When I arrived, the girls were happily entertaining themselves upstairs. I LOVE the playroom at Mimi and Dee’s house… it’s so bright and happy and full of fun stuff to do :)

Shelby was just a baby the last time I saw her… I couldn’t believe how much she had grown up!

Kate wanted to read a book to Caroline and Shelby… Shelby wanted to keep drawing :)

Thankfully, the book captured her interest after a moment…

Then the racing began. I’m not sure who started it, but it was fun (and exhausting!) to watch :)

But then Shelby remembered that she’d really rather keep drawing. This girl is serious about her art :)

A trip outside to play on the world’s best tire swing was a huge hit. These girls love hanging out here.

It was hot, so we headed back inside to cool down. A bit of sisterly roughhousing ensued.

Shelby wasn’t so sure about all of that craziness… :)

We enjoyed some dinner, and then the girls devoured a cupcake for energy before heading back out into the heat…

I grabbed this shot while everyone was preparing to head back outside. This stuff is my favorite… when people forget I’m around, and they just love on each other.

We headed back out into the heat… Mimi and Dee and the girls had planted a garden, and it was time to check and see if anything had grown out there.

Intense job…

Caroline was hard at work, digging some holes.

While Kate and her Dee searched for the fruits of their labor.

And Shelby found some shade…and some dirt to throw around :)

Checking out the results of that days harvest… (Shelby’s face in this one is my favorite thing ever)

Beautiful Caroline :)

Beautiful Kate.

I loved this capture of Trent, Meghan, and Shelby. So sweet.

More sisterly love… this time, slightly less rough :)

And finally… A little book reading by Rob. I’ve said before that he is the best book reader in history… and I still stand by that statement. He’s hysterical.

Silliness, as always :)

Thank you guys so much for inviting me to be a part of your lives. I have loved seeing your families grow up. I truly hope you enjoy this slideshow, and I can’t wait to see you all again at Shelby’s birthday!

much love,

amber

In April, I traveled to Richmond & the DC area to photograph a few of my past clients… and I also had the added bonus of getting to meet Heidi and Michael and of photographing them hanging out as they prepared for the birth of their first child. In June, I returned to capture their life with Baby Tristan… who had decided to join the world just a few weeks earlier than planned :)

Destination sessions are always fun… whoever ends up being my host family tends to get a bit of an extended session. I tend to just keep my camera close by, and photograph whatever strikes me. This session was no exception. When Daniel picked me up from the airport, he mentioned that Baby Tristan tended to have his best awake time in the evenings, so even though it was late, I spent a little time photographing them before we all headed for bed.

They spend most of their time in the master bedroom… Tristan was born there, and he had spent most of his life there, at this point. I loved capturing them snuggling in this room… I could tell it is how they spend so much of their time.

The next morning there was more snuggling…

Then there was some eating… and then Tristan tried to decide if he wanted to go to sleep or not…

He decided that he’d rather stay awake… (of course, going against what had up until that point ALWAYS been his sleep/wake cycle:) Typical stubborn baby :))

Love baby feet :)

Michael is SOOOO cute with Tristan. Love LOVE love watching dads and babies. (I know, I’m redundant. Get over it. It’s my blog:))

Baby Tristan was sleepy… but completely uninterested in sleeping. Hence, lots of yawns. Fun for me. :)

Heidi and Michael started reading The Velveteen Rabbit to Baby Tristan when he was still in Heidi’s stomach… the tradition continues :)

Heidi is already an amazing mom.

Bath time is always one of my favorite things to capture… It’s so different, every time. This was Baby Tristan’s first real bath in a tub :)

Baby bellies are awesome :)

After the bath, we headed outside for a short walk around the neighborhood. I loved Baby Tristan’s stroller. So cool.

They couldn’t even make it upstairs from our walk before they started snuggling him again. I think they might be in love :)

And then again upstairs… At night, Baby Tristan is sleeping on a pillow in between them… and we wanted to make sure we captured that.

The session was over, and we headed out to grab some lunch. But like I said before… I have a hard time putting my camera away. I’m glad I didn’t, because I love these last two shots.

Baby wearing is a fascinating phenomenon to me. Heidi does it well.

