Disney 2009 - Chapter 3.2 - Epcot (night1 there)

We got to EPCOT and DH being the FPV ran ahead and got Test Track fast passes. Then he met us at Mission Space where he and the Clones rode the GREEN side of Mission Space and we got a rider swap for this ride as well. Dh immediately used the rider swap to take Clone2 on the Orange side. When Mission Space first opened, Clone2 was 19 months and Clone1 was 5 and 44 inches tall. Clone1 rode Mission Space at FULL force, at the age of 5, seven times in one trip. We knew he could handle it and he loves that side. Clone2, being asthmatic, can really only ride the green side (well it’s all we feel comfortable letting him ride). So, that’s where we stand on that.



After Mission Space, we headed across Future World to the Land for lunch at the counter service there. I saw the Soarin’ stand by wait and no fast passes, and chose to forgo that fun experience for now. We exited the land after lunch and headed to Nemo and Friends at the Living Seas. We stopped for photos with Nemo, waited through the major temper tantrum thrown by one child (not naming them here), more photos with Nemo, and finally onto the ride. Princess Peanut buried her head again for this ride, but LOVED the fish inside the aquarium. We went to see Crush and she LOVED Crush as well. More time with the fish, and Dh and I were starting to get a bit twitchy. We encouraged the kids to leave, and Princess Peanut blew kisses to the fish, told them bye-bye, and then told them she loved them. Awwww….melt your heart, but we still left.





Clone1 suggested we ride Figment’s ride, and I looked at Dh and shared that moment that says “I’m not sure it’s a good idea with the darkness, the loud noises, the smell…” Dh agreed with Clone1 and off we went. Princess Peanut buried her head GOOD for this ride, but we got her to peek at Figment’s upside down house. She loved the fun stuff to do outside the ride at least, and ran up to grab a Figment stuffed animal.



By this time, our fast passes to Test Track were ready to be used, and the boys went off to ride Test Track while I entertained Princess Peanut and tried to convince her the stroller was a good thing. She didn’t agree, so mostly I chased after the whirling dervish of a 2.5 year old. Fun times indeed. After Test Track, Dh volunteered to take over the whirling dervish while I took the boys and stood in line for Soarin’. He’d grabbed a 2nd set of Fast Passes for Test Track to use after our dinner at Garden Grill already, so I took him up on the offer. 20 minute wait wasn’t too shabby. We exited and it was time to wait for our dinner reservation. 20 minutes AFTER our dinner reservation Dh checked on it, and we were next. It was just a little bit later they finally seated us (and we checked in about 20 minutes early – reservation was for 7:20, checked in around 7pm, we were seated about 8pm). Not the best experience, but the food was good. Friends enjoyed the meal and the characters, and Princess Peanut? Well, she gave characters a high five from across the table! YIPPEEE!!!






Dinner was over and the boys from my family went to Test Track, the boys from Friends’ family went to Mission Space ORANGE (still can’t believe they did that), while the girls from both families went to watch Illuminations. Princess Peanut loved Illuminations as well, and did not bury her head once. After that over, it was time to head back to the hotels for bed. It had been a LONG day for us and we had another early morning rope drop to make the next day.



Clone2 did his normal coughing fits until it seemed like he would vomit for us. Found out that Luden’s throat drops helped not cough as much for some reason, so that helped this day. I also had his rescue meds and inhalers so that helped as well.



Recap:
Rope Drop at AK
EE standby, get rider swap
EE FPV
Dinosaur!
Finding Nemo the Musical
Kilimanjaro Safari FPV
Africa Trails
Ride Kilimanjaor Safari
EE with Fast Pass
Asia Trails

Park Hop to Epcot
Test Track FPV
Mission Space Green – get rider swap
Mission Space Orange
Lunch at the Land
Finding Nemo
Turtle Talk with Crush
Test Track FPV
Journey into Imagination
Test Track
Soarin’
Dinner at Garden Grill
Test Track
Illuminations Back to hotel

What did the Friends do? They made it to EPCOT by lunchtime, did some of Future World then walked some around the World Showcase. Other than that I do not know, but I know they weren’t nearly as tired as we were by dinner! I was a little worried about the next day being RD at DHS and it being an EMH evening as well as Fantasmic! day....little did I know how horrid it would be! Darn Disney for changing up show times, park hours, and EMH days less than 2 weeks from when we were leaving!

