Columbus, Ohio Adventures

Roar and Explore Three Day Family Package!

I first posted this on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog last July.  But I did look and it appears that you can purchase the Roar and Explore package again this year.

My family had an awesome vacation in Ohio and just outside of Ohio this year.  We started off with the canopy tour, headed down to KY to tour Mammoth Caves and then came back for a three day Columbus Adventure Package called Roar and Explore.

Here is a Video Recap of Our Three Day Adventure

Day One The Zoo

We planned our three days according to the weather forecast.  The first day was the nicest one. Clear skies and cool.  It was in the low 70′s, so perfect for the zoo, but a little cold for the water park. The animals were out…. perfect. We walked in and realized it had been awhile since we had visited the zoo. The entire entrance had been redone. It was really nice!

We went to an animal show that was just about to begin and it was really cute. Started off without any people, just different strange animals running across the stage and performing different tricks (like knowing which doors to go in that would open and let another animal out.
It was really fun day for all of us.. we were all exhausted by the end of it and ready to head back to the nice comfy hotel to rest (or go to the pool as the triplets did)

Day two – COSI

It was a bit stormy and rainy so we went to COSI (Center of Science and Industry). They had a special dinosaur exhibit that we were able to go into. This was an extra cost to get into this exhibit. It was nice and the kids had fun. To be honest I don’t know if I would have been excited if I would have paid much more to be able to see it. It wasn’t the kids favorite part of COSI.

They loved the 3-D movie (extra cost) but I think their favorite part and I know my favorite part was the outside exhibit of the construction equipment. They actually got to work some of them (with assistance of course). That was cool.

Day three – Zoombezi Bay

Ended up being a wash for Zoombezi Bay. It was storming and we weren’t able to go. The good thing is that the tickets are good until Sept when it closes for the year.

Drury Inn & Suites

We had a blast at the Drury Inn & Suites hotel. We had two nights there and I can’t count how many times the kids went to the pool. The room was really nice, there was a work out facility that had glass walls right next to the indoor/outdoor pool. Dave used it and was very pleased. We had a very nice warm continental breakfast (no charge for any guest) and the staff was lovely. I’d have no problems recommending it to anyone. The only thought I had was that I wish it were closer to the Zoo and Zoombezi Bay. The one we stayed at was in Grove City.

 

Our package was provided by ExperienceColumbus.com for our family of five.  All the pictures and videos (except the Zoombezi Bay picture) were mine and my opinion was not swayed by the complimentary package.  Thank you Experience Columbus, we had a wonderful time. No pictures or videos are to be used without my permission.

 

This post was first posted July 23, 2011 on Explore Ohio with Sandy.com 

 

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Chris Mann

Vote for Chris Mann TONIGHT! The Voice #MannFans

 

Watch The Voice Tonight Monday April 30th at 8pm est (7pm cst)

You can vote several ways after the show on Monday April 30th starting at 9:55pm est.  Don’t Vote Early or else it won’t count!

Here are instructions from Chris’s newsletter today on voting

Watch the twitter stream.  You will see #MannFans #Vote4ChrisMann #ChrisMann #TheOperaGuy #TheVoice #TeamXtina and @IamChrisMann is Chris’s Twitter handle. Follow Chris on Facebook at Chris Mann Music

Chris is an awesome singer and a nicer guy! I’ve had the privilege to get to know Chris through blogging events.   He has endeared himself to many bloggers and we are very proud to be #MannFans

 

Blissdom 2009

I first met Chris when he sang at the Blissdom conference in 2009.  Of course all of us loved his beautiful voice, but Chris was very personable with all of us “mom bloggers”. He was just as nice to older ones like me, as he was to the younger ladies.  He is so quick witted and if you have even a two minute conversation with him, you will be laughing.

Chris was out in the lobby talking to several of us before leaving the conference and he had his video camera going (of course we all had ours going too).