And Baby Tristan’s first restaurant outing. He didn’t seem impressed. :)

And just because I have to brag on how amazing Tobi from Ivy Handcrafted is… here’s the blanket she whipped up for me to take with me to Alexandria with very little advance notice. She’s the best :)

Heidi and Michael… I hope you guys enjoy your slideshow :) I’ll be in touch soon… and I’ll let you know if I plan any trips your way. Maybe we can get another session in!

hugs

-amber

Heidi and Michael are an amazing couple. It was so fun to watch them together! I can’t wait to meet their baby in June :)

We started off the session getting a little bit of work done. Itty bitty baby clothes are so much fun to fold!

Heidi and Michael are planning an all natural homebirth… How cute is this little onesie?!

After the laundry was put away… it was time to do a little reading. Heidi is at the 34 week mark, and she and Michael plan to do a good bit of ready to Baby in the next 6 weeks.

I LOVE the book that they chose…

I LOVE this bedroom… I’m so excited about shooting in here again when Baby arrives :)

Love this one…

Every night, Michael talks to Baby… I am so proud of him for not being embarrassed to let me photograph him talking to Baby :) I love the tenderness in the resulting images.

Like most modern couples… Heidi and Michael spend quite a bit of time on their computers… we had to capture that reality :)

I LOVED finding out that both Heidi and Michael love to read… I’m always on the lookout for something new and exciting to read, and now I have two new people to pester for recommendations :) How cute are they in their matching recliners?

A bit of snuggling on the couch…

I love it when snuggling dissolves into giggles :)

Heidi and Michael… I cannot wait to meet Baby :) Hurry up, already, will you?! Until then, enjoy your slideshow!

xoxo

-amber

We started off the session by checking out Finley’s big-girl bed. She’s very proud of her ability to perfectly execute forward rolls :)

Then, after the gymnastics had exhausted us, we settled down for a bit of quiet toy time.

Then Daddy came home :) Finley was very excited about that :)

I’m not even going to try to explain this particular game… but I seriously love the emotion that resulted!

Love these two images of Finley and her dad… so lovey and snuggly.

Then a tickle fight broke out. I think Finley started it… but I’m pretty sure Steve won.

And then Yancey was attacked… but I’m pretty sure she ended up winning, too. Poor Finley never really stood a chance.

We decided to leave the Big Girl room, and hang out downstairs for a bit. Finley impulsively decided that her mom needed a kiss… so so cute.

Finley danced for a few minutes… until all of the adults felt slightly nauseated, just from watching her go ’round and ’round.

This image makes me laugh so hard… I honestly don’t know what is being said here, but it really looks like Steve is getting a serious talking to.

Yancey and Steve read Finley a book that has to be the funniest book I have ever heard read during a session. I honestly had a hard time focusing, because I was so amazed/appalled/amused by the story.

Finley and Thumbkin were not as amused by the book as I was…

One of my favorite images of the day… I love that the entire family (even Lucy!) is included.

Finley put on her princess costume… and then proceeded to hide from me… anywhere she could :)

After being hiding princess for a bit, she decided that she’d like a few more books… so we headed back upstairs to the Big Girl room for a few more books.

Finley was not exactly in the mood to sit quietly and listen… she was so silly!

She started playing peekaboo with her dad, under the book… I LOVE the resulting images!

Then Steve took a turn… He does some amazing voices… you would’ve been impressed if you had heard him :)

Love love LOVE this detail…

A quick shot of Lucy… and we’re all finished.

Yancey and Steve… It was awesome to see you guys again! I’m already looking forward to the next Richmond trip :) I hope you enjoy your slideshow! (Tell Finley that Miss Camera misses her :) )

hugs!

-amber

My beach session clients arrived, and I spent the next hour and a half laughing and having a blast photographing them. This session and the next session were not lifestyle baby/family sessions, and so will not be blogged on this blog (hopefully I’ll find time to put them on my other blog, one of these days) but you can see the album of images on facebook (and I’ll cheat and show you a few here!).

Introducing Gigi, David, Jessica, and Brittany… beautiful family.

