The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

NOLA

Two weekends ago, Robert, Samantha and I traveled down to New Orleans for the wedding of Robert’s friend, Lem. It took a lot of coordination to get us out of town but I’m so glad we made the trip. The boys got to go have a fun weekend in Montgomery with Lulu, Granddaddy, Jenny, Ronnie and, of course, Katie and Anna! It was their first time to stay away from home without us and they did great. On Friday, Robert and I dropped Maxwell off at school and then hit the road to Nola. Spencer stayed with Susan who then picked Maxwell up from school. Lulu and Ronnie then drove up to get the boys and take them to Montgomery for the weekend. See, lots of coordinating going on! 🙂

When we got to Nola, we had the very best babysitter in the world waiting there to keep Samantha in the hotel all weekend…

GJ

GJ’s the best.

Robert and I had fun at the party on Friday night…

nola

and then had more fun exploring Nola and being tourists on Saturday morning! Beignets = yum.

nola

Also, babies in hats = adorable.

nola

I hadn’t been to Nola in years and, while it’s a fun city, it’s pretty dirty and just not really my scene. It was also crazy humid all weekend. Apparently, it was also exhausting…

nola

Completely exhausting..

nola

Still, we loved getting to see good friends and explore the city a bit.

nola

Meanwhile, back in Montgomery… the boys weren’t missing us one bit! They were having too much fun eating at Moe’s, camping out in sleeping bags, and going to the zoo!

moes

sleeping bags

zoo

zoo

nola

A HUGE thank you to all the Mgm Browns for making the boys’ weekend SO fun!!

In Nola, Robert and I got all dolled up to go the wedding on Saturday night…

nola

where we had a great time and loved getting to celebrate Lem and Evie!

nola

lem and robert

lem and evie

We even made it to the after party where some people danced on top of a pool table!

nola

But, I don’t know much about that. 😉 Sunday morning came way too early and we hit the road. Robert and I were both wishing we could have been doing this on the drive…

snooze

But, we made it to Montgomery and were so happy to get the boys and all be back together again!

mgm

It was a super fun weekend that would not have been possible without the help of our awesome families! Thank you again!

Naples

Two weeks ago, the kids and I hopped on a plane and headed to Naples for Spring Break! We were all pretty excited…

naples

naples

and I’m posting this picture too because they’re both so cute I can’t decide. 🙂

naples

Luckily Robert was able to get a gate pass again and wait with us until we boarded.

naples

The boys did great on the flight…

flight

and then everyone got a little snooze in on the drive to Naples from Tampa.

naples

Once in Naples, we were glad to see everyone!

naples

We had a busy week full of coloring books, scissors and drawing tigers…

naples

drawing

We dyed eggs…

eggs

eggs

eggs

We played at the beach…

naples

But honestly spent more time swimming in the pool!

pool

We bounced…

naples

We made obstacle courses…

naples

We went out to lunch…

lunch skillets

naples

We skipped naps…

naples

We made brownies…

naples

But mostly we just hung out.

naples

naples

After a full week of fun, we had an uneventful flight home.

naples flight

While we were worn out from all the fun…

naples

We can’t wait to do it all again! Thanks for everything GJ and Daddo!

Little more Naples

Just a few more pictures from our week in Naples…

naples

I definitely think a change of scenery and some warm weather did us all good! But, as wonderful as it was to be down there (seriously, when are we going back?!), it was just as wonderful to get back home and see Robert! Nothing like a running, Spencey hug as a greeting!

naples

See you tomorrow!

Naples

So, last Sunday, the kids and I hopped a plane down to Naples!

naples

I flew by myself with all 3 kids and it really wasn’t bad at all. Robert was able to go to the gate with us in Birmingham and then we had a direct flight to Tampa where GJ was waiting to load us up into the car to drive to Naples! The boys got an A+ on the trip and Samantha snoozed through her first plane ride! Success!

flight

Once we got to warm, sunshiny Naples, it didn’t take us long to get on our short sleeves and head outside!

naples

We spent a full week down there and managed to fill our days with a good mix of plenty of fun and a whole lot of doing nothing! Perfect! We definitely hit up the beach…

naples

naples

naples

naples

naples

naples

but the boys honestly loved the pool more.

pool

Both boys did a great job swimming. Spencer would stand on the steps and swim to me and then swim over to the ladder, climb out, and do it all again – about 50 times in a row! Maxwell is a bona fide swimmer now and I barely had to help him at all. Our second day out he even took some dive sticks and would dive down to the bottom of the pool to get them. I was SO proud of both of them!

Other exciting outings included a trip to throw money in the fountains…

waterside

Skillets for pancakes…

pancakes

and a visit to the movies! We saw Paddington Bear and, I have to say, it was a really, really cute movie.

movie

Mostly, we just enjoyed doing plenty of this…

naples

and hanging with these people!

naples

As Maxwell said to me one day at the pool, “The water is warm, the music is singing, and everything is just delightful!” I couldn’t have agreed more! Now, when are we going back?!