Disney 2009 - Chapter 3.1 - Animal Kingdom

Sunday February 8, 2009



I once again woke up fairly early, but managed to fall back to sleep only to be woken a few minutes later by Dh’s alarm going off. It was time to start our first full day in Disney. Too bad I was still so tired from the previous day, and the 2-3 times of Clone2 waking me up with coughing fits. Bleary eyed, I looked at Dh and wondered how much of the asthma and cold meds we should take into the parks that day. We didn’t manage to leave our hotel as early as we would have liked, and as such arrived at Animal Kingdom around 8:35 to see 4 other cars already in Diamond parking and many people at the turnstiles already. No biggie. While waiting we got a text message from friends who said they were meeting us at EPCOT and sleeping in and swimming. I guess we really did wear them out a little too much on Saturday.

So, there we were, standing at the turnstiles at Animal Kingdom making our plan of attack for the day. I was going to take the stroller tickets and pick up the stroller while Dh took the Clones and Princess Peanut on ahead to the interior rope holding area. We were headed to Expedition Everest first thing, and Dh was our FPV for the day (like always). We manage to once again both be no further back than 5-10 people (that’s with the stop for the stroller), and Clone2 is able to go up to the rope to see the park opening show which he loved. When the rope drops, we all walk briskly behind the Cast Members holding the rope. The speed walkers ahead of us out pace us slightly as I tend to get cut off with the double stroller quite a bit. No worries as we have to get Rider Swap at Expedition Everest as well. We find out that we have to go through the line a little ways, but Dh takes Princess Peanut and the stroller through, gets our rider swap then high tails it back to the Fast Pass machines to get our future Fast Passes while I journey on ahead with the Clones. We make it into row 4 and 5 of the 2nd train. Not shabby at all. I sit with Clone2, while Clone1 is in his own seat.

But not for long! Clone1 had someone assigned to sit with him, a rather cute younger girl about his age ended up being his ride partner. Clone1 showing his age agreed with me when I turned to him and mouthed, “She’s CUUUUUTE!” He then blushed and has since refused to even comment on the rather cute girl that rode Expedition Everest with him.

Clone2’s experience, however, was much different. Remember the coughing and asthma fits? Yeah, well, the fast moving ride, the backwards in the dark, the higher levels of anxiety this ride produces created breathing problems for him. He survived, but told me that it was hard to breathe on the ride and it scared him. The backwards was really scary. The big hill was really scary. He did NOT want to see the Yeti again. When asked if he wanted to ride later with Daddy, he told us no rather emphatically but that he “maybe” would ride it later in the week. He said that he would ride it on our NEXT trip, well, possibly.

With all the excitement of the girl riding with him, the excitement of seeing if his brother liked the ride, Clone1 forgot his special Pirate Mickey ears! Yikes! We had to turn around and go back to see if they could find them, while Dh worked on catching back up with us. When they found them, the relief in Clone1’s eyes was huge. We quickly put the ears up in a safe location, and rushed to join Dh and Clone2 on their way to Dinosaur. I was taking Princess Peanut to get a seat for Finding Nemo the Musical as she adores the Nemo movie. We hoped that she would not bury her head, but I recognized that sitting near an area where anything might possibly come near her was not a good idea. The 10am showing of this was not crowded at all, and getting there early was nice because I could talk with the Cast Members and get a good idea of where to sit for Princess Peanut’s comfort.