This was the first time I talked personally to him and I sounded like a fool. LOL

He took a picture with Ali Hooper and I. (Don’t you love my “bug eyes”) lol

Blogher 2009 – Chicago

Chris sang at BowlHer (an event that Collective Bias put on) at the Blogher conference.   What impressed me the most about Chris was that he remembered me! We had talked via twitter & Facebook, but when I went up to the table he had in an expo room he knew me. He had Mann Fan T-shirts (They said Mann Crush) and said he’d save one for me and bring it to the party that night. He said he was out, but had one left and would bring it for me. (Of course I never though he would…   (of course… more bug eyes)

But guess what….. He saw me and said, “Oh wait, I have something for you”. He went back in a back room and brought it out for me.  I mean really… nice guy huh?

At least I’m not bug eyed in this picture! lol

 

Blogher 2010 – New York City

Collective Bias had another event planned and we were bringing in Chris to sing for us.  Kim @CraftyMamaof4 was planning it all with @IamChrisMann as they had gotten to be good friends through these events we had been to.  The event was cancelled but Chris already had planned to travel to NYC and still decided to come to Blogher 2010

There were a group of about 15 of us that had a small party in @ZipporahS hotel room and Chris said he’d come up and visit with all of us.  It was Courtney @CourtneyRix birthday that day and he sang to her!  Katja Presnal video taped it.

At one point in the video Courtney says,  ”I might pass out”. It’s hard to hear, so thought I’d fill you in on what she says that cracks us all up.

Chris and I in New York City at the little party we had with Collective Bias.

Blissdom 2012

I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to go this time, but Chris performed again. This was after The Voice had begun for him, so I thought it was awesome that he took the time to come back to this conference.
This is the video that Kim Janocko took of him. Notice the awesome seat she had!

There were a lot of videos I would have loved to have used. Be sure to go to Chris Mann on YouTube and you can see all kinds of videos showcasing his talent.  Here is a great video interview with Chris and Lindsay the last two are Christina’s team.

Now please vote vote vote for Chris tonight to help him get to the top 4 in the competition!   Voting starts at 9:55 pm est Monday April 30th until Tuesday am at 10am est.

Fort Rapids

Located in Columbus Ohio – this Indoor Waterpark is fun anytime of year

The kids and I went to Fort Rapids in door water park at the end of 2010. I wanted to share this post from my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog with you, so I’m reposting it.

We were invited to go to Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark Resort and decided to plan it around the triplets 10th birthday.  They turn 10 on December 30th, 2010 and we knew with the winter setting in, this would be a great time to go.

We arrived on December 29th and were able to get our park passes when we arrived about 2pm. (you can pick them up by 1pm day of check in)  We couldn’t check in our rooms until 4pm, so we decided to go have lunch since we were starving by then anyway.

We came back at 4pm and stood in the line to check in.  The lobby was beautiful, and right off the bat I noticed the western theme in everything.  Now… where else do you get cookies when you check in?  (I know of one other place I’ve been, but they gave you a single cookie, not a tray to choose from)

Once we checked in we had to check the place out.  Saw this coffee bar, although I never did get a chance to go inside.

We had to figure out what this machine was.  It was outside the restaurant. You had to put in $2 to play. Then you tried to use the claw to pick up a lobster. If you got it up and out of the water you got to have it cooked up and served for free.  We saw some people trying later while we were eating dinner. It got noisy… they were all excited and both times thought they had the lobster, but both times it kicked off and got free.  It kind of had those loose kind of claws like the stuff animal machines do, so it didn’t have a very good grip on them, there was nothing to hurt them.

Check out the reaction when we walked into our suite called the Bright Angel Point Grand Canyon. It sleeps 12!

It was so much fun for the kids. There was so much to do and with them being 10 years old it was nice that they could be off by themselves while we just sat and relaxed. Dave read and I took pictures! lol (no.. Dave and I didn’t get in the water. Be sure to wear cool clothes because it is humid and warm in there. Great for the kids running around in swimsuits, not so great if you aren’t getting in or you have a new hairdo! lol )
There were life guards everywhere! They were regulating the slides and I don’t think you could look from your left to your right without seeing one.
This guy was funny. He saw me standing there waiting for the kids to come down the slide to try and get their pictures (which didn’t turn out.. by the way) and he said.. hey.. get me in action. He started a slow motion run.  lol Cracked me up.  (there was no one in the water by the way, he was the guard at the bottom of the slide)

Like I said.. the western theme was throughout not only the hotel, but also the waterpark. This was up in the air as decoration for part of the waterpark.

