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

[NateNLogansDad]

OH PLEASE! All of us, meaning trip report people AND Photography board people just love your "keeping it real, here I am, this is the who I am and what I love" style!!!!

Don't underestimate the worth of sharing exactly where you are with your photography. You are at a great place and you're getting better and better. By sharing you are motivating others to see that they can do this too.

I always tell my son that in this world there will always be people that are better than you and people that are not as good as you at some thing. Don't get caught up in comparing, just go along on your own journey and enjoy the ride!

This is what you are doing by sharing your work, alleged 'warts' and all.
We are really grateful for that too

I think each of us is our own worst critic. We tend to judge ourselves too harshly and we are impatient with ourselves for not being "Better". We hold ourselves to some one else s level but, with experience, we learn to embrace our own style which is evolving as we take more and more pictures.

Keep on taking pictures, and keep on reading photography books and most importantly, keep on sharing!!! You are doing great and we really appreciate all that is "You" that you have with your pictures.



Marlton Mom

Mom's always know the right thing to say It's been a weird day for me. Between the weather being funky with the wind and the rain, my lack of sleep which makes me a little edgy sometimes, and when I woke up I found out via facebook that a friend passed away this week, I've just been in another world all day long and a little emotional. You have me tearing up a little over here but really in such a great way. Thank you. You brought a nice warm smile to my heart that I really feel like I needed today. As for the updates, the next one is ready to be posted. Give me a few and it will be up tonight

 

[NateNLogansDad]

DITTO all of that!

Keep it coming!

I was hesitant to do a trip report because I didn't feel up to my photographic best on our December trip. It was SO cold most of the week, then really rainy another day....... it made it really hard to do my best. But I decided I need a little Disney magic in the midst of the winter blahs (my kids are on their NINTH snow day of the year today.....) so I started one too! I feel like I'm reliving the trip, so that can't be bad, right?

And WHAT's with all this baseball excitement? With just a minor league farm team here in KC, we don't get too worked up. Perhaps you guys have heard of the Royals? Man, 1985 was a good year.........

You absolutely should do a TR!!! There's no doubt that even an off day for pictures in your opinion would still make us all sit down and say ooohhhh and ahhhh. We were there last year in January and it was FREEZING every day and worse at night. There were more than one or two times where I just wanted to leave the camera home but I forced myself to at least get a few to say that we were there. It really is tough isn't it sometimes???

As for the baseball excitement....I'm not sure I can truly explain what's going on around here. If the Phillies don't at least make it to the World Series, a lot of people will be totally blown away.

You are right though, 1985 was a good year as far as I can remember. I loved going into the second grade

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Love the update! I know what you mean about it taking forever to write a TR. I'm a stay at home mom and it still felt like it took me forever to complete my TR. If I was working there is no way I think I could do one.

I really enjoyed riding on the People Mover too. It's a great place to take my DD while DH and DS are riding Space Mountain. It may be considered a "slow" ride but it's exciting to me. And the views are fanstastic!

Tell me about it! Writing a TR is like a part time job! Granted, it's probably the best part time job anyone could possibly have....but it's still so time consuming! Now if only we could figure out a way to get paid for doing them.....

Honestly, I can not wait to get back down there just to ride the people mover again! I wish we could take lunch on there and just ride till we were finished. (Hey Imagineers, there's your next big idea )

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Wednesday November 17th
Day 6.

Can you believe we’ve gotten this far? I know it feel like it’s been forever, but we are getting there!!!!

This morning we woke up late. Like really late. Like we might have been hungry for lunch but wouldn’t have know it because we were still asleep kind of late! But you know what? When I woke up around noon I didn’t even care because today I got to SPEND MY BIRTHDAY IN DISNEY WORLD!!!! Seriously, how cool is that?

So we woke up right around lunch time and Tina was upset because she told me that she forgot to pack a gift for me. Honestly, it didn’t phase me one bit because I was with her and the boys in our happy place and today, nothing else mattered! Little did I know that really she had bent the truth a little. The reason she didn’t pack my present was because it wouldn’t fit in a suitcase and as great as Southwest airline is, they won’t let you check a new recliner that heats and massages!!!!! That, I would find sitting in my living room when we got home! For now, I was given this as my present!.........

