disneyland - november 2013

oh right... i mentioned last post that i would post all the other pictures "next week"...  well, i intended to do this much sooner than now, but it is still within the week, right?  yeah, well here goes!
we drove down saturday morning, leaving san leandro around 6:45am, so we got to our hotel and checked in around 2 something, and then were in the parks by 3.  we headed straight for cars land, hoping for a fast pass to radiator springs, but they were all out for the day.  first ride we hit up was the mater's tractor pull.  cutest little short wait ride in the park for sure.  and it's actually fun (unlike the tire ride... erika and i found that one dull back in may)
hit up toy story mania, because that ride is awesome.  jenny beat me, but not by much!  so hah. here is my ever present feat of this trip.  never ever have i gone on an upside down roller coaster, and leading up to this trip i told myself "i'm 25 now... let's get this over with" and that, plus a 10 minute (probably less) ride wait, and that can now be crossed off my bucket list.  it freaked me out a bit, but i survived.  and i may consider doing it again.  but nothing more than this one loop as of right now.  anything more is a little too intense to even begin to think about!
a few years back (like not long after graduating high school) i bought this mickey mouse sweatshirt from hot topic.  turns out, at some point after that jenny bought the same one not knowing i had it.  well, they had to make an appearance on this trip, so after a failed attempt to eat at the rainforest cafe, we donned our sweatshirts and headed in to disneyland for the remainder of the evening.
this blog post brought to you by the number "5"
a jaunt back to our hotel, and then we settled in for the night.  alarms went off at 9 am, and then it was back to the fun.  ran and got our fast passes for radiator springs, and hit up some character spots in california adventure.  unintentionally, quite a few characters.  it was like we found there secret hiding place.
so obviously, i had to make sure i got this picture... and i did. hazah!
if i didn't admit to myself about how i buy mickey ears and then never wear them again, i probably would have bought these as my souvenir this trip. but i resisted the urge, telling myself about my super awesome toy story mickey ears that i already have waiting for me at home. and it worked. so he headed over to hollywood area to look for a character or two... and KABLAM we found a bunch. probably could have spent hours there just rotating through random character appearances. the onlyone we didn't get that was out while we were there were the mary poppins penguins. we weren't quick enough for them.
so i guess we were surfing?? i clearly didn't get the memo on that one
jenny was trying to speak raccoon, but i had to translate for her. when it was finally understood that he was asking what she was celebrating, she got the good ol' thumbs up from mr. raccoon
as far as getting to do all the rides we wanted to, we got lucky and got everything in over the course of a day and a half... of course with the exception of thunder mountain railway, which is STILL closed.  grrr.  hopefully all the renovations means it will be up and running again next time i'm there.  i miss that rickety roller coaster.  as far as all the other "taken on the ride" photos, those are all on my phone.  perhaps i will post them in the instagram post for november, just so they get seen in all their entertaining glory.  and so disneyland can be stretched out for just one more post.  :)
so this was one non-disneyland stop i made sure had to happen.  and was basically my only souvenir purchase.  and a delicious souvenir it was.  i LOVE the show ace of cakes (so sad it no longer airs) and when duff started a west coast bakery plus this little cake mix studio, i knew i wanted to go.  originally i wanted to do the whole sit down and decorate your own cupcakes shabang, but with not knowing what traffic was going to be like on the way home, bought 8 cupcakes (i shared with my family, don't you worry) and jenny bought a whoopie pie.  they were delicious, and made a fantastic week of desserts for me.
the trip was a nice break from reality, and well worth the get away.  it now tops the list as my longest drive ever...  boy am i glad i have my rav4 now.  my corolla would never have made it!  alas, now it is still back to the continued reality of school, work, and more work.  and crafting!  at least there is a little bit of goodness in there.  gotta get ready for these holidays that are sneaking up on us.  ack!

