth the wait!

splash mountain

We then headed to Main Street to watch the parade and eat some ice cream.

ice cream

disney

We then sat through the Carousel of Progress and ended the day with Buzz Lightyear!

buzz

buzz

Of course, before we could get back to the hotel, we somehow ended up getting talked into buying Light Sabres! Oh well, they were fun for all!

disney

More Disney Monday!

Legoland!

Because you only turn 6 once…and because we’re a little bit crazy…we took the kids to Legoland last weekend to celebrate Maxwell’s birthday a little more! We planned this trip a few months ago, long before we knew Hurricane Hermine was going to hit Florida the day before we were supposed to go! But, other than a delayed plane flight out, we had no other problems and barely even any rain.

The crew was excited to fly out Friday afternoon…

legoland

and we were all excited to meet up with GJ and Daddo and get to the Legoland hotel Friday night! Everyone loved the disco elevator and the cool pirate Lego room. It only took the boys about 3 minutes to figure out the code to open the treasure chest!

legoland

The hotel really was neat and the kids had fun the next morning playing with all the Legos in the lobby…

legoland

and then we walked down the path to Legoland!

legoland

We started out in Miniland visiting all the cities made out of Legos…

miniland

and then we raced cars, drove boats, saw Lego friends, and road rides!

legoland

legoland

legoland

legoland

We also melted because it was SO HOT and SO HUMID.

legoland

There were a few little rain showers but nothing too long or bad. Our favorite ride was the Dragon roller coaster that both boys could go on. We did that one twice! By lunchtime we were hot, tired, and ready to go. We stopped off at the Lego store (of course) and then grabbed lunch before heading out. We conquered Legoland and had another adventure to go on…to the happiest place on earth!  🙂