The T-shirt was custom made by my beautiful and talented and very thoughtful wife. The pin, she had bought earlier in the week when I wasn’t looking (probably taking a picture of something somewhere!) It says Happy Birthday on it with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. Mickey has a cake and there are Minnie is holding Mickey balloons while Goofy is blowing a noise maker. I LOVE that pin. By far my favorite pin to date.

So, we got cleaned up and headed out at almost 1:40! Yep, that’s in the afternoon! But, we all felt very well rested so it was worth it. Apparently Brandon and that crew were still being rested. MomMom Ginny said they were just crawling out of bed and still needed to get showered. OK, See ya there!!! One of the BEST things about the Beach Club is the location! Within 5 minutes or so, we were walking through the International Gateway. Can’t beat that….you just can’t!

First thing’s first. Tina took the boys into Mouse Gear and I snagged us a couple of these….

I also grabbed a Kim Possible FP, but it just wasn’t going to fall into place for us this trip.

We met back up near the Fountain

And headed over to the Electric Umbrella for a bite to eat and met up with MomMom Ginny. Brandon and the rest were still hanging around the hotel but would meet up with us later on. It was nice to sit down and just talk for a bit but there were things to do so out we headed over to

Again, since I’m the one with the camera I could have used a few minutes in line but poor me….WALK ON!

With maybe less than a minute, there wasn’t any time to get some nice shots of anything really. Here’s 2 before we were briefed.

We were briefed remotely and told what tests we would be doing by these two engineers

And out we went

In just a few minutes we went from queue to car. Logan was onboard before the ride but seemed to change his mind as we sat down. Nate was all about it!

And WE WERE OFF!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Ever get that feeling like you are in a movie about to play chicken but you have no control over the car?

One day, that wall will get stuck and I have no doubt whatsoever that I will be in the driver seat when it happens. Luckily tonight wasn’t that night because we were gone!

Safe and sound, we pulled back in to the terminal.

Here’s our picture…. Poor Logan!

And just like that we were on our way

It took a few minutes to get Tina past the new cars (I’m not going to lie……they were nice) but when we exited we ran into Brandon, Tracy and Austin. A minute later we heard a slight commotion. Curious, we headed over to find the Jammitors! This was another first since we’ve never stood around to check them out. Pretty cool guys I must say!!!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

After the show we went up to meet them and all got some stickers….like a LOT of stickers! So, all stuck up, the boys wanted so bad to show Austin Spaceship Earth, so that’s just what we did.

I really wish I had brought my other lens with me but for now, these will have to do. Maybe if I do another TR in May, I’ll have some pictures worth writing home about….

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Not sure what's going on. I'm trying to post more but it's not showing up

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I guess I should have taken my hat off for the picture…

Here’s Mom Mom……

When we came out it tells you where most of the people who rode the ride were from today……I think Philly must have migrated there with us!

After that, we were looking for some character interaction but the lines at the Character Spot were a little outrageous so we headed over to Innovations. It’s great to do if you have a Disney Visa card. You are able to get in to a private session with little or no wait time AND you get a free 5x7 at the camera shop! Here’s another tip for those who don’t know about it. EVERY Disney credit card you have gets you a free 5x7! I have 2 Tina has 1 and Brandon and Tracey each have one! Here’s a few shots I got with my camera….

The CM’s were nice enough to take a group shot for me….

Our next stop was a family favorite but a first for both Austin and Tracey.

Yes sir! Time to go check out that wacky purple dinosaur thingy they call FIGMENT!

You’d think that purple wouldn’t really “go” in here……but they pull it off!

We boarded our cars and the boys wanted to ride with MomMom which was fine by us. They said it would make the ride more romantic if we had our own car! Where did we get these guys!

Notice in that last picture, Logan knows that right back and forth. He was ready for a “different” smell coming up!

I didn’t take any other shots really this time around. I have so many of the ride already that it was just time to sit there and take it in for myself while holding my girls hand. Maybe the kids were on to something…..maybe it was kind of romantic. Thanks Figment!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We didn’t hang around too long because the area where you can email a picture home was pretty packed. I did grab this as MomMom Ginny tried it out for the first time.

She cracked me up……I wish I had taken a video instead but at least I have another memory saved.

Next was one stop that we had tried to get to on our first day but got spun around to hop on Soarin with fastpasses given to us by another family just passing by.
MEXICO!