Okay, that’s all of that you get to see here… Go check out the facebook album to see more :) After this session was over, Gigi and David were gracious enough to chauffeur me to my final session of the day. At this point, I was feeling a bit weary, to say the least… I was worried that my creative brain was completely wiped out. But then I met the three best friends who I would be photographing… and I laughed for 2 hours straight… and we made some ridiculously fun images. Go check out Sammy, Micayla and Camille on Facebook… prepare to be amused :)

And yes, I’ll share just a couple here…

After this epic day of session, I was happy to head back to Mimi & Scott’s house and have a nice relaxed dinner. The food was delicious, and the company was perfect, and I wasn’t allowed to touch my camera the entire time :)

Monday, January 3rd, was actually the day we were scheduled to fly back to Chattanooga, but Christine and Gavin and the girls wanted to get in one last dip in the pool before we left. I was so glad that they did, because I had really wanted to capture that for them.

Before we could get in the pool, we had to have a bit of breakfast. Julia had woken up in an amazing mood… or maybe it’s just that she likes me ;)

Snuggles from Grandmommy are the best :)

I’m sitting here bundled in a blanket, with a carpet of snow covering everything outside my window… and I’m thinking about how amazing the temperature was that morning. I could’ve lived in that temperature.

Yep… it’s January. Are you jealous?

Everyone had much too much fun… I was pretty bummed that I hadn’t thought to bring my swimsuit.

Julia only started walking a week or so before I arrived in Florida… It looks like she’s already completely mastered the art.

Love this image of Julia and her daddy… She’s checking to see who’s got her. So cute :)

I’m crazy about this family. Have I mentioned that? And I really really like this little girl.

Christine and Gavin, enjoy your slideshow… Let’s hang out again soon!

much love!

-amber

First session of the day was with an adorable almost 2 year old named Shane. I had met Shane and his parents, Linsey and Neil, the night before at Baby Julia’s birthday party. As soon as Linsey started talking to me, I knew we were a perfect fit. She was so chill and relaxed about the session… Just exactly how every mom should be before I come over!

How adorable is this little man?

First stop was a bit of book reading. I’m really glad we did this at the beginning of the session… the rest of our time together was crazy busy, so I was glad we had these quiet moments at the beginning.

Book reading quickly turned into crazy dancing (with super cool giant blabla knits!).

Then Shane asked to dance in his crib for a few. He’s seriously gorgeous, isn’t he?

After we finished up in the bedroom, we headed to play in the playroom. (The most exciting playroom in the world!) Linsey and Neil are absolutely brilliant parents, and when they moved into this house, they transformed the formal dining room into a playroom. This means that Shane has his own little world to play in, and it is conveniently located at the center of the house! So perfect.

After a bit of playroom time, Shane decided it was time to play marching band. Shane was definitely the leader of this band… I wish you could’ve been there to see him ordering everyone around. It was hysterical.

Seriously, one of my favorite pictures… ever.

After music comes sports, I guess… Shane was quickly ready to move on from band practice to ball practice. And although I’m not going to brag about his skills as a musician, I AM going to brag about his skills as an athlete. It’s probably a bit too early to know for sure… but I’m thinking this kid has a sports future. I was impressed!

Sports are exhausting… so we headed to the master bedroom to relax. The relaxing didn’t really happen… instead, it turned into a crazy tickle-fest! I happen to think tickling is evil… but it makes for some fun images :) I love these!

By this point in the session, I was wondering what else they could possibly have to play with… But we weren’t even close to done yet! We played in tunnels in the living room, and then we built a FORT! (And if you know Shane, you know that the really cool thing that we built in the living room is not a fort… it’s a FORT!!!)

It was getting dangerously close to naptime, but we decided to run outside and grab a few quick images before Shane crashed. I’m so glad we did… it was so nice to be in the amazing Florida (in January!) sun :)

Back inside with a popsicle… and it was time to get ready for a nap. (I was wishing I could nap with him… why don’t kids like naps as much as we do?)

Diaper changes can be so entertaining.

Seriously love this little face! I can’t wait to head back to Florida and photograph him again :)

Linsey and Neil… thanks so much for having me in your home and letting me capture a day in your life :) I hope you guys enjoy the slideshow! Let’s connect again soon!

xoxo

-amber

I’ll try to get us caught up by sharing a bit of the reason why I woke up bright and early on 1/1/11 and flew to Fort Lauderdale. Baby Julia was turning one, and Christine and Gavin wanted me there to capture it. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with Christine and her family in Florida in the past, and it’s so much fun, so I was excited about the opportunity to do it again.

Just like with Mia’s recent treehouse birthday party, Christine was a master of the details.