The boys joined us, and Dh told me that he now remembers that he really doesn’t like Dinosaur. Clone2 tells me that he doesn’t want to ride it again, and he doesn’t like it because it’s scary. Poor Clone2 – 2 scary rides in a row for him! The show starts, Princess Peanut buries her head. It takes a little convincing, and a few lines from the movie she loves to get her to peek out. The rest of the show is spent with her alternatingly hiding her head and peeking out. Let’s just say I was greatly relieved they didn’t do the dark depths of the ocean scene were Dory reads the mask. VERY grateful they didn’t do that scene as the shark scene about did her in. While I know this is almost sacrilege, we did not care for Finding Nemo as much as Festival of the Lion King. Personal preference here, but the truth.

We exited the show and it was time for the FPV to rush ahead to Kilimanjaro Safari, only we were not going to subject the kids to It’s Tough to be a Bug this trip as we had FINALLY learned that it’s too scary (especially for Princess Peanut and quite possibly Clone2). We went as a family to get Fast Passes and learned that Princess Peanut could unbuckle herself as she flipped out of the stroller and ended up underneath (luckily I was moving slowly and she didn’t get hurt), then headed into the Africa animal trails. All was good until we hit the Monkeys and Clone2 had to go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW! I ended up speed walking with him in the double stroller to the closet bathroom (a good 5 minute walk away), and then we waited on the rest of the family to join us. Clone2 entertained himself with my point and shoot camera and I ended up with some of the only photos of ME on the trip!



It was finally time for Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and we hoped that all the kids would have fun. We were lucky to get in the front row, and I sat Clone2 next to me and Clone1 next to Dh on the outsides. Each had a point and shoot camera, and I thought “Hey this is working out GREAT!” It was, until Clone1 complained that Clone2 had all the better animals on that side and that Clone1’s side didn’t have many so he didn’t get very many photos to take. Princess Peanut was giggling and laughing at the bumpy ride, much as she had in China in the cars we rode in there. Success for one child at least. Clone2 didn’t complain any at all, and we ended up with some interesting safari photos from him. We kindly asked Clone1 to shape up the attitude.



It was just about lunch time, but really, what was there left for us to do? We had enough passes for Clone2 to ride Expedition Everest 3 more times. There would be no more Dinosaur rides, Triceratop Spin was down for refurbishment, we figured Festival of the Lion King would scare Princess Peanut, and neither Dh or I wanted to get wet. We had some shows to see possibly. Or we could eat a snack, do the Everest rides, and get to EPCOT where there was more to ride for the little kids. We chose to leave early and get to EPCOT. Dh and Clone1 rode Expedition Everest and we had 2 fast passes and 1 rider swap in our hands. We walked the Asia trails where in one building Princess Peanut who was refusing to ride in the stroller was trying to hold open a door . She took a step away and the door started closing and knocked her over resulting in a big bump on her forehead. We finished the trails with a crying little girl, and Dh decided he was ready to go. We handed off the 2 fast passes and the rider swap to others to use. It was barely 1pm at this point.

Life is kicking my rear!

Who else feels like it's full steam ahead lately? I've not slowed down, the kids have not slowed down, and the house? well, it's taking the entire family to stay on top of the daily maintenance. Either that or some VERY long chats with friends on the phone to keep me on task and off the computer. ;)

But I wanted to preserve a few "cute moments" in recent history for our family.

From Katie, when I put her down for a nap in her crib.

"Help! Hey-yelp! I need....nooodles!"

That goes along with me painting her fingernails pink.

"Momma wan' PAY-aink."

Yes, internet peeps, pink is now fully a two syllable word in our house. ;)

Dh and I were watching the Amazing Race (internet streaming is still going great here), and the kids like to sneak and watch the shows with us. In our old house it was EASY for them to sneak and watch them as they'd sit in the hall and peer off the loft into the great room and watch. This house? it's not that easy. We were in the game room with the door shut (Samuel LOVES the Amazing Race). We got to the part where the cheese was rolling down the hill, and we were rolling with laughter as well. A few minutes later we heard a noise outside the door. I looked at Dh and he looked at me, we kept the show on and I got up and yanked open the door. Samuel basically "fell into the room" and he said, "I can still hear it through the door!" Yeah kid, you probably could with your ear plastered up against the door!

