The Photographer's Wife Parenting, Disney, Travel, Reviews & Other Randomness

Happy 11 months!

I guess that means the countdown is on to his birthday. Blows my mind.

We just finished making his invitation and we’ve started ordering items for his party. His gift is also sitting in the garage too. I look forward to sharing all the details with you!

Back to our little guy and what’s going on at 11 months.

Foods: His favorite foods are strawberries and bananas. We don’t really have a schedule when it comes to eating certain things at certain times, but he likes waffles, pancakes, fruit, applesauce, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken, sandwich turkey and will almost always try a little of what we’re eating. I’ll shamefully admit that I cut up a slice of pineapple pizza for him last night, too. He was definitely a fan. Daddy will be making a couple of new foods from this book for him this week, too.

Moving: He’s crawling everywhere and no spot in the house is off-limits. He can stand for several seconds and will lunge forward and take several steps…so close to walking…which also means lots of tumbles too. We felt so bad the week after we came back from Disney because he was falling all over the place and had at least 2 bruises on his face at the same time. No, random stranger in the grocery store, we don’t beat our child.

Teeth: 7

Weight: 23.25 pounds (according to the scale at Publix)

His new favorite toy? This splash pad!

Just waiting for the pool to be warm enough to swim in!

This time next month, we’ll be finishing up our next Disney World trip and getting ready to par-tay and celebrate our sweet boy Trent!

 

xoxo

Lynn

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With Trent’s first birthday party in about a month (holy crap, did I just say that?), we’ve been starting to work on some of the projects around the house that we’ve been putting off. Disney trips come first, right?

One of those projects was to replace our white shutters on the front of the house with black shutters. We got a new roof at the end of last year and decided on a black roof. You can read more about it here. We love how the black roof looks on the house, but felt that black shutters would tie the whole look together.

So today, we got on that.

So, as a refresher, here is what we started with…white shutters.

We purchased a set of black louvered vinyl exterior shutters for about $50 online (you can find them here, here and here). The old ones were pretty easy to remove. It’s weird how not having them on there makes the house look like it’s missing something and kinda naked.

Brett used the old shutters as a guide to determine where to drill holes on the new shutters, so he could use the existing holes in the brick on the house. Word of advice: make sure the shutters are both facing the same direction when you drill the holes…or else you’ll have to drill more holes into your house. Brett may or may not have made this mistake.

Then, he just fastened the new shutters in the same spot as the old ones and voila! The entire project took less than 30 minutes.

Much better.

I’ll admit, I struggled a bit when deciding to get a new roof last year. Talk about expensive. We knew when we moved in 3.5 years ago that we would need to replace it soon, but it just became one of those things that didn’t seem fun or necessary to pay for. But in the back of my mind, it bothered me. Every time a storm came by (which, in Florida, is every day), I had nightmares of the roof leaking or something else major happening. It wasn’t a secure feeling, and now that we had a baby in the house, it was time to make the house as safe as possible. I am so glad we did. I feel better about it, it looks much better and we even saved over $700 on our home insurance policy this year (and subsequent years as well!)!. Yes, it was expensive…especially since we chose a few “extras”, like better skylights (one of the rooms already had skylights that were well-worn and definitely needed replacing) as well as  premium materials and a better warranty.

For that reason, we chose a GAF roof. Honestly, I had no idea what brand was better than others, but Brett informed me that GAF was the way to go. And wouldn’t you know, I, the “Contest Queen” as friends and family like to call me, was excited to learn about a contest being sponsored by GAF. Check it out below!

GAF Roofing: What Do You Treasure Most Under Your Roof?

GAF, North America’s largest roofing manufacturer, is continuing its “Share What You Treasure” campaign with a new featured documentary webisode by critically acclaimed photographer and filmmaker James Minchin III released on May 15^th.

You can win weekly $100 gift cards to The Home Depot simply by sharing photos of what you treasure under your roof at www.sharewhatyoutreasure.com. There will also be a grand prize winner selected in November to win a $2500 shopping spree at The Home Depot!

