What's in a title anyway? How about 1300 pictures? 4/15/11-> Bonus Section pt1 & 2

[Brae's Mom]

Love it so far! I found this while I was at work today and was only able to read the first couple of installments. I'm caught up and ready for more. Really enjoying your photographs they are great!! Your boys are completely cute!!!!!

 

[mtmbyck]

Oh no. I was all ready for the movies on the beach.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

No, they always try but to no avail. It just gives us another reason to go back right???

At least that's not the only show we tried to be a part of that day! <--hey look, more suspense!!!!

Tell Madi we said and to hang in there....hopefully one day she will get her turn!

She said to me tonight as I was tucking her in - "Mom. I want to go back to Disney." ---- me too baby, me too! She doesn't know about November, and I likely won't tell her, try my hardest anyways!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Love it so far! I found this while I was at work today and was only able to read the first couple of installments. I'm caught up and ready for more. Really enjoying your photographs they are great!! Your boys are completely cute!!!!!

Thank you so much! And welcome aboard!!! There will be more soon I promise. I have one started but don't want to break it up yet. If I get caffeinated early enough, I might have the next update around noon tomorrow. No promises, but I will try.

Oh no. I was all ready for the movies on the beach.

Awe...so sorry! We're supposed to get another 6-10" of snow on Thursday, so I feel your pain. I'd love to go watch a movie on the beach right now!!!!

She said to me tonight as I was tucking her in - "Mom. I want to go back to Disney." ---- me too baby, me too! She doesn't know about November, and I likely won't tell her, try my hardest anyways!

That will be the hardest thing you will have to do for a long time!!!
We did a surprise trip for the boys and we wanted to SCREAM the closer it got. As hard as it's going to be, it's so worth it to wait and not tell her! I love hearing about the surprise trips!!! Now I'm getting excited for you!!!!!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Just to give everybody an idea of where I'm at. I did put in a good 2 hrs tonight working on an update, and I REALLY want to post it, but I don't want to leave it off here. I'm going to try to put some time in tomorrow morning to post by the afternoon and hopefully finish up day 3 by late in the evening. Right now it's 2:20am here and I am zonked. I get home from work close to 4am and have to back up by 7am to get the kids ready for school, so if there's no update by noon the coffee isn't doing anything for me.

With 6-10" more of snow due right when I'm clocking in at work tomorrow, I'm hoping for a slow day with an early update.

See ya real soon!

 

[dismagiclover]

I'm a bit late, but I'm here now! You obviously already know this, but your wife is just beautiful and you have two pretty good looking boys too. I love reading about the adventures of little boys. Because wherever little boys are adventures are bound to follow

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I'm a bit late, but I'm here now! You obviously already know this, but your wife is just beautiful and you have two pretty good looking boys too. I love reading about the adventures of little boys. Because wherever little boys are adventures are bound to follow

Hey there! C' mon in and get out of the cold! Your never too late to join in!
Thank you so much! I do already know that, but for some reason, you just can't tell her that I don't get it. I say it all the time, but i'm just the husband.....supposed to say it and all. Now, i'f I could get her to read my tr she'd probably be beaming

As for the "adventures" part yea, we can call them adventures

 

[princessjv]

This was our sad day. We went home.

I LOVE light fixtures! I grab a few snaps of those on our trip! I totally agree that they add that little extra special magic that normally is overlooked!

The clam mobile snaps with details are a hoot. You photography nerd, you... {ment in the ut most kind way}.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

This was our sad day. We went home.

I LOVE light fixtures! I grab a few snaps of those on our trip! I totally agree that they add that little extra special magic that normally is overlooked!

The clam mobile snaps with details are a hoot. You photography nerd, you... {ment in the ut most kind way}.

Leave me alone! So what if I keep looking outside to see if the UPS guy/gal is here yet with my new flash Any minute now......

 

[tigerdragon]

I just found your TR and I love it! Your pictures of Wishes and the castle are just beautiful!

I can't wait to read more!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I just found your TR and I love it! Your pictures of Wishes and the castle are just beautiful!

I can't wait to read more!

Thank you very much! I'm working on an update as we speak. Hopefully it will be up in the next few hrs.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

So, my morning didn't work out as planned. After a whole 2 hrs of sleep this morning, Tina woke me up as she was leaving for work and told me that the rain we were supposed to get early was actually snow.

I prayed to the snow gods to cover the roads enough to give the kids a snow day. Kept checking the computer for the school listings every 15 minutes. No Dice.