There was an adult area huge whirlpool tub. No kids allowed.  So the adults can get away from it all too.

A really large and nicely done kiddie area. This was one of the cute dumping water features in that area.

Now here is one of the water dumping features for the big kids!! lol

The kids loved it.. Even the littler slides were fun.

A and Kim’s from @craftymamaof4  – son were having fun together.

There was basketball for you to play in the water too.

This is another one of Kim’s sons.

The kids loved the lazy river. It was a popular place and would get pretty crowded, but the kids didn’t mind.

There were all kinds of people here. From babies to elderly. You also realize how big tattoos are now too! LOL Until you see people in their swimsuits, you don’t realize how popular they are. omg!
I’m adding this picture… just because I think it is cool.
We left the indoor waterpark after several hours and went back to our cool suite to shower and change. Then off to dinner.

We would have liked to stop off in the cool game room, but we never did find the time.

As I stated in the video, we weren’t overly impressed with the food.  There was a good selection on the buffet and the prices were good. Dave and 2 of the 3 kids got the buffet. They graded their meals  a C-, C and B+.  The main problem was that some of the food was kind of dry.. I think from sitting out. They do keep them covered nicely.

I ordered from the menu and got a burger and was excited to see the broccoli salad with it. I had a few bites and then stopped.. there was too much dressing on it. Too much mayo taste.  The burger was kind of dry also.  I left part of the crust and the edges of the burger.  A also ordered from the menu. He got a hot dog and loved it! He gave it an A+…. said it was the biggest and best hot dog he had ever eaten. But it took quite awhile for our meals to come. The others had finished eating… 2nd helpings before our food came out.  I would have to say that this was the only slightly negative thing that we experienced.

Everyone there was extremely helpful.  Other than the people checking me in, I’m sure no one else knew I was doing a review.  They provided this cake for the triplets birthday. It was in the room when we got there. I don’t think this was only because I was reviewing. My guess is that this would be a service that anyone would receive.  We didn’t have any forks or knife, plates etc.. in the room – so we stopped by the bar area and asked if they had some forks and plates we could use.  She  did and then when she couldn’t find a knife for us to cut the cake, she went into the restaurant to get us one.

Kim from Crafty Mama of 4 was there with her family the same time we were. That was fun. Our kids and husbands had never met, and the kids got to play some together at the waterpark. They came over and shared the cake with us for the kids birthdays.

There were 2 king beds (one up and one down)  and the other downstairs room had 2 queens. (we thought they seemed smaller than our queen at home, so I would have guessed doubles, but info says they are queen) and then a small little room with a set of bunk beds. The couch also pulls out to a sleeper sofa.

The room across from ours was having a family reunion here. Some were from the DC area, others from IL and they met in Ohio and stayed together, visited and the kids got to play. Great idea!!

The suite was unbelievable! There was 2 stories, 4 bedrooms (2 down and 2 up) 3 bathrooms, the living room with fireplace and a kitchenette area. There was no running water in the kitchenette. So that was just a little strange. We had to take our drinks to the bathroom to dump them out. But no biggie. There was a little dryer there that you could dry your suits! We didn’t use it to see if it worked though.

You don’t have to get a suite though, there are all kinds of different options for rooms, from your basic hotel room to the family villas.

The suite we stayed in was the Bright Angel Point Grand Canyon and cost $499 for the night, but with taxes it came to $599.  It comes with 12 indoor waterpark passes.  The passes are good from 1pm of your check in day.. and extend to the end of the day on your check out day (check out is 11am, but there are lockers that you can change in after you swim if you have checked out).

You can get day passes to the waterpark also. They run $26.99. (prices may vary)

Be sure to visit.. and tell them Sandy from Explore Ohio with Sandy sent you!

Thank you Fort Rapids… we had a wonderful time!

Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark Resort
www.FortRapids.com

4560 Hilton Corporate Drive
Columbus, OH 43232

877-33-SPLASH (877-337-7527)

Disclosure: Our 1 night stay in the Bright Angle Point Grand Canyon suite and 10 waterpark passes were provided at no charge. We paid for our own meals. The pictures, video and opinions are my own.