For entrants who have a GAF roof on their house, you can win an amazing experience – their unique story could be captured by James Minchin III for the next webisode segment within the app. Minchin has worked with stars like Adam Levine, Mumford and Sons, Jakob Dylan, and Miley Cyrus. I vote for a video WITH Adam Levine!

Here’s how to enter the GAF “Share What You Treasure” campaign:

• Sign into www.sharewhatyoutreasure.com app in Facebook, start uploading photos and videos, and tell us what you treasure most about your home and family (your pets, your kids, your vintage car collection, etc.).
• Each user will have a personal page where other users can view their “Fan Collections.”

Prizes include: 

• Weekly winners of a $100 Home Depot gift card
• Grand prize winner to win a $2,500.00 Home Depot shopping spree
• One more GAF roof owner will be selected to be featured in a GAF webisode created by celebrity filmmaker James Minchin III

Good luck if you enter!

xoxo

Lynn

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By now, I’m sure you have read or heard about this article. And maybe even this follow-up article. And I’m not just addressing that to the Disney fans…it has been on our local news, on MSN and other national news sites, and even random forums completely unrelated to Disney. It’s been absolutely everywhere and I’m even tired of seeing it and feel ridiculous for continuing the publicity. This article has caused quite a stir for a number of reasons.

Disney fans are pissed. Me being one of them. Let’s say the information in this article is true and this mom really did say all of that and that she is telling the truth.

Holy Mickey Mouse…to be honest, I already knew that people take advantage of Disney’s leniency regarding wheelchair-use or people’s disabilities. (pardon me if any of my vocabulary is politically-incorrect).

For the people that really need it, I think it’s wonderful that Disney helps them have a great experience in spite of whatever condition they may have. To me, Disney is the opitome of customer service and am truly in awe of how they treat their guests. Seriously, whenever I go anywhere else and get treated less-than-stellar, I always have to remind myself that I’m not in Disney World…similar to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz….“There’s no place like Disney. There’s no place like Disney.”

But then there are others…the people that exaggerate conditions that others don’t even mention, or people that prefer to be lazy and get a wheelchair or scooter and use that to their advantage (and run into me while they’re at it). Drives me crazy!

Ok back to the article, I wouldn’t doubt it if there are companies out there exploiting Disney’s good nature or families with money (I am avoiding using the term mom on purpose) that are able to buy a “better experience”, but this just makes me sad that these people are going to ruin it for the people that really need it. That’s how it always happens. It also makes me sad that there are people in our society that think it’s ok to lie like that.

And now that I have a child, all I can think about is how these people are cheating my son. How they are lying to get in front of him in line, postponing his fun because you have more money than us and apparently no ethics or integrity either.

But let’s say this article is mostly fabricated (which I wouldn’t doubt). There are definitely plenty of items in the article to make me think SOMEONE, whether it be the author or the mom they spoke to, doesn’t know much about Disney. What makes me even angrier is that most of the people that are sharing the article also don’t know much about Disney. So we have a bunch of press and people talking about things that aren’t true. On my local news, their exact phrase was “Disney offers a tour guide service and Fastpasses to skip the lines, but at a major cost.”

Umm, no…Fastpasses are F-R-E-E and you don’t get to completely skip the line. You are given a time to return to the ride and you get to use the Fastpass line to make your wait shorter. Most of the time there is still a line…sometimes there isn’t if you go during a slow period. You essentially still have to wait to ride the line, you are just able to do other things while waiting. The tour service and Fastpasses should not be grouped together…completely different things.

It angers me that people that don’t know about Disney are causing such a stink, making it out to be such a bad place.

I guess the only positive thing that may come from this is that the people that are running this type of immoral service will stop (doubt it) or that Disney will take a look at what they allow people to claim as disabilities or needing a wheelchair (also doubt it – that’s a very touchy subject that could lead to lawsuits, because let’s face it, we are a lawsuit happy country ’round here). On the flip side, I hope this doesn’t prompt a bunch of people to now think of their own ways of gaming the system, whether it be to do something similar to what this article suggests or some other idea that they conjured up based on reading it.

