Our time at Disney World was… I’m going to say it… magical.

Lots of family time, and lots of being silly.

We were spoiled by the amazing Social Media Celebration staff, and one of our generous gifts was a PhotoPass+.

I’m sure if you have been to Disney, you have seen the PhotoPass photographers around the park. They’re at all of the park icons (the Hollywood Studios hat, the castle at Magic Kingdom, etc…) and in front of several rides. They’re also at several dining locations. Oh, and those silly photos they take on the rides? The ones that catch you at the scariest part of the ride? Those are also linked to the PhotoPass.

The PhotoPass+ is the newest, most comprehensive PhotoPass product. Buying the PhotoPass+ ($199.95) gives you access to all of the photos on the following Disney World attractions: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Tower of terror, Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, Expedition Everest, and Dinosaur. Also, the following Disney World dining locations are part of the PhotoPass+: 1900 Park Fare, Ohana, Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show, Chef Mickey’s, Cinderella’s Royal Table, Tusker House, Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue, Princess Storybook Dining.

The part that is the best for me, though, is that the PhotoPass photographers are included. I love that I can be in the picture, and not just behind the camera.

Having the PhotoPass+ gave us the opportunity to be super silly, and get some very memorable photos. I loved that the most stressful decisions of the day were “what should we do in this photo?”

And now… for the pictures of our trip that make us smile the biggest…

See what I’m talking about? Big smiles all around.

The fun part about the PhotoPass is that you can share it among families or groups. I’m sure you noticed Amy’s wonderful family up there with us!

If you’ll be in the parks for any length of time, the PhotoPass+ is the way to go! Being in the photo instead of behind the camera is what makes magical memories!

 This post is the second in a series about theWalt Disney World Social Media Moms Celebration and our post-conference vacation. Come back next Thursday to hear all about the fun of navigating the parks with two older children! If you would like to view the series of posts, click here. 

—–

Our family was invited to the 2012 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. In exchange for a conference fee, I was provided with room accommodations, park passes, several meals, and admission to conference events. I was not asked to write about our experiences at the conference.

I have been out of town three times in the last seven months, if you count next weekend for Blissdom.

When I was preparing for BlogHer last August, I bought plenty of fruit and vegetables before I left.

I washed them all and sliced them. I stored them in nice ziplock containers in the fridge. I made a meal plan and bought all of the ingredients that Steve would need to make meals for him and the boys.

I packed the boy’s lunches for the days they would go to school. They were in paper bags and labeled by child and day. All Steve had to do was make a sandwich for them.

When I got home, the paper bags were gone. The kids had brought lunch to school and didn’t starve!

But the dinner plans? They didn’t exactly follow through on those.

The fruit and veggies remained in the fridge, except the few that Jack helped himself to. The ingredients for the meals? Still there.

Except for the meat.

“Hey guys… what did you eat for dinners?”

Michael: Steak. Oh, and sausage.

Me: What else?

Jack: That’s it! It was good.

So, they ate out.

And they ate meat.

But not the chicken I left.

But at least they ate.

Last November, I was in Los Angeles for a few days and made meals ahead of time. And I had some fruit and veggies in the fridge, but only for snacking, not as part of meals.

I bet you can guess what happened.

The boys definitely don’t starve when I go out of town, but they don’t eat what I would serve, which is the fun part of Mom leaving town, right?

It took me three times, but I think I have it right this time.

I went to the grocery store today and was embarrassed by what was in my cart – seriously.

It’s everything I have been trying to cut out for the last three years.

Cereal. I bought them Cinnamon Life and they were delighted.

Mini candy bars.

Oreos.

Boxed mac and cheese. I just shuddered when I typed that.

When I got home from the grocery store, they were giddy.

Mom is going away and they get to eat fun food for five whole days.

They are counting down the days until I leave…

Good thing we have a friend who works with FritoLay and Red Bull to keep the kids supplied in times like these.

You may remember that Michael got a cell phone for Christmas 2010.

After all of the stress I had over the decision, I’m glad that we decided to get him one. I feel better about letting him go places (like the park) without me and we get to interact in a different way, which is interesting fun.

The one thing I don’t understand about kids and phones are the need to use text signatures.

It probably has something to do with my age. I just don’t understand why, if you’re limited to 160 characters, you would make 15 of them something that doesn’t get your message across.

Either way, I do like seeing Michael’s signatures change. Most of the time they’re funny, and show a little of his personality.

Every once in a while, I make him take one down.

