The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Spring Breakin’ part 2 – Disney!

When we finally made it to Tampa, GJ was there waiting for us. Maxwell couldn’t run up to her fast enough!  We all piled in the car and started driving. Maxwell thought we were going to Naples but, about 2 hours later, he saw some giant Mickey ears and knew we were at Disney!  Even better, we were going to get to see Nate and Delaney!  fun!  Well, mostly fun – I honestly think Maxwell was a little disappointed we weren’t going to Naples.  🙂

disney

Doesn’t he look excited…

disney

But, when we got into the park (with only minutes remaining on our First Pass I might add!), Maxwell was super excited to see his cousins (and clearly I was too!)…

disney

We quickly hopped in line for our first Fast Pass…

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which was to see Mickey Mouse of course!  He actually talks now…fancy!

mickey

mickey

mickey

I just love being at Disney and so do these little cuties…

disney

This one wasn’t so sure about being stuck in the stroller all day.  Poor guy!  I tried to let him out as much as possible but he’s fast and can get away quick!  He wore me out!

spencer disney

Still, we all had a blast riding our favorites in the Magic Kingdom.  We hit up Dumbo…

dumbo

Buzz Lightyear…

buzz lightyear

Winnie the Pooh…

pooh

and ended the day with Small World which was a total flashback for me as I hadn’t been on that ride in probably 20 years.  I loved it and Maxwell did too! Poor Spencey was half asleep the whole ride.

small world

By that point, it was around 6:00 and we had already had a very full day of travel and fun so we called it quits and headed back to the hotel.  Besides, Maxwell had already told GJ an hour earlier that he was ready to go to Naples now!  🙂  We had a restful (lie) night all sharing one hotel room…

hotel

and then had plans to swim the next morning before heading out.  The weather had other plans though but it all worked out fine.

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After some Mickey waffles and fun around the hotel…

grand floridian

our tired little guys were happy to get in the car and head on out to GJ’s house!

car ride

Full Naples fun to come but for now I say…

goodbye

ps – happy April Fool’s!  I got nothin for you this year but check out some of my best tricks in 2013 and 2011.

Spring Breakin’ part 1

Well, the boys and I spring breaked and it was great! This was the first time in years that I’ve taken the entire week off of work and I don’t know why I haven’t done it sooner!  Spring break is awesome…even if it is filled with Mickey Mouse, floaties and grilled cheese these days!  🙂

So, to begin the exciting recap we need to rewind to the Friday morning before we were supposed to leave on Sunday. After being healthy for several weeks, Spencer woke up with a terrible, croupy cough and snotty nose. Ugh.  I took him to Dr. Walley and got a steroid for the cough and thought we were in good shape. By Saturday afternoon after his nap, Spencer was miserable. He could barely breathe, had a hacking cough and was so stuffed up.  Our pediatrician sent us up to the weekend care facility at Children’s South where everyone could not have been nicer.  We got there at 5:00 on Saturday and, after listening to Spencer breathe, decided he really needed an albuterol breathing treatment as he was wheezing really bad and struggling to get good breaths.  This isn’t the first time he’s been like this so not sure if we’re headed down the asthma road or not…time will tell.  Anyway, the breathing treatment was MISERABLE and Spencer was SCREAMING but we made it.  I actually have a little video here if you want to suffer with us.  I might look calm at the beginning of the video but I was using all of my strength to hold him down.  Poor, poor guy.

Breathing Treatment

Luckily, the treatment helped almost immediately.  The boys each got a bag of Teddy Grahams and we were sent home with an inhaler/mask.  Just what I wanted to do the night before vacation!  ha!  But, we were grateful for the treatment and ready to get up bright and early the next morning to head to the airport!

airport

airport

I handled both boys on my own (they both did great) and got us all onto the plane with minimal (lie) effort.

airplane

iPad out, snacks in hand, we were in good shape!  That is until everyone on the plane started smelling a very strong fuel smell about 10 minutes into the flight. The pilot announced that this smell had been previously recorded in the maintenance log and they thought they had it fixed.  Apparently not, so we were turning around and going back to Birmingham.  I wanted to cry.  Not only because this was messing up our (very fun!) plans for the afternoon, but the thought of having to get the boys off the plane, entertain them in the airport for who knows how long, and then get them onto another plane was just too overwhelming to even consider.  But, we had no choice.  Now, here’s the amazing part – Southwest had us on another plane and back in the air within an hour and a half!!  What?!  Not only that but I also got a $100 SW voucher for each of us via email 3 days later.  I know, I can’t believe it either.  It was a good thing we didn’t have to wait long because I don’t think I could have kept up with Spencer in the airport any longer.  That kid just runs off and gets into everything he’s not supposed to!  I had at least 3 different strangers grab him for me.  Goodness gracious.  Anyway, we happily got on the second plane and were off to Florida!

airplane

We flew into Tampa and GJ picked us up.  Maxwell thought we were headed straight to Naples but we had a little surprise for him!  We actually headed straight to Disney to meet up with Nate and Delaney!  Fun!!  Disney pics to come tomorrow….