I love Mexico! I love the fact that there is a little ride hidden in the back that I still have never seen a line for!
We headed in…

And went right for…

I guess if there was some sort of line at all, I would have gotten pictures of our boat but just picture something along the lines of “It’s a Small World” but south of the border.
From the ride……

A hidden Mickey!!!!

I love the fireworks in the ceiling!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

We went back out to the shop area for a bit. I took a siesta back by the fountain and played with the boys a bit. They had me cracking up.

And we were gone

While we were in Mexico the sun and started going down which meant we had dinner reservations to get to and add another first to the list!

When Tina asked me way back when where I’d like to have my birthday dinner I replied….
Let’s go French!

None of us had eaten here before so we had no idea what to expect. I do know it looked nice and I was loving the pictures I got from the bridge

Almost looks like a model doesn’t it?

We had a few minutes to waste so we grabbed a few snapshots outside just goofing off.

I tried to get a picture with just Tina and the boys but I just couldn’t get the focus right…..I’m horrible at manual focusing!

Good old 10 second delay….

Nate is such a ham isn’t he?

I love this one of Logan. My favorites are when they really have no idea you are taking their picture. (You’d think by now they’d know that I’m ALWAYS taking their picture!)

Somehow, shaky hands and all, (I may have left out the multiple drinks we had on the way) I still got a few pictures of the front that I’d call keepers…. (no tripod tonight I knew there might be a drink or two)

In no time, we were taken in to be seated

Very nice place. I had some kind of beef ribs over noodles that was good but I really wish I had gone with the Mac And Cheese. I grabbed a tast from Nate’s plate and OMG….next time!

We were in there for quite some time but wanted to watch Illuminations so we quickly had desert and tallied up the bill. There are more pictures from diner that I have yet to get from my brother. His camera is small and isn’t too bad at the diner table. Mine stayed under my chair the whole time. I’ll post them at the end when I get them from him…..consider it a bonus section when all is said and done.

So, we headed out looking for a decent spot to watch the fireworks. Seriously, how much cooler can a birthday get???

I’m not 100% on where we ended up but I think it was near the path for Future World. I tried my hand at manual focusing once again, but I think the drink I had at Chef’s de France were catching up to me…..leave me alone, it was my birthday! Maybe if I had brought the tripod it would have helped but I doubt it. At least not for these…..

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Moments later it was time. The Lights all dimmed and the flames on the torches rose up.

Right away I wish I had my trusty tripod with me. When I woke up that morning I told myself….”Self, today you are going to just enjoy things. Leave the tripod home and just enjoy the fireworks.” But who was I kidding?!?!? I NEED to take pictures. That’s just who I am! I also had a few drink in me….that’s just not a good combo when you need the camera to stay still!!! Anyways…..I tried….

The show was starting…

And I was loving this….

Austin had a good seat…

And before you know it, it was over.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED the show. Like really Loved it. Yea I took a few pictures but I wasn’t focusing on the camera the whole time and looking to see if they were coming out OK or if I needed to change a setting or whatever. I just focused on the show. I’m telling you, one right after another I felt like the nights were ending just right.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I’m going to end this update. Just. Like. That.

I really hope you’re having fun and there are still a few more days left, so stick around we might just have another visitor tomorrow…….

 

[dismagiclover]

Happy late birthday! I'm glad it was a good one. I can't believe how empty Test Track was at 1:30 in the afternoon! Mid November must be the time to go! I thought January was empty, but it wasn't like that!

 

[mom2rtk]

Love all the shots in Epcot. We always end up with a shorter day at Epcot and miss a lot of stuff. The looks on the boys faces is priceless as they watch Illuminations.......... Can you believe I have YET to see Illuminations? Every time I go with great intentions, but end up wanting an early night. I'm gonna do it next time....... really...........

 

[camsmomE]

Yay for a great update!

I'm always inpressed that your updates keep going on to the next post. It's like finding countless hidden presents under your Christmas tree!
If I reach the end of my "image space" and need a new post... I just quit for the day.

We're headed off today to a short day trip to Epcot. I don't think Cam meets the height requirement for Test Track yet, but if she did... I'm sure she'd look a whole lot like Logan! poor kid.