The birthday girl was as adorable as always… Baby Julia really loves me, so taking pictures of her isn’t like working at all. Love her :)

Mia decided that the cupcakes needed to be tested before everyone arrived. She had to make sure they were ok :)

And the birthday girl had to get into her birthday dress…

Guests began arriving… I love this image of Baby Julia and her Papa… That single hand in the air depicts one of the funniest things I’ve seen in awhile… Julia’s dancing. She has this one-armed hand pump that she does every time she hears music. So funny.

Julia started showing signs of sleepiness early in the evening, but luckily, she was a serious trooper.

With so many exciting people and fun toys to play with, who can pay attention to that sleepy feeling?

Then it was time for cake :) This picture makes me laugh… she somehow hasn’t quite noticed that there’s a cake in front of her yet :)

Oh. That’s for me?

She started off somewhat daintily.

But thankfully, that didn’t last for long :)

Gavin offered to feed her a few bites, but Julia wasn’t interested in being fed… She’s definitely opinionated :)

She was more than happy to share a few bites with Christine though. Yummy ;)

What a perfect mess!

This is Neil and Shane… you’ll see more of them soon…  I had the opportunity to do a full shoot for Shane while I was in Florida. The session was just as action packed as this shot is :)

Mia and Julia got an awesome new toy for Christmas… this was Mia’s first attempt at really driving it. She was so proud of herself (and how much fun is her entourage?!)

One minute she was out on the road driving her car… the next (literally) we found her inside in bed… asleep. So adorable.

Julia, on the other hand, was much more interested in hanging out with everyone. She didn’t want to go to sleep at all. Plus, there were presents to open!

Happy happy birthday Baby Julia… Thank you for liking me so much. Your incessant smiles are very appreciated :)

Christine and Gavin (and Mimi and Scott and Scottie)… you guys are wonderful. I feel like part of the family… like I belong on that twin bed in the middle of the most awesome toyroom in the world. I really appreciate how at home you always make me feel. I’m crazy about y’all :)

Enjoy your slideshow… and don’t worry, there’s another one coming soon :)

love,

-amber

and you can see part 2 of the series here :) Go get caught up before you read part 3!

Ok… where we we? Ah, right… we headed back to the resort to grab some lunch and change into our Halloween costumes. I am quite impressed at how quickly we were able to accomplish this. We managed to inhale lunch, run back to the room, change clothes/gather props/resist laying down and going to sleep in about an hour, and we were back in front of the resort, waiting on the shuttle so much quicker than I imagined was possible.

I had been dreading the part of the day where we took the break back at the resort, because I was afraid we would take too long, and I wanted to maximize the amount of time we spent in the park, since we only had a few days. (Funny that I was dreading it, since it was my idea to deal with lunch/halloween costumes by heading back to the resort in the afternoon anyway. I’m fickle like that I guess;)) I seriously turned into a logistics Nazi at certain times on this trip (and I wasn’t even good at it!), so I was SO glad when we arrived back at the park so quickly…

One of the reasons I was so worried about time/logistics, is because we had scheduled an appointment for Addison to have the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience before the Halloween party officially began. Nathan stayed with her, while Austen and I went and put the finishing touches on his costume (and then enjoyed some rides, since we had tons of extra time!).

I can’t begin to tell you how much I love my husband for taking so many pictures of Addy during the 30ish minutes that she was in the Boutique. I don’t feel like I missed anything :)

Addy’s Princess transformation…

(I love that you can see Nathan in his Goofy hat in the mirror in this one :))

Seriously, could she be any more excited?

Nathan was seriously rockin’ the Hipstamatic app…

Don’t you want to go have your hair and makeup done in a princess castle?

And don’t you want to know this amazing lady? She had so much character, and Addy just loved her.

A bit of princess makeup…

And some fairy dust to finish it all off…

And the Reveal… Princess Addison!

Worth every penny.

Our beautiful girl…

Okay… so while Addy was undergoing that transformation, Austen was also transforming :) His process was crazy quick though, so I don’t have nearly as many pictures to share…

We found a place to have his face painted (which only took about 5 minutes!), and then he slipped into a bathroom and changed into his costume. (His costume was a bit warm, so we held off putting it on him for as long as we could.)

Doesn’t he look awesome?!?