Got ready, dropped Nate off, came home. 45 minutes later dropped Logan off Came home. Slept for about 1hr and 20 minutes. Picked up Logan. Grabbed breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and came home. 15 minutes later went to pick up Nate because of an early day. Ran errands. Came home and cleaned up. Showered, got ready for work and here I am.

I know I know, I should have been working on my updates instead of sleeping......

I'm going to work on it now for an hr and than battle the snow on my way back to work. Tonight may be near white out conditions on the highway so hopefully it will just a lot of sitting and Trip Reporting

 

[NateNLogansDad]

HEY GUESS WHAT!?!?!? After I typed that last post I thought I heard something out front and I got a present from the UPS fairy!!!

So now I'm looking at my TR, and than my instructional book for my new toy.

Instructions- TR
TR- New Toy.......

OK, I promised to get an update posted and I will.

but than it's playtime!!!

Typing fingers, don't let me down!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Good evening, morning, afternoon, or whatever time it is there. I just want to say thank you to those who have been following along this far and a warm welcome to those who are just joining us. I had such a great time doing my last trip report and wasn’t sure if I really wanted to do this one, but here we are. I wouldn’t have gotten this far if it weren’t for all of you tuning in, and I just want to say thanks. And just to show my appreciation, there is extra butter in the popcorn tonight!


So, Day 3. We ate lunch at the Coral Reef, beat Bruce the shark up, saw Crush and took the ferry to Hollywood. For whatever reason we have a habit of walking in right as a parade is starting, and today would be no exception.

Upon entering the gates we joined the masses…..

And just caught the tail end of

Austin was sad to see them go

So Brandon followed them around a bit.

We, on the other hand, had different plans.

Since our last trip, Tina had been trying to get Nate to try one of her top ten rides, and somehow, she talked him into it. Poor Nate, he had no idea what was waiting for him behind those walls……

With a wait time of

He was going to on before he had a chance to back out.

I stayed behind with Logan since there’s just no way he will be going on ANY time soon. I could hear the screams outside and my heart was breaking for Nate.

Let’s rewind for a second to our last trip report. Last year, both boys were sound asleep in the Magic Kingdom when we gently woke them up and asked them if they would like to go on one more ride before we left for the evening. We were nice enough to let them sleep while we waited in line, holding them in our arms. The both agreed that one more ride would be a good idea. We let them sleep until we only had one train left before it was our turn……..

Take a minute to let that sink in. That was the first time they had ever even heard of Big Thunder Mountain They went from barely having their eyes open, to being wide awake and fearing for their lives in just about 4 seconds. MORE So wrong….but pretty funny )

Back to Day 3. Nate had an idea of what was going on…. but not really.

Logan and I waited near the photo viewing area.

Until, finally we saw it.

Right hand side, in the middle. Mommy and Nate with two totally different expressions. Tina LOVES that ride. Nate cried for about ½ hour after it was over. Bad mommy!!!

So, one thing that always makes my kids forget their problems is a toy. I grabbed a light up skull from the gift shop as a trophy for Nates first TOT ride, and all was good in the world. I’m sure someday Nathan will need to talk to a professional about narrowly escaping death in a haunted elevator, but for now, he has a new toy and bragging rights with his brother…..he’s good.

Before we go to much further, I want to share something with you. Hollywood Studios is my least favorite park out of all four parks. It’s not that I don’t like what it has to offer, it just needs more in my opinion. Everything in the park is great don’t get me wrong, I just don’t think you need to spend a whole day there unless you feel the need to wait 3 hrs in line at Toy Story Mania. In my least favorite park, there is a restaurant that is by far my least favorite anywhere. 50’s Prime Time Café. We had a bad experience there in ’08 and I just can’t see myself giving it another chance. HOWEVER inside the Café is maybe the best kept secret when it comes to adult beverages! (I have a picture of the bar menu somewhere and if you’d like to see it, I’ll post it later.) The bar has 4 signature drinks that are amazing. The problem is you don’t taste the alcohol in them. At all.

See where I’m going with this?

After Tina stopped giggling from the Tower of Terror, we headed over to grab a cocktail. She had a Grandfather’s Lemonade as per usual and I figured we’d each try a new one also, so I got one of each.

In an alcoholic kind of way, doesn’t it look patriotic?
Unbeknownst to me, one was all she was in the mood for today….so what’s a guy to do? I can’t waste them right?!?!?