 

[Purpleblanket]

Quote " So, we headed out looking for a decent spot to watch the fireworks. Seriously, how much cooler can a birthday get???"



Happy birthday!!! That is a great way to spend a birthday!!!
But I'd have to say, the only way a birthday could be cooler is if it's celebrated on NYE in EPCOT on the patio of the Rose and Crown where my husband
turned 51 at midnight!!!!

Great pictures of the Mexico Pavilion. We ate there one night and rode the callebero ride as a walk on while we waited for our table. It was our first ride at Disney and we had a great time!!

Debbie

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

First off, thanks for sharing your birthday posts on my birthday, it's like we're twins today!

It took a few minutes to get Tina past the new cars (I’m not going to lie……they were nice) but when we exited we ran into Brandon, Tracy and Austin. A minute later we heard a slight commotion. Curious, we headed over to find the Jammitors! This was another first since we’ve never stood around to check them out. Pretty cool guys I must say!!!

I thought you knew the names of the Jammitors - I was like, ohhh is that the names of those three guys?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Happy late birthday! I'm glad it was a good one. I can't believe how empty Test Track was at 1:30 in the afternoon! Mid November must be the time to go! I thought January was empty, but it wasn't like that!

We did January also last year. Never again! Nov is like Jan but the weather is nice

Love all the shots in Epcot. We always end up with a shorter day at Epcot and miss a lot of stuff. The looks on the boys faces is priceless as they watch Illuminations.......... Can you believe I have YET to see Illuminations? Every time I go with great intentions, but end up wanting an early night. I'm gonna do it next time....... really...........

Take the tripod! I love Illuminations. It's so nice and when I'm there to take pictures, they really come out nice. If you want to set up the tripod, get there 1/2 hr early. If you don't want to deal with the crowds, wait till it starts, grab an adult beverage, and find a smoking area. There's usually only one or two people back there which leaves benches for you to sit at

Yay for a great update!

I'm always inpressed that your updates keep going on to the next post. It's like finding countless hidden presents under your Christmas tree!
If I reach the end of my "image space" and need a new post... I just quit for the day.

We're headed off today to a short day trip to Epcot. I don't think Cam meets the height requirement for Test Track yet, but if she did... I'm sure she'd look a whole lot like Logan! poor kid.

Thank you! I've never been compared to a Christmas present

I read your post on my phone and I CAN'T WAIT till we can one day say "We're headed off today to a short day trip to Epcot." I envy you guys in FL so much! One day......one day

Quote " So, we headed out looking for a decent spot to watch the fireworks. Seriously, how much cooler can a birthday get???"



Happy birthday!!! That is a great way to spend a birthday!!!
But I'd have to say, the only way a birthday could be cooler is if it's celebrated on NYE in EPCOT on the patio of the Rose and Crown where my husband
turned 51 at midnight!!!!

Great pictures of the Mexico Pavilion. We ate there one night and rode the callebero ride as a walk on while we waited for our table. It was our first ride at Disney and we had a great time!!

Debbie

That's awesome! Where else can you hop on a ride while you wait for a table! Very Cool As for NYE, that sounds like a great time! However I've seen the crowds via pictures and November is perfect for us

 

[NateNLogansDad]

First off, thanks for sharing your birthday posts on my birthday, it's like we're twins today!

I thought you knew the names of the Jammitors - I was like, ohhh is that the names of those three guys?

That's too funny. I wish I knew people that worked there!

Oh, and ......
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I wouldn't say twins though! I turned 31. You still have quite a few years till you catch up to me

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

You had some really great shots this update. I can't believe how blue the sky looks over Mexico. (I actually got a pic in the Bahamas of DH with 2 boys on a boat and would never have imagined how well my camera captured the turquoise of the water, but it was amazing!)
So which lens should you use inside those dark rides like Spaceship Earth? (which is one of my ALL time favs). You still got some good ones, by the way.
We celebrated DH's Birthday in Disney a couple of years ago and it was great! So cool you got to be in the happiest place on earth on your happiest day of the year!

 

[tigerdragon]

I like your idea of dining on the People Mover. I wonder how hard it would be to get ressies.

Sounds like you had a fantastic birthday! I'd love to have a Disney birthday but since it's in September that will have to wait until my kids are out of school. Did you guys get to see Remy at Chefs de France?