So let me give this article a counter argument, per se. The mom apparently says “This is how the 1% does Disney” (ok, really, do you think they refer to themselves as the 1%? I’m not so sure, but seeing as I am not the 1%, I guess I wouldn’t know – maybe I’ll find out if I win that half a billion dollar Powerball ).

I was going to talk about how the other 99% do Disney, but I think there really are two separate groups in that 99%…Disney veterans and casual Disney-goers (for lack of better terms).

The casual disney-goers only go once in a while, and may even go just once in their lifetime. Since they don’t spend a lot of time there, they only think about the basics and don’t really plan out their park experience. From there, they can have very different park experiences depending on what they choose to do….wait in line, or not? Eat at noon or 2:00? Some choose to just go with the flow and others try to ask around as to what to do.

The Disney veterans know there’s more to planning than just hotels and restaurants. They know how to useFastpasses to significantly cut their time waiting in line. They know what time to arrive at the park. They know which direction to turn when they hit the hub as the park opens. They know full well that you don’t have to wait in line at It’s a Small World, or any ride for that matter, for 2.5 hours. I could go on and on…but if you are a Disney veteran, than you already know what I’m talking about. And if not, then email me and I’ll tell you how to get started.

I don’t have a bunch of money to pay for front of the line access at WDW (although I’ve paid for something similar to a Fastpass at the Universal Parks before), but I can bet that with my knowledge and planning, I can have a damn good Disney experience without compromising my morals. I know to look at crowd calendars when planning so I go during slow times. I know not to eat in the middle of the lunch and dinner rush. I get to the park early. I use multiple Fastpasses a day. I utilize Extra Magic Hours if I want. I know when parades and fireworks are and I find a good spot early so I’m not the rude person squeezing in front of you at the last minute and I certainly will not allow my kids to do that to anyone else without their permission. After all, I would like to think we are all there to get away from reality for a bit and be happy.

Here is where I am a little different than a lot of people…I definitely do not wait in any line that is or looks longer than 20 minutes. I just don’t. Why? Because I know I’ll be back soon. I know not everyone gets to say that and trust me, I have definitely waited a LONG time in a ride line before when I was with someone that wasn’t sure if they’d ever come back. But that was also many years ago when I hadn’t learned all the tricks and tips I know now. Over the past few years, my love of Disney has led me to read forums, articles (positive ones), tips and more that have helped improve my park experience. I enjoy learning how to make my park experience even more positive. And if something doesn’t turn out perfect, then that’s ok and it helps us learn for next time.

I guess that’s just the outlook I tend to take about everything in life. If something is difficult, I try to learn tricks to make it easier, but certainly do not cheat. I hope to teach my kids the same thing…at school and in life…and yes, most certainly at Disney World. 

Psst…in other news, I’ve been nominated as a Top Foodie Mom over at Circle of Moms! I would appreciate your vote, which takes just 2 seconds…click the button below and then click on the pink heart underneath my blog description next to my current number of votes. You can vote every 24 hours, too! Voting ends June 4th!

I definitely don’t think I’ll win since I’m only a random recipe and food photo poster, but I hope to at least make top 25 so I get a nifty badge for my blog and some more exposure (you know, in case I don’t win the Powerball that I didn’t even play). We all thank you!

 

xoxo

Lynn

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Brett and Trent definitely spoiled me this Mother’s Day…my very first. I had gotten a lovely photo gift a few days early (see it here) and we also planned on going to Panama City Beach to grab some grub and hit the beach for a few hours. I was also surprised when I woke up and Brett handed me a new necklace. My clasp broke a few weeks ago and I’ve been going sans necklace ever since and I’ve felt naked. He was going to just fix the clasp, but they told him he would need a new one and with the price of gold as high as it is, the clasp would have cost twice as much as the necklace cost him in the first place…so he just got me a new one!