 

Geneva on the Lake

The Lodge & Conference Center at Geneva On-the-Lake, Ohio

Dave and I were invited to visit The Lodge & Conference Center at Geneva On-The-Lake and I was more than thrilled! Living less than three hours away from Lake Erie, you would think that I would go up there more frequently.  But alas, other than our visit last year, this is only the second time I’ve stayed on the lake.

It is the perfect place for you to stay if you enjoy wine country – it’s in the heart of Ohio’s wine country, directly on Lake Erie just east of Sandusky. There are over 20 wineries near by to enjoy.  The Lodge has a wine shuttle that will take you several of them. But you do have to be sure and reserve your spot on the shuttle early because it sells out.

Here is a video that shows you are weekend visit.

Looks great doesn’t it?

It was Easter weekend and cool, but sunny and pretty.  Dave is hoping that we’ll get a chance this summer to come back up. He wants to take the kids on a fishing charter on the lake.

We drove up to the area Friday evening so we could visit with his niece, Jamie and her husband Brian along with Dave’s childhood friend Kevin and his wife Kym. They suggested the winery Ferrante, which is close to the Lodge at Geneva on the Lake.  We had a really nice meal, along with some fun wine tasting at the restaurant.  We wondered why the restaurant wasn’t very busy when it was so nice, but realized later it was because it was pre-season and things were pretty quiet.

We drove over to The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake on Saturday.  The town of Geneva was really quant, but we didn’t stop anywhere, we just drove through.   We found the Lodge, but it was still too early to check in. We then went on past the Lodge and found the strip of Geneva on the Lake. It reminded me of Virginia Beach or Myrtle Beach. I could just picture people walking up and down the sidewalks with all the open air places to eat and visit. I bet it is so fun! Other than being warm enough to take a boat on the lake, being able to enjoy this area I missed.

We found the Firehouse Winery open and had lunch there.  There was a small room on the second floor with just a few tables that over looked the lake.  We first thought that the winery was in the blue building, but discovered it was in the red barn looking building to the right in the picture above.

Picture this Ferris wheel with all the seats attached going around….  what a cool view that would be of the lake.

We walked along the lake, back behind the winery.  What a beautiful day!

There is plenty to do and see in the area, even off season

We went back to the Lodge and checked into our room.  Walking into the lobby you immediately had a feel of … “wow, this is a nice place”.

There are several places that have groups of comfortable seats.

Then we had to check out our room.  The room was very nice.  We had a king room with a balcony and great view of the lake. Loved that!  There are other rooms that have options such as whirlpools, family rooms with bunk beds and a couple recently upgraded two-room suites.

Check out the view we had from our balcony! See the gazebo? Guess what happens there?  Yes… weddings! Wouldn’t that be a beautiful setting? You wouldn’t have to worry about the hot sand of a beach wedding! lol

The Lodge at Geneva also has an indoor pool and hot tub (although we didn’t indulge on this trip) along with an outdoor pool that looks out on the lake.

We ate our dinner on Saturday night at the Horizons Restaurant in the lodge.  You walk into the restaurant to a really cool fireplace and buffet. It is really inviting.

 Then you look behind the fireplace and see an entire wall of windows looking out at the lake and the gazebo.  When it gets dark the gazebo is all lit with white lights… nice!

I thought it was cool to see this couple sitting out by the water on the bench. The whole feel of the lodge feels romantic to me.

We had the breakfast buffet the next morning (Easter Morning). We did not stay for the Easter bunch that was taking place in just about an hour or so.  Our breakfast was nice, not spectacular but good. . My omelet was fine, but Dave said his french toast wasn’t very good. But the coffee and atmosphere were awesome.  I’m thinking the focus might have been on the brunch since it was such a special event and not the regular breakfast.

We checked out the marina on Saturday.  It seemed strange seeing a marine without any boats. Come May it will be full of boats.

What a nice place to visit! It is actually just a walk from the Lodge at Geneva on the Lake.

There are so many things to do. Obviously boating and fishing, but there is also canoeing, hiking, nature walks, golfing, a tour of historic covered bridges, lighthouses, museums, Underground Railroad sites, restaurants and entertainment. wow!