Disney 2009 - Trip Report - Chapter 2

Saturday February 7th dawned bright and early, amongst the lovely coughing asthma attacks of Clone2. He woke us up early, and we chose to go ahead and get up for breakfast. We couldn’t check into our resort (Bonnet Creek) until 4pm, but Friends could check into Pop Century. We ate breakfast, drove to Pop Century and waited on Friends to get checked in so we could head to the Magic Kingdom. Our original plan had us going into the Magic Kingdom by around 2pm, but the main goal was to introduce their 14 year old to roller coasters and to see SpectroMagic.

Katie on the monorail, seeing the Castle for the first time!

We ended up getting to the Magic Kingdom by 11am, and first up was getting that stroller rental. I got my first shock of the trip because I was not prepared for the $31 per day for the double stroller, and as we’d left all strollers at home and had a 2.5 year old, we were stuck. I was not thinking that we could have driven to Target or Wal-Mart to get a stroller. Nor did I know about other rental places. Oh well. Live and learn, and pass along the knowledge!
So, after the shockingly expensive stroller rental we made our way to Goofy’s Barnstormer. This is one of my favorite rides in Magic Kingdom, and the 14 year old Friend with us had never been on a roller coaster, and was a little unsure about it. So, I figured this was a good first rollercoaster. Clone2 told me he didn’t want to ride because he was scared he’d cough a lot. I convinced the Clones to ride with me, and Dh was FPV and took Princess Peanut to get FP for Space Mountain. We stood in a 25 minute line for Goofy’s Barnstormer, and all I could think about was how against the PLAN this was.

14 year old friend sort of enjoyed it, even said he wanted to ride again! Dh had the FP for Space Mountain, and we were off to get lunch at Cosmic Rays before blood sugars dropped too much and Grumpy emerged. Unfortunately, we did not experience any Disney Magic at lunch. I ruined it all by ordering the Veggie Burger, after we stood in the wrong line for burgers. I found the seats and waited on Dh to bring the food to me (with Clone2 and Princess Peanut). After 20 minutes I headed over to check (Friends watched the kids). Seems our number was something like 70, and they were on 78. Dh had asked, was finally told that they were out of Veggie Burgers and I told him to just get me a plain cheeseburger. He did, the manager said he'd get it right to us. 10 minutes later Dh FINALLY brought us the food complete with the Veggie Burger! I think they got up to number 89 or so, and Dh was livid. We got our food and ate though.

After lunch we headed to Tomorrow Land and went to Monsters Inc. which was well received by Friends and the family except for Princess Peanut who did buried her head in Dh’s shoulder when the lights went down and the crowd screamed at the Monsters. We grabbed Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear after leaving and walked onto Tomorrow Land Transit Authority where Princess Peanut once again buried her head in fear. Dh and I exchanged another look and had another moment, the parental moment of “uhoh it looks like this might be a long vacation if she doesn’t like the rides.”

View from TTA - love the "stuff"

It was finally time for our Space Mountain fast passes, and we waltzed up to the Fast Pass line where we got a Rider Swap for me and Princess Peanut while everyone else got in line. Clone2 only had a few coughing fits, but he was determined to ride this ride! Friends’ 14 year old was nervous, but I hoped for a good review of this classic ride. I chased Princess Peanut around outside while trying to keep our overly expensive rented stroller from tipping over. Clone2 came bouncing out all smiles and proclaimed Space Mountain to be the #1 ride on his favorites list. He loved it! Dh and I exchanged a look, shared a moment, that parental moment of “YES! Another rollercoaster rider in the family.” The 14 year old gave it a big thumbs up and definitely wanted to ride it again on another day. We made our way over to Buzz Lightyear, grabbed another set of Fast Passes as we knew the boys would want to ride it again. Princess Peanut buried her face in Dh’s shoulder again. I let Clone2 steer our ship, and as a result didn’t score very high. Dh managed to score 690,000 though. hmph


Clone2 looked at me and asked if we could leave for our hotel as he wanted to go to sleep. He was coughing fairly badly again, and I felt sorry for him. I gave Dh that look that says perhaps we should leave early. He asked Clone2 if he wanted to take the cold medication and see if it helped, if it didn’t we’d leave after SpectroMagic as we had to see it that night. Clone2 got in the stroller and rode for the rest of the day, when he wasn’t coughing. I promised Dh that the next day I’d make sure to take the rescue inhaler into the parks. For those not familiar with cough variant Asthma, it's that horrid sounding cough you as a parent want to run from. The kind that you swear will end in vomit. Lovely thought huh?