But they always bring a smile to my face because they show that he is confident in what he likes, and that is something new around here.

*BACON* was one of the first signatures. Michael loves bacon, but I’m still confused about why he wanted all of his friends to know that.

Steve and I started calling him bacon around that time, which drove him crazy. It’s ok, though, because we laughed.

*V.I.P ACCESS* {without proper punctuation – that drove me crazy} was up next. I’m not quite sure what VIP access he was talking about, but I kept an extra eye on him that week – just to be sure he wasn’t sneaking out to any VIP events. 

*$!<K* – It took me a while to figure this one out. I should mention that spelling isn’t something I worry about in text messages. Well, to be honest, I started to critique his spelling in text messages and he wouldn’t text me for a while, so I stopped. I guess it’s ok to have a spellcheck-free zone. Now that I look at it, my spelling isn’t the best in these texts. I’m blaming that on the autocorrect, which could fill up another post altogether.

This cracks me up because Michael has had a fb account for a few years, and rarely uses it. I guess this day was one of the days he liked it? I remember getting this text message at BlogHer and I still laugh about it.

This is one of the signatures that I shut down. There haven’t been many… I’m curious about what he thinks you do at a “partay.”

I remember laughing at this one, as well. This must have been one of the times Steve shared his old school rap music with him. Because Steve?

He’s an OG.

From the West Coast.

Michael left a mint on Steve’s pillow before he went to a sleepover – that’s the back story. In the end though, I won because of his signature.

Every once in a while, we’ll stick our own signatures in our texts to him. We laugh because we’re picking on him, and he laughs because he thinks we’re dorky.

If your kid is anything like mine, they are obsessed with things they can’t have – like energy drinks. Michael loves his Monster sweatshirt, has Red Bull stickers all over his binders, and asks for Rockstars at least once a week.

Does he really think that all of a sudden, I’ll just say yes?

I think he just likes getting me annoyed.

Again with the spelling. Though, I really like this part of him having a cell phone. I can keep tabs on him and his brother at home (read: I can make sure they’re not killing one another) if I have a meeting at work.  

I’m really bummed because I couldn’t find a picture of his *Cheerleaders* signature he put up after the game I took him and his friends to a UA game around Christmas.

Like I said, I’m glad we ended up getting him the phone. It gives us peace of mind… and makes us laugh a whole lot.

I’m dying to hear about other signatures… Do your kids have them?

If you are family or a {very} long time reader, you may remember Michael’s 3rd grade music performance – his last music performance, actually.

Do you see him? Wearing the striped shirt in the back left hiding behind the wall? Yup. That’s Michael. The quiet one. The shy one. The one who never had to attend another music performance because he had such anxiety about people watching him on stage.

Please excuse my small photos… they are from my original blog. Back then I obviously didn’t know that bigger was better. 

A few months later, Jack had his preschool music performance. He made us realize that though brothers, he and Michael are completely different.

Fast forward to 3:40 into the video:

And now.

Last night, Jack spent the night at a friend’s house. The friend’s Mom was taking her son Colton to the school talent show (he was lip synching), and Jack was going to tag along.

Last minute, she asked if Jack wanted to go up on stage while her Colton lip synched his song.

Jack didn’t know the words, but said yes, and decided that he would “shake it” while Colton was performing.

No rehearsal.

No prior notice.

And obviously, no second thoughts.

Colton’s Mom called me and we rushed over to catch Jack’s performance.

You don’t have to fast forward this video, because he dances for the entire 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

Michael and his friends were watching, and one said “Michael, isn’t that your brother? You are SO different.”

I get the nature vs. nurture debate, but today?

It’s all about nature.

So, you’ve probably seen the hilarious Brandi in Sh*t Mom Bloggers Say.

Oh, you haven’t?

Ok. Here it is. I’ll wait.

A few days after Brandi’s video came out, a video from a Mom Blogger’s husbandcame out…

It was equally hilarious. I watched the videos with the boys and Michael decided that we needed to add to the craziness.

Because, apparently, I drive them a little crazy with the blog talk.

So, I bring you… Sh*t (or stuff, because we are kid friendly) Mom Blogger’s Kids Say:

I went to the University of Arizona for six years and never went to one basketball game. They’re kind of famous for their stadium, and their team is pretty good, from what I hear.

As I’m not a sports fan, it took me a bit to realize that we have something here that not every town has. With the university right in the middle of Tucson, there are 1,000,000 fans running around. About 2/3 of the locals wear red and blue on game days, and every cashier is asking for game updates when you leave Target and Home Depot.