Every once in awhile I see an image of Austen, and I am just blown away by how grown up he is. This image made me happy because in it, I could see that he’s not completely grown up, but that he’s still our little boy. (Ick, cheesy mom stuff… sorry!)

We managed to make a couple of really cute kids… if I do say so myself (and don’t you dare disagree;) )

Family Halloween portrait :) (thanks again to the Disney photogs for this one…even if it is totally focused on the wrong thing. Sigh.)

Honestly, from this point on we were much too busy hopping on rides with ridiculously short lines, searching for the trick or treat spots, and eating a ton of candy to take many pictures :) You’ll just have to image us traipsing around the Magic Kingdom in our Halloween Costumes riding Thunder Mountain over and over without waiting in line at all :)

My very very very very very favorite part of the trip (not including getting to spend time with my family or watching my kids enjoy the thrill that is Disney) was the evening fireworks dispaly and the Boo-to-You Halloween Parade. I’m such a kid about this sort of thing… I just sit and stare and laugh… I probably enjoyed it more than the kids :)

(I took about a million firework shots… mine were horrible! Another great reason to be thankful for my husband ;) )

It was a truly wonderful day. We drug ourselves to the shuttle at around midnight… after having been in the park since before 9:00 that morning… and after having had basically zero sleep. Although we were tired to our cores, we were also truly content. It was a seriously amazing day.

(And I’ll go ahead and say it… my kids are rockstars… at 8 and 5 years old they rode every ride we came upon, walked for miles and miles and hours and hours, fought very little, whined very little, and seemed to love every second)

Love. I’m in love.

So really, the post should end here… with that image of my children painted and glittered and exhausted (and seriously, do you see Addy is reaching for her brother, even in her sleep?!)… but I have just a few more images from Day 2. There’s not enough for a full second post, so I’ll just do a short synopsis here :)

We gave ourselves a bit of a reprieve on Day 2. We knew the kids (and the adults) had to have a little bit of sleep before being fit to tackle another day at the park, so we didn’t get up ’til around 9:00. (If I’m being honest, even being as exhausted as I was, I still didn’t sleep much… I was still too excited about the day we had just had, and the day we had to come.) We ate breakfast at the resort before we headed over, and we finally arrived in the park at around 11:00. What we were not prepared for was the insane influx of guests who appeared to have materialized overnight. The park was packed! All Austen and Addy wanted to do was ride Splash Mountain, and it seemed like we ran into obstacle after obstacle keeping off of that ride and every other ride:( We dealt with rain, lightening, crazy long lines, and a navigator who managed to keep screwing up the Fast Passes… (yep, that’s me). It was a slightly crazy and emotional morning, but we finally managed to get it all together. The kids got to ride everything they had missed the day before, and we re-rode Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain a couple of times (in addition to all kinds of other stuff).

Fun :) (and yes, Addy still has her princess hair. It honestly didn’t move. It was still looking good the next day when we flew home!)

We rode as many rides as we possibly could for the rest of the day, and then the decision was made to head back over to Downtown Disney so the kids could purchase their souvenirs. (Austen had been dying to go back to the Lego store, and Addy was happy to choose her souvenir anywhere.) We had a flight to catch the next morning at 9:00am (and the airport was about 45 minutes away, so we knew we were going to have to get up early!) and we were already a bit tired. We ate a delicious dinner at Wolfgang Puck, found all of the perfect toys to take home with us, and finished off the night with one more treat from Ghirardelli, and we called it a night.

It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful (if slightly too short!) vacation.

Bye bye Magic Kingdom… we’ll see you again next year!

much love,

-amber

So… when we left off, we were all snoozing soundly in our teeny tiny Disney resort room. About 6 hours later, our alarms went off, and we began dragging ourselves out of the bed and into the shower. We wanted to be in the park when it opened in order to maximize our time, so their was no time for lazying around. (Honestly, I’m pretty sure I didn’t sleep much at all. I was too excited! Yep, I’m still a little kid like that :))

I was blown away by the level of enthusiasm and energy that the kids had after so little sleep and such a long day the day before. They were amazing. The kids dressed in their awesomely cheesey Disney t-shirts, and we hopped on the shuttle to head into the park. We hadn’t managed to stop for breakfast, but we figured we’d get inside the park and deal with that later. (Thank goodness for the fresh fruit vendors… we’d have been in trouble without them!)