We weaved through the crowds and made our way to the other side of the park, getting caught by the 3pm parade. At least it was the end of it, and Princess Peanut insisted on being able to watch while Clone2 begged Friends’ for a shoulder to watch from.

When the parade was over, we made our way to Adventure Land/Frontier Land and let the Friends decide whether we rode Pirates or Jungle Cruise while Dh was FPV for Big Thunder Mountain RR. They chose Pirates, and while it was a 20 minute wait, we were behind the most obnoxious group of teens ever. Dh and I used the time observing their rather rude behaviors to teach our children how not to behave. We taught them that chained off places were meant to be left alone, not entered and definitely NOT to sit on the canons for photos. Rooms that are roped off are NOT meant to be hidden in to pop out and scare your friends. Stairways that are gated/roped off are not meant to be climbed. Yelling and screaming and singing in the enclosed waiting cues is inappropriate behavior as well. Then came the fun part….getting stuck on the ride with them. I asked the Cast Member if we could wait, but he refused as there was a line. I tried to explain to the Cast Member loading us that the group of 12 teens had been rude all through the cue line, but he had no sympathy. We climbed aboard our boat with trepidation as all 12 had cameras. Despite 4 warnings of “NO flash photography” we were unable to see the ride without a flash going off every few seconds. They chanted and screamed through the ride where we could not hear the music. They threw water from the front of the boat back onto their friends, only they missed their friends and hit us. Princess Peanut had her face buried and got soaked with water the most. Until this point it was the worst Disney experience we had ever had.

After leaving Pirates, having to follow the obnoxious teens up the ramp, we made our way to It’s a Small World. Along the way we saw Donald Duck come out for a character greet, and Princess Peanut excitedly called out to me that there was a DUCK! It was exciting for a few minutes. Then the big huge giant duck started walking toward her stroller. Her look of excitement started changing into a look of abject horror the closer that duck got to her, until she was shrunk back inside the stroller as far as she could go as Donald walked by the stroller on his way to his greeting spot. He never even noticed her there. Her look did not bode well for future character greetings I had in mind. Oh well, onward to It’s a Small World. The 20 minute wait was not horrid, and despite the boys complaining we kept on with our idea to ride. We hoped Princess Peanut would love it, and we were pretty sure Friends would at least enjoy it. Friends did enjoy it, but it took all of us exclaiming over the dancing and singing BABYDOLLS to get Princess Peanut to un-bury her head and actually look. Then it dawned on her that this was not going to be scary, and she watched it cautiously from Dh’s lap with a look of wonder. FINALLY!!!!!

After Small World it was finally time for our Big Thunder Mountain RR fast passes. 14 year old chose not to ride as his stomach wasn’t settled, and I sat out with Princess Peanut and Friends’ Mom/Wife. By the time the rest made it off the ride, it was just about time to secure our location for SpectroMagic and grab a bite of dinner. Princess Peanut finally fell asleep in the stroller, and I took Clone2 for his treat for having a to swallow a pill for his reflux while coughing through asthma attacks. He chose a $5 light toy. Dinner was yummy, crowds grew and grew for Spectro, but not nearly as bad as in the past. I was excitedly looking forward to how Princess Peanut and Friends would react to the parade.