Since I had never been to a game as a student, I didn’t realize that the UA pride exploded inside the stadium. Michael and I went to a game just before Christmas and we had a blast. I did notice, however, that the fans in the stadium were… um… not very nice to the opposing team. There was no courtesy cheer when they scored, and no clapping for a great play. As a mom of young ones (and someone who had never been to a college game before) I was a little bummed about their lack of sportsmanship.

I had no idea…

As a Christmas gift for the family, we bought four tickets to the University of Arizona (UA) vs. Arizona State University (ASU) game on New Year’s Eve.

The rivalry between the two teams is crazy.

Crazy.

And the rivalry? It starts right in our house.

I went to UA. Michael roots for UA.

Steve? He’s getting his master’s degree from ASU right now.

Poor Jack is stuck in the middle and switches his team loyalty every 5 minutes.

We should own this flag.

 Michael is the best trash-talking fan the UA has. Especially to his Dad.

So… if I thought the UA game I took Michael to was bad, the UA/ASU game was awful.

In a good way.

As we walked into the game, the nice man who took our tickets made a comment about Steve being allowed in even though he is “uneducated.” He said it with a smile.

Michael has told Steve before that he’s going to UA because he already knows how to read and that’s what ASU teaches you. 

We asked a nice couple to take our photo and after the gentleman said “sure!” his wife said “Wait… do you see his shirt? Oh. Wait. You’re all in blue and red. It’s just him in maroon. Ok, hon. You can take it.”

Then they ooohed and aaahed over Jack’s cute House Divided shirt. He was happy to have both logos on him.

We found our seats and ignored the looks Steve was getting. I posted this photo on facebook and a friend was nice enough to point out that Steve was covering the UA side of Jack’s shirt with his hand.

And his hand? Can you see it?

It’s in the shape of a pitchfork, matching the devil’s pitchfork on Jack’s shirt.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

It’s almost as funny as Michael’s shirt was.

When the game started, UA fans didn’t sit down until ASU scored their first point.

When ASU got the ball on their side of the court, UA fans waved their arms in the air and made loud annoying noises that I can’t describe. Just to distract the opposing team.

During the game, the UA fans booed (loudly) when ASU scored.

Nice? No.

But to be honest, it was kind of funny. I guess this Phoenix vs. Tucson rivalry has been going on for quite some time.

Michael kept his trash talking to a minimum throughout the game.

Steve cheered confidently for his team among the sea of Wildcat fans. He didn’t even get yelled at.

We won, of course. By a lot.

And it turns out that basketball is the one sport that I like to watch. I understand what’s going on and they don’t move too slow.

Season tickets may be on my (and Michael’s) Christmas list this year.

Who else has a Christmas elf?

We just got one. Yes, my kids are 7 and 11 and we just heard about the elf this year. I’m a little slow.

Louie is a welcome addition to the family… sometimes.

Sometimes he is naughtier than the leprechaun that visits us in March.

And sometimes he leaves messes for us to clean up. Because I need one more little one to clean up after.

But when he makes messes, he usually does something nice to make up for it. After the flour debacle, we woke up to find him stamping my Christmas cards.

Most of the time he’s good, though. And he keeps us on our toes and on our best behavior. He reports back to Santa, you know.

In the past few weeks, we have found Louie bowling with our fruit,

taking a long soak in a hot tub full of marshmallows,

keeping a watchful eye on Billy the hibernating lizard,

helping himself to some of our Christmas candy,

playing with the gift wrapping,

and swinging from our window blinds.

He is quite the character.

If you’re in the market for an elf, we  bought Louie from Amazon. He’s actually called Christopher Pop-in-kins, and I just saw that he’s on sale for $11. There are many variations of Louie. We chose ours because he looked the friendliest to me :)

I post our photos on facebook and tag Christopher, and he always responds with a fun and witty comment:

This may be the last year that Jack believes that Louie reports back to Santa, but I have a feeling that we’ll have fun playing with him for many holiday seasons.

Do you have an elf of the shelf? What kind of trouble does he or she get into?

Michael is eleven. Apparently, when you turn eleven and are tuned in to the secrets of Santa, you can ask for crazy gifts.

Maybe because it’s not going in Santa’s sleigh?

Or maybe because the elves don’t have to make them?

Michael’s list this year was written on a post it note.

A post it note, people.

