A Thousand Words Thursday – Six Years of Christmas

Cheaper Than Therapy

ATWT is hosted by Jen@Cheaper Than Therapy.  Post a photo that evokes great memories, or a wonderful story, then head on over to Jen’s and link up!

Over the six holiday seasons, I tried to take a photo of Tara with this snowman in Disney Hollywood Studios each year, I realized tonight, that we did not get to DHS during the holidays that year, so a picture of Tara at EPCOT will have to do.  If I knew then what I knew now… I would have made sure to get there! LOL….

You can go here to see the snowman photos a little more close up. Just click on the thumbnails
Have a Fa La La La Day!

Mosaic Monday – Magic Kingdom Christmas

Mosaic Monday is one of my favorite posts of the week.  It is always fun to figure out the theme each week!  Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at The Little Red House.  Do stop by, say hello and visit some of the other participants.  You won’t be disappointed, and maybe you too will be inspired to join in the fun!

It’s back to Disney posts for me, having spent the last 6 Christmases in Florida, for Tara and I it was pretty much all about Disney.  I do have to admit that I am missing it just a little!

Hopefully I can get out and about and find some new Christmas shots throughout the month to share.  I’ve got one little “field trip” up my sleeve for this week.  We will see how that works out.

Have a Fa La La La Day!

A Thousand Words Thursday – Halloween at Disney

Cheaper Than Therapy

A Thousand Words Thursday is hosted by “TheMomJen” @Cheaper than Therapy. A place for us to share those photos that are worth a thousand words to us! Click on the button to visit Jen and others who have shared their photos this week!

With Fall upon us here in Pennsylvania, and Tara and I loving it, we look fondly back on our favorite fall activity while we lived in Orlando. Halloween at Magic Kingdom was always fun! 2007 and 2008, must have been days when Tara was not wanting to be in the photos! I know we were there, but no pics with Tara!
Disney World – 2003-2006

Have a great day!

Martha

A Thousand Words Thursday – Then and Now at AK

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A Thousand Words Thursday is hosted by the fabulous Jen, at Cheaper Than Therapy! Click on the button above, stop by and visit and check out other great ATWT photos!

I am continuing my tour of Disney World parks this week, with the final park, Animal Kingdom. I’m also continuing with my then and now photos.

2003 Tara and Baloo (scanned photo) – This was on our first time ever Disney vacation, just months before we moved to Orlando)

2006 – Tara with Baloo! He was always a fun character to see!

As Tara got older, standing in line for a photo with the characters really started to get old for her, so in 2009, during our final visit to Animal Kingdom as Florida residents, I was so lucky to get her to pose with a character we had never seen before, Gov. Radcliffe (from the movie Pocahontas). Also with her is Meeko, from the same movie.
Someone asked if Tara was holding a book in her hand in each photo, and yes, she is. Those are the books we used to get autographs of the characters. We have several of them filled with our over 100 characters.

Mosaic Monday – Favorites

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary from the Little Red House. Click on the link and visit other creations! Mosaics are so fun and easy. (I use Picnik or Mosaic Maker
For today’s mosaic, I chose some of my favorite shots during the time we lived in Orlando. Photos include some at home (of pets), EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Downtown Disney & Sea World. I hope you enjoy!

Have a great day!

Martha

Mosaic Monday – Cinderella’s Castle

I love participating in Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary over on Little Red House. It gives me a chance to look through my photos, and reminisce. If you would like to see other mosaics, or play along too, click on one of the previous two links. (I make my mosaics using Picnik)

I thought I would continue with my Disney Mosaic Monday theme. Today I will showcase some of my favorite Cinderella Castle photos. My favorite (isn’t hard to figure out!) is the large photo of the castle dressed in “dream lights” this past holiday season. It was truly magical!

If you would like to see what I have posted for Mellow Yellow Monday, check out my photo blog.

Mosaic Monday – Pop Century

I normally don’t “double post” for memes, but this week since we are going away, I combined Mellow Yellow Monday, Mosaic Monday and Ruby Tuesday in one post. I am going to use this blog for Mosaic Monday, so to be consistent I am going to post it here as well! You can visit other Mosaic Monday entries at Litte Red House – Mosaic Monday. Mary’s flower mosaic this week is absolutely beautiful!
See you all when I get back (unless there is WI-FI in the house!)
These are all from the Pop Century Resort at Disney World which has sections themed from the 1950′s through the 1990s.

Our Trip to Animal Kingdom

Click to see a slideshow of some of my photos.

Tara and I spent a couple hours at Disney’s Animal Kingdom yesterday. I know for those who vacation here, it might sound strage when I say we only spent a couple hours, but that is in fact what we do very often. We live close enough and have seasonal passes, so it’s not a big deal to head over for a short time. Some days although we really feel like going, we get there and aren’t feeling the magic for whatever reason.

