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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aloha #136

As you read this, I’m soaring above the clouds on my way to Disney World.  See?

Ok, that’s not actually a photo from right now.  That’s a photo from last year.  I’ll take a photo from the air to post later on.

We’re headed to Disney for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.  Unlike past years, when B attended and I took the kids around Disney World, both B and I were invited this time.  So while we experience some Disney social media magic, B’s parents will be taking the kids to have some fun in the Disney parks.

I’ll take plenty of photos – especially when I go on the Wild Africa Safari with Tammi (aka MyChaos), Becca (aka @BeccasCrazyBoys), and Maricris (aka @MaricrisG).  I’ll try to post some of these on the fly, but will post many more when I return.

For now, though: Hi ho! Hi ho! It’s off to Disney World, I go!

As I prepare for the Disney Social Media Moms celebration, I’ve been thinking of the various dads in the world of DIsney.  While there are many, one recent one stands out to me: Doc McStuffins’ dad.

Doc McStuffins is a story about a very special little girl.  She wants to be a doctor when she grows up and gets plenty of practice by fixing toys.  She doesn’t simply patch up toys, though.  Thanks to her magical stethoscope, her toys come alive.  They can walk, talk, and cuddle.

Doc’s mother is a doctor and provides much of Doc’s inspiration, but I’d like to focus on her father.  Too many times, dads on television are portrayed as dim-witted and/or unwilling to have a close relationship with their children.  Doc’s dad is neither of these.  He’s a stay-at-home dad that does the gardening and cooking.  He might not be a doctor, but he’s intelligent and loves his kids.  Whether he’s taking Doc and her brother out on a camping trip, or recognizing that Doc’s brother (who stayed up late one night) needed a nap, he provides a great Dad role-model for kids.

He might not be center stage, but then again, neither is Doc’s mom.  The main attraction is Doc and her toys.  Doc’s dad is always in the background, though, ready to lend a Doc a helping hand if she needs it.

Disclaimer: The image above is courtesy of Disney.  The opinions, however, are all my own.

With the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration approaching, I’m going to soon face one of my biggest fears.  No, I don’t mean the Wild Africa Trek’s rickety bridge over the crocodiles (though that’s sure to trigger a big fear too).  This is the fear of socializing.

You see, I might seem like quite the extrovert online, but put me in a room full of people, especially people that I haven’t known face-to-face for awhile, and I become a huge introvert.  The idea of approaching someone I don’t know and talking to them terrifies me.  The possibility that I’ll "introduce" myself only to find out that we’ve met in person before fills me with paralyzing panic.

I’m much more comfortable in the online arena where I can more easily remember if I’ve conversed with a certain user before and take my time to craft my response for maximum wittiness.  In many ways, my "online persona" is closer to the real me than my "in-person persona."

I suspect that I’m more extroverted in public than I give myself credit for.  While I’ll often feel like the socially stunted high school kid I used to be when dropped into a social situation, I try to keep reminding myself that I’ve grown so much since then.  I’ve attended two Disney Social Media Moms Celebrations already (albeit as B’s guest), I attended BlogHer in 2010, and I’ve been in many social situations at work where I spoke with people I didn’t know well.  I tell myself that my fears are unfounded, but they still dog me.

However, I’m a big advocate of facing down your fears.  I might have a fear of falling, but I’m not going to let that stop me from walking across the bridge on the Wild Africa Trek.  Neither will I let my fear of social situations stop me from talking to people at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

Just do me a favor and be patient with me if I introduce myself and we met before, ok?

My Aloha Friday questions for today are: Are you an introvert or extrovert in person?  How do you face down your fears?

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

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

Aloha #135

Last week, I mentioned where we prefer to stay while at Disney World.  Therefore, for this week’s Disney Blog Hop, I’d like to talk about two resorts that I’d love to stay in.

The first of these resorts is the Animal Kingdom lodge.  We love going on the Kilimanjaro Safari in Animal Kingdom and so I’d love to wake up in the morning, look out of my window, and see some giraffes and other animals milling about.  It would be a giant dose of Disney magic before we even left the room.  As a bonus, we’d be right near the fabulous Boma restaurant.

The other place we’d like to visit would be the Contemporary resort.  The nice thing about this resort is that we would be able to walk to the Magic Kingdom or hop on a Monorail and go to Epcot.  The central location would be a nice change of pace from the value resort we normally stay in where getting anywhere requires waiting for a bus.  Besides, then we’d have Chef Mickey right near us.

If you could choose any Disney World resort, where would you stay?

When we go to Disney, we usually opt for the value resorts, specifically Pop Century.  Sure, the rooms are smaller and they aren’t as nice as the moderate or deluxe resorts, but let’s be honest: How much time do you stay in your room?  If you’re like us, your Disney World room is a place to leave early in the morning and a place to crash in at night.

Given that, we like that we can save some money on the hotel.  That money can be spent on meals or some souvenirs.  Besides, Pop Century is the only place that we can get this:

Yes, that’s multi-color cheesecake atop red velvet cake.  It’s insanely delicious.  I even replicated it a couple of times.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you usually opt for a less expensive room to save money or do you prefer the move lavish rooms when you vacation?

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

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

Aloha #130

Earlier this week, I wrote about the snakes and reptiles that we saw at the Kidz Expo.  We didn’t just stop by the reptiles, though.  We also saw tons of different programs that the kids could sign up for.  I honestly didn’t realize just how much there was in the region and we have quite a few options to consider for this summer.

Of course, the main reason we were drawn into this mob of people was Radio Disney’s presence.  They promised some Perry the Platypus related activities so off we went.  When we got in, we played some games and the boys got some prizes (a frisbee, temporary tattoos, and stickers).  They also got a Perry mask and a backpack (which came in handy to hold other things they got).  Finally, we took a photo with Candace, Phineas, Ferb, Perry, and Dr. Doofenschmirtz.  (Doof was on his best behavior and didn’t bring any Inators that day.)

After this booth, we wandered around and stopped at various booths to gather information.  We also were on a Radio Disney scavenger hunt mission.  We needed to find the five clues hidden around the expo.  We spent quite some time looking for clues as we wandered around.  Alas, we only found three of the five.

While at the expo, we heard a rumor that a costumed Agent P was there.  Sadly, this wasn’t true.  Luckily, though, the boys met a few other costumed characters, including the Devil Dog from the Albany Devils.

As the day wore on, the kids got tired and it was time to leave.  On the way out, though, one last booth caught my eye: Mad Science.  As a big science fan, I’m always looking for ways to spark science interest in my kids.  They had planet matching blocks, rings the vibrated as they spun, and pieces of paper that they lit on fire to produce a burst of light (NHL did *not* like that one).  The best was the fake snow produced by combining a certain chemical with water.

The Kidz Expo was certainly an informative and fun experience.  I’m not sure if we’ll go back next year as we’re not fans of fighting crowds, but it definitely gave us a lot of options to consider.