By around 8:45, we had shuttled into the park, cruised through bag check and the front gates, and were standing in the middle of Main Street. We pointed out Cinderella’s castle to Addison, and when she registered what she was seeing, her jaw dropped open dramatically and she gasped with her hand on her heart. I just teared up now, thinking about it. I could have turned around right then and gone home and been completely content with the trip, that moment made me so happy.

(All the cool square pictures in this post and the next are courtesy of Nathan’s iPhone brilliance and the Hipstamatic app. Good stuff!)

Thankfully, that was just the first of many amazing moments :) We started by getting autographs from Pluto and Daisy Duck, who were conveniently placed right inside the gate. I can’t wait to print some of these images to put in the kids autograph books. Such a fun souvenir.

(Thanks to the Disney park photographers for these next few images.)

A quick family portrait before heading through the castle and into Fantasyland. I was seriously like a kid at this point. C’mon! C’mon! Let’s go! Let’s go!

Once we made it through the castle and into Fantasyland (while constantly on the lookout for breakfast, and deciding that the cool DisneyWorld mapping ap that I had on my iPhone was going to be basically worthless), we happened upon a couple of evil stepsisters. Addy was enthralled by them, so we stopped while she got their autograph, and had a bit of fun laughing with them. They were perfect!

The park was amazingly un-busy. I was so excited when I realized that we might not have to stand in the world’s longest lines for every single attraction. We hopped into line for our first ride, and a few minutes later we were flying high with Dumbo the Flying Elephant. I am so glad we picked this ride as our first ride, because while up in the air, the kids got a glimpse of all of the cool stuff they still had left to see. Needless to say, they were excited!

After we finished with Dumbo, we grabbed some Fast Passes to Nathan’s favorite ride, Peter Pan’s Flight, and then headed over to the Mad Tea Party (one of my favorites! although… I may be getting old, because they kinda made me queasy this time. Ack.)

As we were spinning round and round and round on the teacups, we kept seeing snippets of cool stuff. Ooh! There’s Space Mountain! Ooh! There’s Dad! Ooh! There’s the White Rabbit! And the minute we were out of the teacups, the kids were off to meet the White Rabbit. (I seriously felt sorry for whoever was inside of this costume… it was SO hot, and his costume was huge! Just look at the poor guy trying to use those paws to write with.)

I had visions of seeing all of the different sections of the park in segments… of trying to keep it all organized, so we didn’t miss anything… but I quickly realized that that was going to be a lot more trouble than it was worth, so I gave up :) From this point on, we just took the attractions as we saw them, rather than trying to stay in some kind of order. The control freak in me had some difficulty with this (I tend to over-plan, when it comes to things like logistics) but the kid in me loved it :)

Next stop was the Tomorrowland Speedway. The kids were excited about the opportunity to drive their own race cars, and Nathan and I were excited about how short the line was! Seriously, it was wonderful!

Austen and Nathan… looking adorable and excited :)

Me and Addy… looking crazy and concentrated:) (Addy saw this picture the other day and said “Why am I making that face?!”. I had to remind her that it was because she was trying so hard to be a good driver. Ha.)

At this point, it was a little difficult to decide what to do next, as we knew we were going to be taking a break to go back to resort for a mid-afternoon lunch. There was still so much we wanted to see! We finally decided to head into Mickey’s Toontown Fair so we could see the Princesses, go use our Fast Passes for the Peter Pan ride, and then we’d try to see as much as we possibly could in Tomorrowland before heading back to the resort.

We were so excited for Addy to meet the princesses. Austen was such a good sport as we waited in one of the longest lines we waited in all day… (that might be because Disney is SMART and has TVs everywhere showing movies…and there was air conditioner… and candy :) )

(The following images are a mix of Nathan’s iPhone and Disney photographers. The light in the Princess room was pretty horrible, so we ended up getting some of Disney’s shots to augment the ones we had taken) Check out the expressions on Addy’s face. She’s in love!

After we finished with the Princesses, we used our Fast Passes to skip to the front of the Peter Pan ride. I didn’t actually remember this one from when I visited Disney as a kid, so it was new to me, and I loved it. From here, we headed to Tomorrowland. Austen had been so accommodating and patient while we waited on the Princesses, so we wanted to make sure he got to do something that he really wanted to do. He had been eyeing Tomorrowland since we arrived, so he was super excited to finally go and see that part of the park.