Nashville

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent the weekend in Nashville with 3 of my longest friends…my “forever friends”.  I’ve known one since preschool, one since kindergarten and one since 7th grade.  We had the BEST time laughing, eating, laughing, shopping, and laughing.  🙂  I also got to see my great college friend that lives in Nashville while we were there.  It was such a fun weekend with besties from all parts of life!  I also have to say that Nashville is an AWESOME city.  It was fun when I went to school there but it’s a completely different place now.  So cosmopolitan and cultural but still maintains that down home feel.  We had some of the best meals of my life and the whole city is such a hot spot of all things cool.  Go Nash-vegas!  If you’re planning a trip, do whatever you can to eat dinner at Rolf and Daughters. Ahhh-mazing.  And go check out Pinewood Social.  Great food and such a neat concept.  We stayed at the brand new Omni (which was packed because there were auditions for The Voice next door!) and it was super nice and just fantastic all around.

The best part of the trip though was just getting to spend time with these girls…

nashville

nashville

nashville

nashville

nashville

By the way, as much as I love my new clutch and new Frye boots, this was my favorite purchase of the weekend!

fire truck shirt

I came home with two for two very sweet boys.  🙂

Meanwhile, back in the Ham, Robert was being the best dad ever and keeping the boys entertained with the swings, doughnuts, a trip to HD and even building a fort!

nashville weekend

Go Dad!

As much fun as I had on my weekend away, the best part was definitely coming home…

home

Love my girls and love my boys!

Just a little more Disney

Happy Monday!  What a GORGEOUS and FUN weekend we had. Pictures to come but first I need to close out the Disney trip!

After Friday at the Magic Kingdom and Saturday at Hollywood Studios, we finished the trip on Sunday at Animal Kingdom.  This was actually my first trip ever to Animal Kingdom and, while I don’t feel the need to go each time I visit Disney, it was fun – especially for my animal loving 3 year old!

The first thing we did was the Kilimanjaro Safari – a must to see some elephants!

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We did see some elephants (phew!) and plenty of other animals too…

disney

But the neatest part was when we were literally surrounded by giraffes and even had a giraffe meandering along the path in front of our jeep…as our driver said, we had a “giraffe-ic jam!”  hahaha.  I think doing it first thing in the morning before it got too hot was smart because all the animals were out to play!

After that we wandered around and checked out the park.  Pretty soon it was time to meet up with the cousins for a character lunch at Tusker House…

disney

The characters there were great and I loved the food too – lots of good indian and other cuisines.  yum.  Plus, they actually had PBJ and apple sauce which made my boys happy campers!

goofy

daisy

Spencey slept through most of lunch…

mickey

but did get to meet Mickey before we left!

mickey

So fun for all!

mickey

After lunch we walked around some more, checked out the monkeys…

monkeys

and then Robert and I got to ride the roller coaster Expedition Everest before leaving.  awesome!  🙂

We headed to the airport for a (thankfully) uneventful trip home.  I would like to officially thank the late, great Steve Jobs for inventing the iPads and making our travel bearable.

It was an exhaustingly great trip to WDW…can’t wait to go back!  🙂

More Disney!

By Saturday morning we had finally defrosted from our freezing cold Magic Kingdom adventure the day before and were ready to hit up Hollywood Studios in some new Mickey Mouse t-shirts!

disney

The boys, GJ and I got there early and made a beeline for Toy Story Mania!

disney

The sign said it would be over an hour wait but were were through the line and the ride within 25 minutes!  and we even got to wear cool 3D glasses!  🙂

toy story mania

A great start to a great day!  We met up with the cousins and Maxwell and Delaney basically did this all day…

disney

We had Fastpass tickets to go see the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show and it was great!  Our crew is a little obsessed with the Disney Jr. Gang – Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Pirates to be specific – and they looooved getting to see them all live!

disney

disney

even Spencer was mesmerized and sat still! a miracle!

disney

We then had lunch reservations at Hollywood & Vine where we got to meet most of the Disney Jr. characters up close!  fun!  We met Dora…

dora

update – was just informed this is not Dora but someone named June from Little Einsteins. I clearly need to watch more Disney Jr.

We met whoever this guy is….

disney

We met Jake…

jake

and we met one of Maxwell’s favorites, Handy Manny! (if you’re the parent of a toddler you are now very likely singing the Handy Manny theme song in your head. I know I am. Handy Manny!)

handy manny

Spencer was pretty unsure of Jake…

jake

and very wary of Handy Manny!

handy manny

I can’t blame him.  I mean the guy thinks he has tools that talk for goodness sake!

After all the excitement, the boys thankfully did this for a bit so Robert and I could ride the Tower of Terror and the Rockin Roller Coaster!

naps

After lunch it was time to meet the mouse!  We had to wait but it wasn’t so bad because we had interesting people to look at.  Case in point, the guy behind us in line…

disney

oh  yea.

Maxwell couldn’t wait to see Mickey and wanted to give him a high five!

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Not sure he and Mickey ever actually got that five in but Maxwell was a happy camper!

mickey

disney

and, don’t worry, our “friend” in line got his turn with the Mouse too!

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ha!  You see all kinds at WDW!

We headed back to the hotel late that afternoon for an early dinner and spent a little time burning off some energy at the hotel playground…

disney

disney

It was a fun, fun, fun day for this crew…

disney

and for the parents too!  Believe or not, there is still MORE Disney to come!  You can hardly wait, I know…but you’ll have to wait until Monday for Animal Kingdom.  See you then!