We didn’t have many buying options.

1. A quad. We laughed at this. A lot.

2. An iPod touch. To replace his 18 month old iPod touch that refuses to accept the newest update because it’s not compatible with this version of the iPod touch, rendering most of his games unplayable. Thank you, Steve Jobs.

3. Two video games, one that he also asked his Grandma for. We had a discussion about asking more than one person for the same gift. In addition, I had to stop him from buying this game for himself yesterday.

4. Tickets to a U of A game.

Should I prepare myself for a car on his list next year?

Have you ever played High-Low?

Each person in a group tells the high and low of their day, which always makes the low seem a lot less “low.”

Did that make any sense?

Now that I’m back (and almost recovered) from my 48-hour trip to Los Angeles, I thought it would be fun to play high-low with you. Only, there are a lot of highs and not many lows. And I’m including many pictures, because I took about 400 of them in my two days. So I guess I’m changing the rules a little.

I can. It’s my blog.

High #1.

That is all I have to say about that.

High #2.

I got to hang with my dear friend Amy and the wonderful Lisa from GMC. They’re both awesome :)

High #3.

We also got to hang with Joe. He’s hilarious.

He even ate Snickers Steak since we couldn’t find him a Hash House to get Snickers pancakes.

Ok, maybe he didn’t eat it, but it did come in contact with his steak. That counts in my book.

High #4.

Amy and I were able to meet some amazing local bloggers like Suz and Michelle. Suz even put a name to the “skinny arm pose” which, by looking at the rest of the photos in this post, I need to practice a little more.

High #5.

Dinner with Eric and Carter from the GMC Trade Secrets series. And not “dinner” like we ate in the same room and posed for a photo or two” but dinner. Like, Carter sat next to me and I stupidly ordered arugula salad and then thought “you can’t eat that in front of Carter Oosterhouse! You’ll have arugula in your teeth and look stupid in front of a famous person!” dinner.

Yup. This is about the time when I thought about my appetizer choice… listening to Michelle and thinking how smart she was for ordering tuna. 

Can I tell you how great these guys are? The night was full of great conversation, amazing wine (so I was told), and lots of laughs. Carter tells some funny stories. By the end of the evening, I had forgotten that they were famous. That’s how fun (and down to earth) they were.

My funny story for the night? Even though there was a professional photographer at our dinner, I had to get an iPhone photo for Grandma Teetsie, who was so excited that she couldn’t sleep that night. As I went to put my arm around Carter for the photo, I touched his butt. ACCIDENTALLY. Someone else may have ignored that and smiled for the picture. Me? I couldn’t ignore it. I said, “I totally didn’t mean to touch your butt. I promise.”

I was a little bit mortified.

Moving on.

High #6.

As a mom of boys (or Dude Mom Lifer, as Amanda says…), this was definitely a high. The Hot Wheels Camaro. The paint job? Cost more than the car.

It was so shiny. And pretty. I took way more photos of it than I should have.

My low?

The only one?

Missing these guys and their Dad:

Even if Jack thinks it’s hilarious to do this in all the photos I try to take of him recently:

I still missed them :)

I had more fun than I thought possible at the L.A. Auto Show. I’ll share more photos and fun car facts later this week!

My dear friend Amanda was kind enough to feature my boys and I today on her blog. You can check it out here. And you should poke around a little, because she’s hilarious!  

It seems like everyone (but me) is vlogging.

Vlog = Video Blog

I can’t do it. I can’t sit in front of a camera and talk and talk and talk… well, I probably could, but then I would have to edit the heck out of it until my double chin was gone, and I would erase all of the “ummmms.”

Recently, the school district that I work in had a workshop for all of the special education staff. They make these workshops as fun as they can, and this time asked for everyone to submit videos showing what we do on our off time.

As fun as it sounded to me, Michael wouldn’t let me send in a video of me staring at my phone and computer.

He is my go-to photographer/videographer, and helped me make a video for the workshop.

To goal? A 30 second video.

The reality? It took at least 60 minutes.

That is why I don’t vlog.

About halfway through I realized that I needed another video camera to shoot Michael, who was cracking me up. I set my phone to record him and sat in on the counter leaning against my computer. He didn’t know about it.

I ended up with 40-ish minutes of video footage of me, and about 30 minutes of footage of Michael. For your viewing pleasure, I have edited it down to just over three minutes.

If I may say so, it’s worth the watch. And the laugh.

Does your place of business have team building events? Which has been the most fun?