On the walk over there, we ran into Mary Poppins and Bert. Bert tried to convince Austen that he should skip the attractions and come work with him, cleaning chimneys… Their accents were pretty horrible, but their personalities were wonderful. The kids loved them.

Finally, we were in Tomorrowland (and Austen was slightly overstimulated… Ooh! Ooh! Look, it’s something shiny! Look, it’s Buzz Lightyear! Look, it’s a roller coaster!). We headed over to Space Mountain (much better description of the ride here), planning to get Fast Passes, but were pleasantly surprised to find a super short line. We weren’t completely sure if Addy was going to be tall enough to ride, and had been warning her of that potential problem, pretty much all morning… Imagine our collective excitement when we realized she was more than tall enough! (Honestly, this sort of freaked me out. I mean, this is a scary coaster. People sit single file, which meant my 5 year old daughter and my 8 year old son were going to have their own seats and I was not going to be able to keep them safe. Ack!). We played video games and looked a cool space-y video screens as we waited in line, and I tried to be as brave as the kids were being. We arrived at the front of the line, and Nathan and Austen hopped into their seats, I helped Addy into hers (she probably didn’t need my help, but I had to be sure that her lap bar was down and locked because I’m paranoid like that) and then I climbed into my seat behind her. We realized that I could reach around and hold her hand, so I did that. We took off, and immediately, I could hear Nathan laughing, Austen saying Ohhhh!, and Addy screaming. At first I thought she was freaking out (based on the extremely tight grip she had on my hand) but soon I realized that she was just excited. After a few minutes of whirling through the pitch dark at what feels like insanely fast speeds, we pulled into the unloading station, and disembarked. I gave Addy (who was smiling from ear to ear) a hand climbing out of her car, and turned to see my husband and son laughing and talking animatedly about how much fun they had just had. Ahhh… life is good :)

We snapped a shot of the picture of the car that the kids and I were in… Things to note: 1. Austen has his eyes closed (apparently, he kept them closed most of the time on this round, but not on the next few times we rode it. 2. Addy not only has her eyes closed, but is also hiding her face (She did this through most of the ride this time, but the next time she kept her eyes open, and the time after that she rode behind me, and didn’t hold my hand!) 3. I’m grinning like and idiot (and riding fairly uncomfortably, as trying to reach Addy’s hand and hold onto my giant bag wasn’t super easy:))

I asked the kids to make their best Space Mountain faces, and this is what they gave me. Awesome.

From Space Mountain, we headed back out to ride the other Tomorrowland attractions (don’t worry, I’m not going to keep trying to detail every ride we road and what order we rode them in… I don’t think I can even keep up with it any more :)). While getting into line for the Astro Orbiter, we ran into Chip and Dale, so of course, we had to get their autograph :)

We finished off the rest of the attractions in Tomorrowland, including two more favorite attractions: Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (so cute) and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (seriously one of my favorites… so fun).

At this point it was about 2:00, we had scarfed a few pieces of fruit for breakfast, and had been walking nonstop for about 5 hours. We were a bit tired, VERY hungry, and we needed to get back to the resort to get our stuff for the evening’s Halloween party. It seemed like finishing Tomorrowland was a good stopping point, so we headed out of the park, and back to our resort.

I’ll have another post soon… I have about a million images from Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party… and then about 3 images from our second day in the park :) Thanks for enjoying our adventure with me!

love,

-amber

The week was a bit insane… Monday, I headed down to Atlanta to spend some time and speak at the Road Trip stop there. That night, after a day full of lots of stressful-to-amber type things (lots of driving alone, speaking, talking to strangers) I tried to get everything prepared for the rest of the week. As I was throwing all kinds of random stuff into my suitcase, I was trying to make a major decision. (Don’t laugh. Yes, to me, this was major.) I was trying to decide it was possible for me to document this trip with my (and Nathan’s) iPhone… or if I was obligated to use a more appropriate tool- my “real camera.” On one hand, I felt a deep seated drive to beautifully document the kids first experience at the Magic Kingdom. What kind of photographer (and mother!) would I be if I didn’t do that? But on the other hand, I had recently photographed the family when we visited the Kentucky State Fair, and although I LOVE having those images… in some ways, walking around with camera in hand made me feel like I was merely an observer/documenter of my life, rather than a participant. (Plus, that thing is heavy… it killed my back to lug it around all day!) Nathan and I talked it over, and I was definitely leaning towards just documenting our trip with our iPhones. I posted about it on Twitter/Facebook, and was honestly expecting to get talked out of my decision. I was expecting to be taken on photographer guilt trips, mom guilt trips, and who knows what other horrible things. Instead, what I received was a ton of support. The decision was already made, but having so many of my friends share that they would make the same decision helped me to feel much better about choosing our iPhones as the documentation tool for such an epic experience. It was so amazing to be a participant in my life… and I love the images that we ended up capturing.