I would not hesitate to recommend The Lodge at Geneva on the Lake to anyone and I am recommending it to all of you!!

 

The Lodge & Conference Center at
Geneva on-the-Lake
4888 North Broadway
Geneva-On-The-Lake, Oh 44041

440-415-1527
www.TheLodgeatGeneva.com  

 

Our Saturday night stay, dinner and breakfast at The Lodge & Conference Center at Geneva on-the-Lake. This did not influence my opinions. The pictures and video are all my own and are not to be used without my permission. (You are welcome to pin the pictures on pinterest though)

Ohio Event

Utica’s Sertoma Ice Cream Festival

Each Memorial Day Weekend for the last 38 years the Ye Old Mill in Utica Ohio has been the home of Old Fashion Velvet Ice Cream Festival

It is a yearly tradition for our family, along with many zillions of other people!  I mean really, who can resist Velvet ice cream?

These pics are from one of our visits in 2010.  I had posted on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog, but wanted to share with all of you too! I can’t wait until we go this May.

My video gives you the feel of the Velvet Ice Cream Festival.

The water mill works and is just pretty cool.

The Mill is on one side of the street and you can sit by the water, eat your ice cream and check out the extensive car show.

You’ll find carnival games and foods galore!

Then you can cross the street to find more food….. and a large craft show

But the best part about the Utica Old Fashion Ice Cream festival is the Velvet Ice Cream!

Alex opted for the shake this year.

But not Zach. Notice the ice cream on the nose. lol…. oh so good!

Elise’s favorite is the mint chocolate chip.

Mine happens to be the Moose Tracks… oh yum!

Dave and I enjoying the day with the kids.

I just thought this was a cool pic of Zach.

More information

Utica Old Fashion Ice Cream Festival site
Facebook pageSchedule of Events

Dates

May 26 – 28, 2012

Location

Velvet Ice Cream The Ye Old Mill
11324 Mount Vernon Road, Utica, OH, 43080

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Canopy Tours

Zip Line From Tree to Tree- Hocking Hills Canopy Tours!

This was a highlight from our trip last year that we would LOVE to do again this year!  If you have had this experience, it is well worth it! Believe me, if I can do it…. anyone can!

 

We drove just over an hour to get to the Hocking Hills Canopy Tours.  We of course just called it Zip Lining! The kids were excited, but a little scared.  We arrived early, but went ahead and checked in.  There is a little club house where you check in that has a gift shop and a place to get some lunch.  There is a golf course right there also .

There is a video playing, so you can see what you are getting yourself into, or just decide if you want to do the canopy tour or the super zip.

The Super Zip is one long, very fast zip.  You also are positioned on your stomach (the kids say like Super Man) which increases the speed and thrill.

The tour (what we did) is a 3,300 course that has 10 zips and 5 bridges on it. You are up to 70 ft high at some points (although it seemed higher than that) It takes about two hours.  They say to plan on about 2 hours and 45 minutes as you have to suit up and have some training first.

Dave and the kids played some corn hole while I took pictures and sat at the picnic benches in the shade while we waited for our turn.

We had to fill out release forms and information for both us and the kids.  Kids have to be at least ten years old before they can zip.  The triplets are ten, so it worked out great.

When your group is gathered your guides will take you over to this building to get suited up and ready.

They have everything laid out for you and walk you through everything.  They also will lock up your car keys, wallets, glasses or cameras for you in the locked lockers before you go (you don’t want to worry about losing your car keys out there! )

I had a little pouch that they tied onto my straps for me. It had my little camera (I so wanted my DSL for all these cool pictures, but I wasn’t going to risk it), my flip camera and a back up flip camera, along with a set of batteries.  I think they thought I was crazy!  I wish I had gotten a picture of me with this little pink thing hanging from my straps.