I should have guessed Princess Peanut’s reaction. She buried her face, cried, and Dh took her as far back from the front as he could get and still see. He got her to “un-bury” her head when Cinderella came by, but all she would do was wave then re-bury the head. It really was not looking good for her enjoyment of Disney. Not good at all. Friends, however, loved the parade but they were tired and ready to leave. We made our way to the Tommorrowland bridge to watch Tinkerbelle fly overhead so we could watch Wishes. Surprisingly, Princess Peanut LOVED the fireworks and watched them all. She would exclaim, “Pretty!” over and over. Who knew?! After the fireworks Friends decided to leave. We said good-night to them, and took the boys back to Tomorrow Land where they got in line for Space Mountain (rider swap pass), only to find it was “down” and then Dh took the boys through Buzz Lightyear (we chose not to subject poor Princess Peanut to yet another ride she’d hate for the day). We left Magic Kingdom to check into our resort and give Clone2 some Asthma meds and cough meds (the ones the allergist has us keep on hand to control the cough at night).

On the way out of the park, Dh stopped by Guest Relations to add park hopping to our tickets and add extra days as we had only purchased 4 day tickets and we had planned on 6 days in the parks…remember this.



Recap and example 1 of why we exhausted our friends on this trip

*11am – Arrive at Magic Kingdom
* Goofy’s Barnstormer, FPV gets FP to Space Mountain
* Lunch at Cosmic Rays
* Monsters Inc
* Buzz Lightyear FPV
* TTA
* Space Mountain with FP (get Rider Swap)
* Buzz Lightyear FPV
* Buzz Lightyear
* Caught tail end of parade
* FPV for Big Thunder Mountain RR
* Pirates with the obnoxious teens
* It’s a Small World
* Big Thunder Mountain RR
* Grab spot for Spectro, send Dh for dinner
* Walk to Tomorrowland Bridge for Wishes and watching Tink
*Said goodnight to our Friends
* Space Mountain with Rider Swap (only it was down)
* Buzz Lightyear
Check into Resort

Photography - Depth of Field

I know you've heard this term, and it's referring to what is in focus in the photo. Think of a parallel "plane" to your camera lens. This "plane" is what is in focus and any area before it and any area behind it is out of focus. With a 50mm lens as wide open as it can go, you get that lovely creamy blurred background (bokeh) and your subject is nice and sharp and really stands out.

That's the theory anyway.

But, if you are anything like me, then most likely you have MORE out of focus than you'd like! It's a pain, and "fixing" it might mean being a LOT steadier than you think. It could also mean that if you focus then recompose, then the recomposition shifted the plane of focus just enough so that what you thought would be in focus is now out of focus.

ONLINE DEPTH OF FIELD CALCULATOR

Open that link in a separate window, so that you can refer to it and this post at the same time. :) I'm going to show you something that totally shocked me when I first saw it.

Select your camera type - for this experiment, I'm choosing the Canon 30D as that is what I shot with while on Vacation this past week. Then I'm going to select the 50mm lens (focal length is 50mm) as I shot with it quite a bit, especially in lower light conditions as I was able to open it up VERY wide allowing better chance of not using a flash indoors. If you are using a lens that states 18-55mm, then you will need to choose which focal length you are shooting at.

I'm selecting the f-stop of 1.8 as that is as wide open as I shot on vacation. Now, the tricky part? Select how far away the subject of what you are focusing on is from the camera.

If you are taking a close up photo of a child's face, you are probably 3-5 feet away. Select one of those. I chose 5 feet.

Off to the right there are near and far distances. That is the DEPTH of what is going to be in focus. In my case, it was 0.2 feet. Do you know how much that is? That's 2.4 inches. But, honestly, 5 feet away didn't fill the entire frame with the child's face, it was more a head and shoulders shot. Did the child wiggle when you took the photo? Did you focus and recompose? You only have a total of 2.4 inches of "wiggle" room to keep the child's eyes in focus!

Now, for filling the frame? Well, most likely I'm 3 feet or closer. How much room do I have at 3 feet away? 0.07 feet, or 0.84 inches. LESS THAN ONE INCH! You must be incredibly steady here to keep eyes in focus.

Now, lets see what happens if you have a 70-200mm lens and are shooting at f/4.0? Say we're 5feet away, 200mm focal length and f/4.0: YIKES, a 0.03 feet depth of field, that's really narrow (and you are REALLY close to a child to be using this focal length, the frame most likely only has a single eye in it! LOL)

With a 200mm lens at 4.0, I'm typically shooting across a baseball field, so let's say 25 feet away. This would give me .71 feet, or almost 12 inches! When shooting sports, that's not a whole lot, but the creamy dreamy background is worth it.