disneyland in instagrams

yes, you read that right.  an instagram post of JUST disneyland photos.  last weekend was a whirlwind of a trip, but i took plenty of photos to show for it.  still catching up on sleep, but here is an instagram summary of disneyland 2013... the second time :)
- the trip was all formulated after two break ups, and jenny being gifted a two night hotel voucher from her travel agent aunt who suggested a girls weekend.  well, a very girls weekend it was.  drove down saturday morning, checked in to our hotel (that wasn't as swanky as advertised) and then walked to the park.
- a battle with will call machines being down, and then we were in to the parks.  we were hoping to get fast passes for radiator springs racers, but they were long gone.  decided to deal with those the next morning.  spent a little bit of time in california adventure.
- toy story mania round 1.  jenny won this one, but not by much!
- i was feeling exceptionally brave, and with a 10 minute wait (probably less than that.  we got swept right in and on the ride) i experienced my first upside down roller coaster.  it freaks me out a little bit still, but i would probably go on it again in the future.  well, at least that one.
- we wandered through to the other side of the park, and the pixar parade was happening. got a quick snap of my main hero before wandering through the rest of the park and eventually onward to downtown disney.
- the idea was for dinner at the rainforest cafe, but it was a hot mess.  stopped by the lego store for a few pictures, and then headed in to disneyland for some pizza port.  mmm pizza.
- for the first time EVER it was appropriate for me to get a happy birthday button from town hall.  so yeah, i was all over that like no other.  jenny got a "i'm celebrating" button, which all the characters saw first before mine.  and awkwardly pointed at her.  haha.
- hidden mickey?  maybe?  randomly seen after a troop of hooligans in front of us for splash mountain pointed it out.  so yeah, i instagrammed it.  like a boss.
- mickey mouse pretzel.  need i say more?
- i'm pretty sure i've seen the "believe" holiday fireworks show more times than anything else done at disneyland.  okay, that may be a slight dramatization...  i feel like it used to be narrated by julie andrews though.  or maybe that's the voice i expect to hear in my head.  she's like the disney version of morgan freeman as far as narrations go.
- monday we wound our way through LA traffic after hotel check out and swung by duff's cake mix... and boy was i excited to FINALLY be able to taste some charm city cakes style goodness.  of course, it's still on my bucket list to make it to the show location in baltimore, but this totally hit the spot.  and makes me want more more more.
- i mean SERIOUSLY?? a rex cake?  wait, a rex that is BOWLING cake??  no way could mr. cake boss come up with something of this caliber.  i saw a screen cap of this on a show or something (i follow duff on twitter... so that may have been where i saw it) and when i saw this cake in the store still... HAD to take a picture.
stay tuned for next week's collection of stretch armstrong pictures, plus some character photos!

and we're off!

we (erika & i) are currently on our way to southern california now for the whirlwind weekend as "official" chaperons!  i may actually (hopefully) be sleeping right now...  don't judge me.

bus ride

medieval times

disneyland

bus ride

home

i'll see you all next week!

day 23:30 - 30 day challenge

day 23: favorite vacation
geeze... all these topics are starting to feel so similar now that we're nearing the end...
well, i already talked about disneyland back on day 17, and i've talked about the bay area quite a bit.  so this vacation themed post will touch on the reno float trips.  whoop whoop!
the past two summers, jenny & i have voyaged off to reno to hang out with luke & amy at their super stellar home just outside of reno, nevada.  we've had a little dinner fest each time, and then we've also floated the river.  both times i've taken a disposable water camera, so that's where most of these fancy pictures have come from.  no way would i take my actual camera on the water.  not quite that brave.
the first year was the thunder/lightning "jenny is scared and curled up in the fetal position while driving" trip.  haha.  we headed up on a friday night, and then hung out all day saturday.  i did amy & luke's engagement photos, we fed some ferrets at her friend's house, and had a burger bbq out on the back patio and avoided the rain drops.  sunday we floated the river - it was rather overcast and a little chilly but we made it!  jimboys, and then the voyage home for us california folk.
year two kasey was in town, as was luke's cousin, so we made it a little more action packed.  we drove up on a saturday after i got off work, and had tacos for dinner.  hit up the casinos for a little night life action and got ourselves a "reno" sign picture.  sunday we floated... and boy was it worse than last year.  bad sunscreen = brutally burnt emily & jenny.  we went to sushi for dinner, packed things up and drove our burnt selves home.
since luke will apparently be missing from nevada for a few months, jenny & i still plan to head over there again this summer for some hang out time.  should be super exciting!  though this time we'll be sure to bring some fresh sunscreen.

