Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...
We were ready to hit the slopes on Sunday morning and had an instructor take us around the mountain all day. Her name was Liz and she was great – helped us all get our ski legs back and learn to navigate the (very large!) mountains of Vail.
Lunch break is always welcome!
By 4:00 we were tired and happy after a full day of skiing!
It was a fantastic first day – we had temps in the 40s and blue skies most of the day. Just perfect!
Ready for day 2 on the slopes!
We went to Vail for spring break this year and had SNOW much fun! We left Saturday morning out of Atlanta and got super lucky to get this alert on our phones about 10 minutes outside of exit 210…
I don’t know why we got it but it saved our trip. If we hadn’t re-routed, we would have sat on the interstate for over 2 hours and missed our flight. Phew! We were glad to get into Vail right on time!
Our hotel room wasn’t quite ready yet so we went and got our skis and boots…which took FOREVER.
But when we finally got the room we were quite pleased with it!
We decided to head into Vail Village and try for an early dinner at Mountain Standard…success and delicious! even if the kids drink of choice was a little sour!
Happy to be here and ready to start skiing in the morning!
Happy spring break!
Samantha felt well enough on Friday to hop on a plane and fly down to Florida for the long weekend. The kids had an Eday on Friday and no school Monday so we were glad to be able to visit GJ for a few days. We flew into Tampa because it was easier and had a good lunch at Nordstrom before fighting the traffic back to Naples. Saturday was a perfect beach day and we were thankful for the pretty weather!
Sunday was not a perfect beach day. Lots of rain but that was fine with us. We finished Eday work, saw a movie, played Uno, dominos and Bananagrams and just hung out. We like to just hang out! We headed back Monday out of Tampa…
and made it back in time for an orthodontist appointment. Hooray!
Samantha is definitely still in recovery mode but I’m glad we were able to get away for the weekend!
On the first day of 2024 we got up, put on our crimson and headed to the Rose Bowl! Roll Tide!
We ended up taking the light rail out to Pasadena and then hopping on a shuttle bus to actually get to the stadium. It worked great!
Everyone was excited to see the stadium and we took lots and lots of pictures!
We had great seats and the sun really warmed everyone up – and made it a little hard to see but we managed!
It was a great game – lots of highs and plenty of lows.
While the game didn’t end the way we wanted, I’m so glad we went. Robert checked off that bucket list item and we all got to see what ended up being Saban’s last game. We were there for the end of an era and that’s pretty cool.
Sometimes you just have to say “yes” to crazy ideas and this is one I’m so glad we said “yes” to! We flew home the next day landing in Birmingham at about 10:30pm. It was a rude awakening for school the next morning but definitely worth it. Roll Tide!
After walking up and down Rodeo, the boys really wanted to venture over to some sneaker stores so we headed to Melrose Avenue to check out Cool Kicks. It was…cool.
And look what they had! The reverse grinches! In Spencer’s size too!
We then walked up and down the area – lots of vintage stores.
Samantha’s face here tells you what you need to know about the musty smell!
I can’t say I loved seeing this display of “vintage” New Kids shirts considering this was my first concert and I definitely had that Jordan shirt. Guess I’m vintage now!
This was cool though!
We then made it back to the hotel for a little coke break…
before getting dressed up for an early bird NYE dinner!
We had dinner at Mastro’s Steakhouse and it was excellent! Like I said, Maxwell thoroughly enjoyed his meal – which consisted of a Japanese A5 Wagyu steak! He ate every single bite!
Samantha had – what else? – mac & cheese!
Spencer had steak and then somehow ended up with an entire bowl of whipped cream in front of him for dessert. He wasn’t complaining – and no one was complaining about the butter cake!
After dinner, Robert and Spencer figured out they won their fantasy league! Woohoo!
Icing on the cake to end a fantastic meal! We then wandered back to the hotel taking in the sights along the way.
A fantastic end to a fantastic 2023! We made the most of the year and cannot wait to see what 2024 brings!!