I recommend, if you are having trouble with parts of an image out of focus using a specific lens fully open, consult this online depth of field calculator...it might be that the area in focus is too narrow for the squirminess of your subject, your focus recompose, and your own steadiness.


This image was taken on the TTA, and Samuel was sitting across and diagonal from me so about 3-4 feet away. The info is ISO100 (bright sunny day), 50mm lens, f/3.5, and SS of 1/60 (shade area). I had 0.19 feet in focus - I focused on his eyes, and if you notice his nose and mouth are fully in focus as well. The ears are slightly out of focus (right click on it and open it up in another window to see it larger). the top front of his hair is in focus, the back is not. Notice his arm and the ride seat behind him are nice and blurred.


Now this one was shot indoors at the Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. ISO3200, 50mm lens again, f/1.8, shutter was 1/500 (yes I could have lowered the ISO or changed the aperture). I remember being about 4 feet away. Open in another window just the image - you will see that the black of the ears is not in focus, but that the back of the head is. It was not perfect, and were I doing this for a client's portrait I would have probably changed the aperture to 3.2 or 4.0 so ensure more of the head was in focus. I was more about not using flash, and this particular location has a well lit area.

I know many photographers who can successfully shoot sessions of children wide open on 1.4. I am not nearly steady enough for this, so I mostly shoot all my photos around 2.8-4.0. However, I'm aware of the DOF and how narrow my area of focus is if I want to do a particular shot that is in my head. Using a very narrow depth of field is useful in bringing attention to a particular subject (think of a child holding a sea shell, or a child holding a red envelope at Chinese New year, or what about a newly engaged couple and the ring, etc.). Where as, there is also a time for shooting with narrower apertures, of like f/11 or f/16. Think of the large family groups, or what if you wanted to have an entire sand castle creation in focus with the creator right beside it?

Disney 2009 - Trip Report - Chapter 1

The Cast of Characters for our Disney Vacation 2009 trip!


Me/Myself/I – Planner extraordinaire and Mom. Yeah, list maker, type A planner, germ-o-phobe, worrier.


Dh – the loving husband who plans financially like I do the touring plan. Fellow Disney maniac.


Clone1 – 10 year old boy, thrill ride junkie, happily almost taller than mom. At the awkward stage of wanting to get “into” the characters but finding himself too mature (well in his eyes). All gangly legs, big feet, and full of enthusiasm for anything he sees as “grown up”


Clone2 – 6 year old boy, on the small side of the scales, barely 44.5 inches this trip. He’s full of life, constantly moving and just happy to be at Disney.


Princess Peanut – 2.5 year old girl, who is so far below the charts it’s not even funny. Weighing in at a whopping 23 pounds and 33 inches tall. Loves Mulan, Cinderella, and Mushu. She’s overcome quite a bit in her short life, and we have some stranger anxiety issues to deal with. We just are not sure how she will react to Disney, but we’re talking it up BIG!


Friends – Parents (slightly older than Dh and I) and their 14 year old son. Pretty much First Timers to Disney, and we planned out vacation for them to coincide with our touring idea of Disney. I think we exhausted and overwhelmed them. Luckily, they are secure enough in our friendship to tell us they would meet up with us later! ;)



Leaving Friday February 6, 2009 to drive down to the World, coming home planned on Saturday February 14, 2009.

We are staying at Bonnet Creek Resort which is located just inside Disney Property but considered "off-site", Friends are staying at Pop Century.