Ok… so now that you’ve had the “why are all of these images from your iPhone” disclaimer… on to the story :)

The logistics of the rest of the week continued to be as crazy as Monday (but ever so typical of the way we tend to do things). Allegiant Air was running direct flights from Chattanooga to Orlando for a mere $19 each way (um, crazy!) but they only fly down on Wednesdays and back on Saturdays. I was to speak in Orlando on Wednesday. We decided that I would fly down on Tuesday, chill with the WPPI gals that night (thanks for the fun dinner girls!), and prepare for my presentation on Wednesday. Nathan would spend Tuesday doing all the packing that I didn’t really get to, and finishing up all the other last minute craziness that came up (including trying to find Halloween costumes for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!) Wednesday, I walked around all morning being nervous/excited/nervous/excited, while Nathan and the kids enjoyed their luxury (ha!) flight to Orlando. I spoke just after lunch, and as soon as I was done and able to say my goodbyes (I might have exclaimed “I’m going to Disney World!” from the stage at the end of my presentation :) ), I headed downstairs to be picked up by my family. Perfect timing, even in the midst of what seems like insane travel plans :)

Side note: My husband is the master of the iPhone self portrait. You’ll notice that there will be very few self portraits of me. I’m not terrible at self-portraiting with “the real camera” but sadly, self portraits with the iPhone tend to cut off the majority of some one (and usually the someone is me) so those images didn’t quite make the cut :)

I love this image of the rest of my family in the airport at the beginning of their journey. I was so excited to see these three faces pull up at the conference hotel.

Once I was picked up, we headed toward Walt Disney World. We had booked a room in one of the Walt Disney Resorts, and we were excited to get in, get unpacked, and do a bit of shopping and eating at Downtown Disney. Disney with kids is a blast. Everything becomes an adventure… even the simple things like checking into the hotel or riding a shuttle or finding a restaurant. After a bit of deliberation, we decided to eat at the T-Rex Cafe that night for dinner… the kids were thrilled, and surprisingly, the grownups were pretty pleased as well. I only grabbed one picture of the inside, but seriously, look how cool!

After our delicious dinosaur dining experience (oh yeah, look at me, I’m alliterating;) ), it was time for some shopping. We saw a magnet store, a build your own remote control car store, a magic store,  and a sock store. We bought tshirts and socks and shorts and we looked into about a million windows. One of our final stops (and quite possibly the major highlight of Austen’s entire experience) was the Lego store.

Austen was in ridiculously good spirits after spending some quality time with an enormous Lego collection.  At this point it’s probably getting close to 10:00 or maybe even later, so everyone was starting to get a bit silly :)

After playing at the Lego store for awhile, we headed to the most gigantic Disney store imaginable. Austen still didn’t have a costume for the festivities that were happening the next day, so we were on a mission to find one.

But we kinda got sidetracked by all of the cool hats ;) See what I mean about the silliness?

We finally drug ourselves away from the exciting hat collection (but not before Nathan and I purchased hats for ourselves to wear to the Halloween party the next night) and found Austen a very cool costume (more on that in the next post :)). It was just about time to head back to the hotel and get a couple of hours sleep before Day 1 at the Magic Kingdom.

And then we found ourselves sidetracked again. This time by chocolate and ice cream… and it was SO worth it.

Addison couldn’t quite finish her enormous ice cream sundae…

But Austen managed to drain his equally enormous root beer float :)

Yum.

At this point, we made the long trek back to the shuttle… and then the long ride back to our hotel… and then another long trek back to our room. We fell into bed, happy and exhausted and excited about the adventures to come.

More soon :)

love,

-amber