It was a beautiful day, and I am happiest anywhere when I can take pictures of anything. Tara gets annoyed with me! We wandered around the “Oasis” area, and then headed to Dinoland where Tara rode Dinosaur and Primevil Hurl Whirl. I am so glad she is old enough and willing to go on rides by herself, because I feel nauseous after riding many of them!



By this time Tara was about ready to go, so we wondered around the Tree of Life a bit, watched the flamingoes and slowly made our way out of the park.

Our Weekend


Tara and I had another really nice weekend. We had great weather.

We started our weekend going to see 17 Again. I really enjoyed the movie, as did Tara, with a few scenes that made her a little uncomfortable. This movie is definitely not for the 7-11 year old, High School Musical, Zac Efron fans. Matthew Perry/Zac Efron play a man, who was given a chance to go back and be 17 again. He positions himself as the son of a friend of the family, in order to try and make a difference and change the lives of his kids who don’t really like him, and his wife who is divorcing him. Tara said it was “weird” hearing some of the conversations that Zac Efron was having, just not used to hearing him on screen having such mature conversations. I don’t regret that Tara saw the movie, but I was glad that she saw it with me. She had to go to the rest room at one point, just after a scene that involved some safe sex type conversation and a basket of condoms. She sent me a text and asked “where those condoms in the basket”. I almost laughed out loud….. my 12 year old texting me the word CONDOM! This is one of those movies that each parent needs to decided what is the right thing for their child.

Saturday we got up and went out to Denny’s for breakfast. We had not done this in a very long time. There is something about starting your weekend with a good cup of Denny’s coffee! After breakfast, we headed over to our town center, where they were having a farmers market. This was the first weekend, and they plan on having it every weekend going forward (not sure if just until the fall or every week). It was nice, I wished we had not eaten breakfast before we went, they had many tasty choices. There seemed to be a good turn out, and many great vendors. I took pictures of fruits, veggies and flowers. Click HERE, to see my photoblog post with pics! I still love the Winter Park Farmers Market, and can’t wait to get back to PA so we can go to Rice’s Market, but this is a great option, just down the road!

We came home and worked on editing pictures. I shot my pictures in RAW for the first time, so I was learning the software to process the photos. I am also working on doing more “special effect” processing to some of my photos, so the process is time consuming. Tara and I also spent some time in the pool. Yes, I got in the pool. once accustomed to the water temperature, it was not too bad. We had a nice time chatting and blowing bubbles! I guess Tara was tired from all our fun.

Sunday our plan was to get up and out early to be at Magic Kingdom for opening. We were successful in executing this plan! What was unexpected was the fact the Space Mtn had already been closed for refurbishing. I thought it started on Monday. So instead of Space Mtn, we headed to Buzz Lightyear, where I scored the highest score possible for the very first time! Tara was not happy for me!

We then wandered around a bit, found three characters that I did not have in our collection. They were leaving, but would be returning in a few minutes. We headed up by the castle took some photos, rode Snow White and Winnie the Pooh. By this time it was almost time for the characters. Tara ran to Toontown to check for something in the store, and I waited and took some pictures. Before too long Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella appeared. I was the first in line (I am sure some folks think I am a crazy grown up, but we have quite a collection, and I don’t want to miss a chance to adding to it!)

We both decided we were hungry, and oddly enough, we had had enough of the park for the day. There are some days that although I love it there, a short visit is enough. We were both hungry, and there wasn’t really anything in the park we wanted to eat, so we hopped the monorail and tram back to our car, and head away from The Happiest Place on Earth to Cracker Barrel. We had a nice lunch, then headed back towards home, making a stop off to run an errand. I was ready for a nap when we came home, but had a mess to clean up from one of the animals. Later, I sat outside and enjoyed the nice evening while Tara played in the pool! Of course, there was Amazing Race to watch and more photos to edit.

So that was pretty much our weekend, fun, fun, fun, and very little housework!

A Thousand Words Thursday – 1st Trip to Disney

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A Thousand Word Thursday is a wonderful way to share our favorite photos from those special “Kodak” moments in our lives. Please visit Jen at “Cheaper Than Therapy” to find other entries for the week!



My great nephew Kier came to spend his spring break with us 2 years ago. He had turned six in February, and my sister (his grandmother) brought him as a birthday present. Kier had never been to Disney before, never been on a plane, never really very far away from home. We were all a little nervous about the visit, but in the end we had the BEST time, and were really sad to see him go. He is the middle child, and very easy to please.

The top photo is him at the gift shop at OIA right after their arrival, it is one of my favorite pictures of him.

The second photo was in Toontown, Magic Kingdom, and Kier was visiting with Eeyore. Suddenly Eeyore, just took hold of him, and layed down on the floor with him. I love when the characters take more interest in the kids than just signing an autograph, and “smiling” for the picture. Kier said he felt like a giant pillow.

Last one, I promise. I’m having fun remembering the visit! Kier and my sister, he was using cotton candy for a beard! Too funny!

We have NOT seen Kier since this visit. He is now NINE. We can’t wait to get back to PA, so we can start making new memories with our family!