Headed Home and #DisneySMMoms Updates

Yesterday, sadly, was our last day in Disney World.  Since I haven’t yet figured out how to earn a living by wandering through the parks, taking photos, and eating in restaurants, we need to go home.  (Once I’ve figured out how to live on Disney grounds full time and still earn a living, I’ll let you know.)

Our bags are packed and, by the time you read this, we’ll be in the airport ready to get going.  If you’re reading it late enough, we might already be in the air.

Which reminds me, I promised everyone a real photo from the air heading down to Disney World.  Here it is:

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Also, I posted a couple of days ago about my Peter Shankman/DisneySMMoms inspired quest: To get four photos taken on four rides that scare me: Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, Space Mountain, and Expedition Everest.  Well, I did it.  I made it through all four one piece.  I even went on one of them (Space Mountain) alone.  Now, I just need to wait to get the PhotoPass+ photos (thanks DisneySMMoms for giving us all PhotoPass+ cards) and make them into a poster or something.

As I process the 3,800-plus photos that I took at Disney World (both at and not at the Disney Social Media Moms celebration), I’ll post more about the happenings.  Suffice it to say that it was very enjoyable and informative and I met lots of great people.

We’ll be sad to say goodbye to Disney World and will immediately begin thinking of how we could come back!

Disclaimer: We paid for our own trip to Disney World to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Though we were given an incredible deal from Disney, they never asked us to blog about this event. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Face Your Fears, A Lesson Learned From #DisneySMMoms

At the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I had many "a ha" moments.  Two in particular stood out, however.  First, was Peter Shankman.  Among his points was a slide about obstacles in your way.

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(Let’s ignore for a second that I have no mascara to run if I cry. ;-)  )

Too many times, we hit a brick wall in life and just sit beside it complaining about how awful life is to put up such obstacles.  Complaining doesn’t move the wall, however.  It might feel good temporarily (believe me, I know), but it doesn’t solve the overall problem.  Instead, you need to figure out a path around the wall.

Later, Lisa Druxman spoke.  She mentioned about how gremlins will sit on your shoulder and tell you "You can’t do that."  I instantly realized that my gremlin is "High School Me."  Back in high school, I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly.  I was more like a social potted plant in the corner of the room.  Whether it was due to all of the bullying I endured, or just the awkwardness of being a teenager, I didn’t do well in social situations.  I’d stand quietly as close to the wall as possible.  Though I longed to be in the spotlight, I also lived in mortal fear of it.

High School Me sits on my shoulder, I realized, telling me that I can’t ride certain rides, can’t attend social functions, and can’t do a dozen other things.  It’s not that I actually can’t do these things, mind you.  Though I may face some difficulties (for example, remembering people’s faces and names), I can get past these and survive.

In an effort to knock the gremlin off my shoulder for good, I hope to ride four Disney World rides that scare me: Space Mountain, Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Expedition Everest.  Each of these rides raises huge red flags with me and makes me not want to proceed.  Luckily, each of these rides also offers photos of you riding the attraction.  I plan on stitching the photos together, along with some phrase either from the conference or inspired by it.  Then, when I feel that shoulder gremlin telling me to just give up over the brick wall in my path, I’ll tell it to look at my montage and then beat it.

Do you have a shoulder gremlin? If so, what does it look like?

Disclaimer: We paid for our own trip to Disney World to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.  Though we were given an incredible deal from Disney, they never asked us to blog about this event. All opinions expressed above are my own.

This Post Has Been Delayed

Yesterday was really crazy.  Like tear your hair out, wish you could dramatically throw a lamp across the room crazy.  Hopefully, I’ll have a better blog post later.  For now, here are two photos from the Wild Africa Trek I took on Saturday.  One is of a crocodile under the bridge we had to cross.  The other is of another croc in the same area (but taken from the ground).

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Aloha Friday: Arrrr You A Pirate Fan?

My boys love all things pirates.  This is partially (ok, mostly) fueled by Jake and the Never Land Pirates on Disney Junior.  So we were very excited when we found out that there would be a Swashbuckler Soiree at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

Since I’m writing this post in advance (from my couch at home, not from Disney), I don’t have any photos of the pirate party.  Instead, here are some pirate-ified photos of my boys and I courtesy of the free Android app Make Me A Pirate:

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My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you and your kids like pirates?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #136

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