Pre-trip: We had planned to leave Friday Feb 6 around 3pm to save on vacation time for Dh. Unfortunately, or rather I should say fortunately, Dh had to pull MAJOR overtime the 2 weeks leading up to our vacation. This meant that we were able to leave anytime Friday, and we talked with our friends and chose a departure time of 10am, no later than 10am. The week of our vacation started, and Clone1 started coughing 5 days prior to leaving. Oh great, a cold going through our family is no fun with a child who has asthma. I did the sanitizing thing while Dh worked late late late hours. Thursday morning Clone2 started coughing. I debated calling the pediatrician, but as I knew stomach viruses and the flu were going around (tamiflu resistant flu at that), I chose the wait and see knowing at that point it was just a cold virus and nothing the doc could do about it. I sent Dh out Thursday night to stock up on adult cold meds for us, and get the “okayed by the allergist and pediatrician” cold meds for the asthmatic child.

Friday morning we packed the van in 40 degree weather, and were ready to leave to 9am. Clone1 and Clone2 were coughing quite a bit, and Princess Peanut was bouncing off the walls in her normal 2.5 year old glory. I told Dh that given the fact we would be stopping more often than Friends, perhaps we should get going now. They could catch up to us by lunch or shortly thereafter. He called Friends, and we were on our way!

A few coughing fits later, and only one stop for gas, we were at our lunch stop. Neither Clone ate very much, and Princess Peanut just wanted to run around. Friends had called and were only about 30 minutes behind us, so we chose to let the kids play outside for a few minutes and wait on them. Not to mention we had to buy an FM transmitter for the ipod as we’d left it. Luckily it was a little warmer than 40 degrees, and we were able to enjoy the sunshine with only a few coughing fits.

After Friends joined us, we got back on the road and made great time to Valdosta, GA our planned stopping point. Only, well, it was not even dinner time! A quick gas and go with a major coughing fit/asthma attack, we decided to press onward to Orlando. I started calling hotels to see what was available and heard that Disney Resorts were completely FULL for the night for Value and Moderate resorts! Yikes. That is not good news for our vacation. We scored 2 hotel rooms in Buena Vista for $40 each, and arrived around 9pm. Clone2 had just started wheezing, and I was able to find his rescue meds. I looked at Dh, he looked at me, and we shared a moment. A moment of parenting that said, “uhoh, will this be the trip Clone2 gets to visit the ER?”

My least favorite part of vacation

You know what my least favorite part of vacation is?

It's not the coming back home and having to unpack. It's not the re-integrating into normal life. It's not the loads of laundry to do. It's not the cleaning out of the van from the 10+ hour drives.

It's not the entering in the bills, the receipts, etc. into our budget spreadsheets and updating the checking accounts or credit card accounts (have to zero it all out).

It's not the checking of emails, catching up on all that I've missed from friend's lives.

It's that smell.

You know the one, the smell that hits you when you walk in the door and you immediately think, "WHAT is that?! WHAT did I forget to throw out?" It takes you 30+ minutes of cleaning the kitchen, only to discover NEW smells (rotting potatoes in the pantry). *sigh* We even cleaned prior to leaving, thoroughly. It was something that didn't quite get ground up well in the disposal.

Candles burning now after I really scrubbed and cleaned the kitchen.

Normal blog postings will resume soon! Not to mention LOTS of vacation pictures to share.

Outfits for Disney

We're Disney addicts, and as such, I love dressing the kids up in cute Disney clothes. As we've been to the parks numerous times, I've never been a huge fan of the fancy Princess dress for park wear. It just doesn't look all that comfortable. The thought of dealing with a child, in a costume, getting in and out of rides just didn't make me excited to undergo that sort of dressing up.

However, I stumbled across something on the Disboards. Disboutiquers. That is, ladies, who with nice contact emails will sometimes design, sew, and mail you an outfit (for a fee of course). :) One of my good friends sent me the email of someone she loves (and I can see why) - Eedie Beedie Boutique (I think that's how she spells it...must check). I'll send you her email address if you are interested.





Katie's reaction? Well, she adores Mushu Gi. She started busting out karate moves I had NO idea she knew how to do!

I got it in!!!!

I finally was able to get my canvas of our family. Well of Katie with our family. :)
I ordered a 20x30 to go in this specific place. It's the "turn" on our stairwell, and a half wall. :) I think it fits pretty good there. I could actually have gone bigger....LOL