The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

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We were up and going early Saturday morning and had a great brunch at Blue Dog Cafe. Samantha got the Pretty in Pink Pancakes! Perfect!

We then headed to Nordstrom where we did quite a bit of shopping. We even found this perfect coat for Samantha! While we wish we had seen it the day before, it was too good to pass up.

Samantha even got to get her fortune told by a giant silver pigeon. Only in NY!

Her fortune was for “glamour” and then she got to go upstairs and put the coin into a machine to get a ring.

My big city girl….

heading to Rockefeller Center!

We saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City and it was fantastic as always! The Rockettes are the very best and we loved hearing the Mighty Wurlitzer for Daddo!

Part 2 of day 2 tomorrow!

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!

more disney

Monday we were up and ready for a full day of fun at the Magic Kingdom with Joey!

Breakfast of champions…

A magical day!

disney

tron

The best part was getting to ride the new Tron coaster! Joey could get us on it once and then I had a Fast Pass for the late afternoon so we got to ride it twice!

We also got to ride the new and improved Splash Mountain which is now Tiana themed…

and of course we rode 7 Dwarfs, Pirates, Space Mountain, Big Thunder and all the other favorites!

We then headed to the airport for our 8:30pm flight home. I still can’t believe the weekend worked out as well as it did considering a hurricane came through the day before we went! It was a fantastic fall break and a perfect 12th birthday celebration for my thrill-seeking, coaster loving Spencer!