Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Disney Trip!

Here's a review I wrote up, maybe its helpful, maybe not!

We went to disney Feb 14-Feb 20.

Stayed in a Moderate on property resort (Port Orleans - Riverside). Room was small but fit us okay. I did not like how we had Nowhere to unpack our suitcases, and after rolling in our double stroller we had nowhere to even open up our suitcases except for on top of the beds. We loved the little murphey bed for Cullen, they have bed rails if you ask the front desk and that was awesome.

We got the diningplan free with our deal. We had 6 nights, 4 park tickets (x2 adults + 1 child), plus all the meals (more than enough food, we spent a whole $10 total on extra food, one day for cullen, and then just tips). Our total cost was $2500 + $1450 for Flights (4 people). Our expenditures for toys/gifts/souveniers AND tips was $450, I thought it would be much higher actually we bought a LOT of stuff. We ate at NICE restaurants and had 3 character meals.

What I didn't like... We planned TOO much as far as meals, it takes a long time to get from the parks to places or from your hotel to another hotel for a meal, like at least 40-50 minutes. We had a sit down meal every day and it was kinda difficult with a 2 year old planning for a 5:15 meal, we couldn't do it later, Cullen was asleep as it was at 7pm every night practically.

Weather was good, but not great for swimming, the boys were bummed, but we braved it anyway and went swimming, at night was great it was 55 out but the pools were SO HOT!

NOW the BAD/Ugly:
My camera/wallet and caleb's wallet was stolen day 2 in the parks (at magic kingdom), total lost $4200 (so yeah more than the trip). Its my fault sure, the ONE time I accidentally left my bag in the bottom of the stroller and the stroller gets taken. The stroller was actually recovered around the park, but my bags contents were emptied. I filed a police report and we hope to get insurance to cover it.

- What disney did: Obviously it was a huge bummer because my pictures were on the camera. The day prior we had breakfast at Hollywood and Vine with Disney JR characters. we were able to go back and the restaurant set up a special table area for us to recreate the images. The reason we were able to do that was because our hotel gave us Park Hoppers for the remainder of our visit, which included an extra day of parks.

Disney parks also gave us the DVD of the Disney photopass for free. We actually weren't using it at all because I'm a photographer, so we started using it as much as possible and got about 100 images total from the trip. it was nice that I was in the photos more, but they were kinda crappy quality compared to what I would have had. AND we have ZERO pictures in Magic Kingdom because we just didn't have time to go back during the day.

Meals:

Hollywood & Vine - GREAT buffet breakfast, loved it.

Jake was their favorite, but they also met, June from Little Einsteins, Agent OSO, and Handy Manny


Kona - eh ok, sit down, order meals, not very many options. I wouldn't go back.

Chef Mickeys - Not good food, but its the 'experience' I personally didn't like it, its character dining (mickey, donald, goofy, pluto, minnie) but the atmosphere is crazy and my kids were crazy and not behaving.







Tusker House - AMAZING, my favorite by far. for breakfast and lunch its character dining (donald) but we went for dinner and it was great! Really good Buffet, and different foods.

Ohanas - I didn't like it. This was where they bring meats to your table like brazilian style. I like brazilian style but I just didn't like the foods at Ohanas.  But they did make a big deal over Caleb's birthday so that was awesome!



1900 Park Fare - Character dining (alice, mary poppins, pooh, tigger) okay breakfast, but I liked hollywood and vine better.







One of the best signature lines was the Toy Story one.  There were little stations to take pictures at while you waited for the main attraction!






 




And some pictures from the Disney Photopass

 
 
 






And some pictures off my Point and Shoot



Cullen and Caleb both loved watching the Jedi training, although they really did NOT want to do it!


Cullen didn't want to leave the "its a small world" playground


 
 
The kids like the safari at Animal kingdom!



And the boys had a blast on the dino ride at dinoland!


Well that's far from all the pictures but you get the idea.  Even though we had some misfortune, we still had a great time in one of the happiest places on earth!  I can't wait to go back!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentines Day!

We are off to disney today, but before we go I gotta post some valentines day pictures I took last weekend!  I just love these boys!











Friday, February 8, 2013

My Cali Trip

Wow, so I had a California TDY for work, I'm amazed at some of the things I do for my job and am really blessed to have such a fun, interesting and stable job.  Of course right after this trip I start a new and exciting adventure in FMS land, but for now I am working FED (Fuel Efficient Demonstrator)...

Without getting into the actual reason for my trip (maybe for another time?)  I'll show you what I did on my time off!  :)  I tried to see some sites, stick my feet in the ocean and what not!  I had fun with these pictures, so glad I had some down time to tote my camera along.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 



Monday, January 28, 2013

I *heart* Fog

I have been wanting to experiment with photographing the boys in the fog for a while.  I'm not sure I nailed it, I think its probably a combination of getting the right setting and also processing for the fog.  I still love how the images turned out!

 
 
 
 
 

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Boys go to the Library!

I have been so bad about updating my blog!  I'll try to go back and update it with the fall/winter of 2012.  But for now, here's our trip to the library today!

 
 


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Fun in the Snow

Happy New Year!!  We are enjoying our time off and our special time together and what better way than to play outside!  My boys love being outside and a little snow isn't going to stop them.  Cullen's latest thing is always wearing some type of eye wear, I guess its his new style.  Today it was his tool workshop goggles, and I guess he's pretending they are ski goggles, sooo cute!


He's all bundled up but not really happy about his boots getting snow on them, silly boy!



 
 
Caleb is always the one that gives me a run for my money when I get the camera out, but I got him!