2012 truckee river float

last summer jenny and i experienced our first time tubing down the river.  this year, with kasey in town we decided to head off to reno again for a float on sunday.  this could also be documented as the trip with the vicious sunburn.  yes, we did put on sunscreen.  it either wore off/washed off from the length of the float, or the factor of the sunscreen being expired (found out later on) could have played a part in the leg burns.  we survived, so that's what matters, right?  here are the highlights from the lovely waterproof camera. kicking us off, jenny's excited face :)
during one of the stops, kasey found a crawfish, and began hunting it down with amy. eventually, it was captured and posed with. jenny had a camera too. she didn't almost lose hers downstream like i did. we survived the float, and it wasn't until getting back to amy's and rinsing off that i noticed my burns. next year, we'll all remember we should use the SPF 80 for all over. i'm just glad my face didn't burn. as bad as my legs burned, face burns are the worst!

a little las vegas recap

finally! i'm able to squeeze in a short little vegas recap :) in total, we spent nearly 5 whole days in las vegas (give or take drive time) and i personally had a fantastic time. it was great seeing new friends i hadn't seen in a year, exploring the huge tradeshow floors, and listening to some of the best in the industry. here is a little day by day recap. sorry, you get watermarked images today since they're going to be posted on two different blogs :)

saturday we got in to vegas right around 6pm and checked in to our hotel. our hotel booking allowed us two tickets to the recycled percussion show in the hotel theater, so once we unloaded everything from the car in to our hotel room, we got in line. dad volunteered to go up on stage at one point during the "training camp" section - that's him drumming on the trash can with some weird mask on. the show was great! full of energy and pretty incredible to see what four guys can do with a ton of random junk.
sunday was the first day at the convention, and boy was it jam packed. we checked in and got our badges right around 8 and then headed up to the third floor to wait in line. the speakers that day were zach & jody gray, the guys from tricoast photo, and the ever enthusiastic doug gordon. his posing tips are amazing. cannot wait to utilize them with couples! after a hop & skip down the road to in-n-out for dinner, that night was the photographers ignite presentation which was pretty amazing. each set of speakers had 5 minutes and 20 auto advancing slides to give a short presentation. the youngest speaker was maybe 18... having started his business at like, 15. what the crap?!
monday was another busy sort of day. 8am was jerry ghionis, and he talked a lot about light. this kid was at his talk last year. no joke, made the whole audience cry when jerry talked about him. adorbs. wandered the tradeshow with stephanie, and then we headed up (or tried to) to get our seats for jasmine star. yeah, she's already been refered to as my girl crush on facebook... i'm telling you, she's shooting my wedding even if i have to become an indentured servant for the rest of my life. she was amazing as always, and after her i headed down and met up with some of my "fusion group" peeps for the last talk of the day by tamara lackey. BACK up to the third floor for the sony party. last year we met nigel barker. this year, it was pretty much a total bust. minus the free food.

tuesday was a slower paced day. i got to sleep in a bit, and then went to the rainforest cafe for breakfast with the aforementioned "fusion group". and i won a book! finally something good came from these dang business card raffles. instead of going back to wandering the tradeshow, i hung out with kelliana, katie, lori & alej in their hotel room while kelliana photographed each of them. i was a pretty bomb reflector holder, that's for sure. though, it made me miss two chances to win an ipad. oh well! went down to see jessica claire talk (with stephanie) and then dad and i made a dash to chipotle down by harrah's for dinner. made it back just in time for his last platform class, so i randomly chose one to go to as well. after the last platform class, which was on senior portrait photography i headed up to the canon 80s party... not in 80's dress at all because even though i was intending to bring my pink shirt from 80's bowling... i totally forgot it at home. that's okay though. i wasn't the only one not in 80s dress. ate some cupcakes, hung out with stephanie, and then when the party "shut down" at like... 10:20, headed back to the hotel.
wednesday was the last day in vegas, and boy was it my slowest day! slept in a little bit, and once i woke up, i found out from twitter that i had won a camera bag! i guess i can't say i never win anything in vegas anymore. once we checked out of the hotel and loaded up the car, headed over to the tradeshow for one last day. wandered a bit here and there, and then since the weather was so nice, sat outside and ate lunch on the grass. after the final platform class with dane sanders, we began the 9 hour voyage home. overall, it was a great trip from my perspective. i got to reconnect with friends i've only seen online for the past year, become inspired by some of the greatest in the industry, and win free stuff! haha. oh, and drool over camera gear, that's for sure. another good part? besides food, i wasn't DYING to buy anything this year. well, i guess i mean realistically dying... since i could always go for some new camera gear :)