{Entertainment from Daddy}

We got to PCB sometime around noon and went straight to Red Robin…we were hungry! We don’t have a Red Robin in Tallahassee, so we only get to enjoy it every once in a while, but it is so so good. Our waiter was awesome! He made great recommendations and introduced us to a new way to have our drinks. They have bottomless drinks, but we thought we could only go with the first type of drink we ordered for the rest of the meal, but no, he suggested we start with a Limeade and then a freckled lemonade and then finish up with a root beer float for dessert (too bad he didn’t throw in a bottomless margarita in there somewhere).

Well, don’t mind if we do!

Brett got a regular chicken sandwich (he’s so boring!) and I got a Bruschetta chicken sandwich, with sweet potato fries so Trent could eat some too.

The freckled lemonade has pieces of strawberries in it, so we were giving them to Trent. The manager noticed this and brought us over a small cup of strawberries!

Which he gobbled up. I even gave him a couple of bites of the vanilla soft serve from the root beer float. I’m such a bad mommy.

After all three of our tummies were full, we went into a few shops nearby and then headed over to the beach. We’re not really the biggest beach fans. I think it’s because we have a pool at home, which is much cleaner and easier to enjoy. To us, the beach is best enjoyed with a group of friends and family all spending the day together. But that may change when Trent is a bit older. When we first got there, he was a bit very cranky, so he wanted nothing to do with sand or water or anything.

Since he slept in the car, we didn’t think he was tired, but apparently he was very tired and ended up sleeping on me for about an hour. He woke up happy as can be, but we only stayed about another 30 minutes so we could have dinner before the drive back home. I’m happy we got a little sand and water fun before leaving.

Below is a video of Trent’s first trip to the beach. I hope you enjoy! (if you are reading this post in your email or RSS feed, please click over to the blog to watch it!)

We packed up and changed back into our clothes in the car in the parking lot (we’re classy ’round these parts!), then headed over to Margaritaville, a first time for both of us. We had a lovely view from our table out on the deck. Unfortunately, no margaritas were consumed and I was kind of disappointed in their menu selection (I wanted more seafood options) but overall, we enjoyed our meal.

Brett had seafood macaroni and cheese.

I had chicken/steak fajitas.

On the way home, we stopped by a gas station store to grab some drinks for the road. They had this nifty milkshake machine that I had never seen before, so I made Brett get a milkshake so I could see how it worked – and he gladly obliged.

You pick a flavor container on the right and then place it in the machine on the left and use the touchscreen to select your level of consistency. It then mixes up your milkshake in about 30 seconds for you to enjoy. Yum. I must be easily entertained.

It was a fun day…not only because I spent Mother’s Day with my two favorite boys, but it’s always nice to get away, even if it’s just for a day or dinner.

 

xoxo

Lynn

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We shared a guest post over at Dad’s Guide to WDW today. To all my Disney fans, be sure to go check it out…if you’ve ever taken a Disney trip, then you’ll probably relate to what I discussed…

After a Disney Vacation Blues Syndrome

That’s the name Dad at Dad’s Guide to WDW gave for the time period after coming home from a Disney trip. You have lots of emotions and have difficulty transitioning back to the real world. I discuss the ways that it affects me. I’ll start the post here and then you can finish it up over there. Enjoy!

Hi everyone…Lynn here. We have been back home from our Disney World trip for a little over two weeks now and are slowly tackling the trip report and all the photos to share with everyone (we’ve been sharing some over on Dad’s Facebook page…if you haven’t yet, go check out all the awesome photos that people share there!). We had a fantastic time, but as with any vacation…we feel it went by way too fast.

In the meantime, I wanted to discuss the terrible condition I am experiencing. It’s one that you’ve probably experienced, perhaps multiple times. It seems to happen after every Disney trip and it may affect certain members of your family more than others. Dad has even mentioned it before here on the blog…

I have ADVBS…

“After a Disney Vacation Blues Syndrome”

Here’s how ADVBS has been affecting me.

-I wonder why there isn’t someone at my door to tell me “Welcome Home.”

Click here to finish reading over at Dad’s Guide to WDW!

 

xoxo

Lynn

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