Appropriately, we sipped our drinks next to

And Logan practiced his photography

(I will post some of the pictures the kids took at the end of the report if anyone wants to remind me)

Now all day long, Logan had been asking to see one particular show. That’s all he wanted. Every time we went to head over to said show, we were a tad too late. I promised him we would make it one way or another. I promised him that all day. By now it’s right around 6 and I had just finished my second drink…..one to go. We had about 15 minutes till the show was starting so we rushed over there as fast as we could. Just out front, I killed that last drink. $30 in drinks in 15 minutes……at least I’d be able to go sit down for a bit!

So the show Logan HAD to see was here…..

Yep, Indiana Jones.

We managed to get front row seats which was so awesome! For a quick second, I thought I felt that first drink kick in but that passed…..there wasn’t really that much alcohol in those things anyway right? They tasted too good to have any kind of kick to them. Besides, I was still able to get some decent pictures……

This one turned out ok.

Yep, kept my hands steady. No problem. Hicup. Huh? Nothing. OK, Logan was asking mommy about Indy

When the show finally started

He was so excited, and I was so happy we made it to the last show.
For those who have never seen the show, it really is a great one and I highly recommend it. There is a lady that comes out on stage and asks for around 10 volunteers from the audience and they become part of the show.

Yep first drink had some alcohol in it, I’m sure of it.

So they pick all but one volunteer and when she looks over at our section, Nate says to try to be part of the show soI put my hand up…..why not right? There’s another 1000 people behind me going nuts and I’m cracking up. She points out this guy with a black hat and sunglasses. I tell him “oh well, maybe next time.” And go back to my camera’s settings. Tina taps me on the shoulder and politely explains “Hey idiot, you have your sunglasses on you hat.”

Huh?





.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

The audience cheers as I enter the stage slowly. I give them a bow. I could get used to this.

I remember EXACTLY what was going on in my head when Tina grabbed my camera and took this picture. “For some reason, I can’t understand what she’s saying” and “That second drink may have been too much”

What she wanted was my best villain laugh, and boy did I deliver. You see, I’m good at Villain Laughs and that third drink just helped me forget that there was an audience watching every move

I don’t think she was expecting that! She seemed a little blown away and fed me all kinds of compliments……I think
I walked back to wardrobe feeling all good about myself for performing under pressure.

Tina continued photographing Indy and I think she took more pictures in that timeframe than throughout the rest of the vacation.

Indy can be tricky to photograph especially if you are not used to a camera like mine. I have to hand it to her, she did a pretty good job!

We (the stars) were brought back out in full costume and given different scenarios to play.
We just won a sporting event….

(^ feeling good)

We were told to be monkeys. Yes, I pretended to pull a bug off of the other guys hair and put it in my mouth. That’s what monkeys do!

Pointing at something or someone inside a volcano ( I think)

Not a clue

After that the director pulled me aside and explained that for every show the best actor or actress is selected to do their own scene.

And I won

There was one downside. He was going to kill me.



Do I run? Did I fight? Did I even survive? Stay tuned later on tonight hopefully and I’ll fill you in with all the details with plenty of pictures to back up my story!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I forgot just how long it takes to write one of these! Off to work, feel free to mingle amongst yourselves.

 

[Brae's Mom]

Great update!!! Looks like you had fun being an actor.......maybe a new career....LOL!!!!

 

[dismagiclover]

What an afternoon you had! First of all poor Nate! Clinging to his mother like his life really is about to end. We really shouldn't laught at that, right? I'm happy to see that you put those drinks to good use as well. Too bad you don't have a recording of the evil laugh!

 

[TeaForTulips]

What a fun update!

I cannot wait to see what happened! I must say I agree with your monkey acting! I think I would have done the same.

I think the ToT ride was adorable. Makes you laugh and feel bad for him all at once.

I didn't know you could take take the boats to Hollywood Studios... I will have to keep that in mind!

Great pictures of course!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Congrats on your award winning performance! LOL

Ohhh DO I know ALLLL about the torture of Tower of Terror... but in my defense - I had never been on it before. Yes, I knew what went on, but do you REALLY know what goes on if you've never been on it before?! Long story short - Madi and I went on it for the first time (for both of us) on our last trip.

And this is the result...

***NIKON SIDE NOTE: Any good, bad, otherwise advice to give a wannabe photographer that is seriously looking into the D5000 within the next month?