There was plenty of instruction the entire time.  Our guides were CJ and Brenda and they did a great job.  CJ was telling jokes to the kids and omg have we heard them again and again and again after we left there. When they think of the canopy tour, they think of CJ and jokes too. (Yeah thanks CJ!) For instance (just so you have an idea)…  CJ, “Say the word Silk five times fast”   Triplets, “Silk, Silk, Silk, Silk, Silk”   CJ, “What does a cow drink?”  Kids, “Milk!”  CJ, “No… a cow drinks water silly!”   Ugh… LOL

Once we went through our training to learn how to zip and stop, we loaded up in the jeep and they drove us through the woods to the first zip line.(This is another group coming in, not our group – but it does look like Brenda and CJ standing on the back of the jeep)

Enjoy the video of our zip line adventures!!

We had SO much fun!! When I zipped, I was able to try and hold my camera pouch up for a little bit, but had to let go to use my hand to break near the end, so the camera looks back off to the side again. Wish I could have had a helmet cam! lol

The kids had a fantastic time as I’m sure you can see on the video.  Alex isn’t too sure in this picture. He didn’t like trusting the straps to lead off the edge of the tree platform. It is hard to tell from this picture, but we are way up in the air and they are leaning back off the edge.

When we got back we were heading to our car and saw this guy in the tree…. and he was kind enough to pose for us.

He looks sweet doesn’t he?  The kids were talking about the movie Elf and how Elf tried to give one a hug.  LOL

I totally recommend you trying this!!!   It is a bit expensive ($85 per person for the canopy tour – 2011 rates) but it is over a two hour adventure, is exhilarating, makes you take some chances and an experience you will never forget.

I actually wasn’t scared, I was excited. I was concerned I wasn’t going to be able to do it. I have been having some real problems with my shoulder and have very limited range of motion. But I was able to reach up in front of me. They had me break with my right hand rather than the traditional left.  There were only a couple times when I was getting up onto the platform after zipping that I had a little pain because I had to pull myself into a standing position. But I am in terrible physical shape right now.  The zipping isn’t hard, the walking isn’t hard. We did have to walk up a short incline going from a bridge to the next zip on a hill, but it wasn’t bad.   I sure did a lot of sweating (result of being out of shape), but I had a blast and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Be sure to make reservations!

Hocking Hills Canopy Tours
10714 Jackson Street, Rockbridge
OH 43149

Web Site: Hocking Hills Canopy Tours

Call: 1-740-385-9477
Email: info@hockinghillscanopytours.com

 

You can also see this post on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog 

Our tours were compensated.  My opinions, photos and videos are my own and were not influenced by this.

Organizing My Blog

Blogs Can Become Disorganized Too

I started out early (very early) this morning with a simple task of adding a Travel tab to my blog. I will be doing more traveling and have done a lot in the past and it made sense to highlight it.

I added the tab to the top (after having to refresh myself on how to do that).

But from there it morphed into going through all the categories and  weeding them out, moving things together and creating new categories.   I actually had to make myself stop because I have other work I have to get accomplished today. But I have plans to separate my travel tab into vacations, conferences, reviews and organizing. I’m also going to bring over some of my reviews that I’ve done on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog.

When I started going through all the categories, I realized that many older blog posts were not placed into newer categories.    I have many older posts that also do not even have tags. When they were moved over from my blogspot blog, I was told that tags weren’t necessary. I’ve since learned different. I’ve spent time going through some of my older posts and tagging them, but I’ve never made it through all my posts (over 700 now).  Obviously this is a big job.

I do need to keep working at it and I do plan to do more organizing of my blog.

For those of you who don’t realize it, I want you to know that I have drop down boxes from my tabs at the top. Just scroll over the tabs and you will see the drop down boxes with the categories. It makes finding your way to a post much easier.

 

 

I still have a lot of work to do on my blog, but wanted you to realize it is always a work in progress – as with most things we do.

Disney World

Who Doesn’t Love to Go To Disney World?

Just about one year ago today I was posting about Disney World on a trip with Murphy USA and Collective Bias.  This post was originally posted on my Chat with Sandy blog on 1/30/11. Enjoy the sites of Disney again.

I was asked to attend the Murphy USA National Manager Meeting in Orlando FL (Disney world Coronado Springs resort to be exact) this last week, you might have seen my last post.

They asked six blogger to go to their meeting so we could help educate and sign up their mangers with whrrl and discuss how social media could benefit their business.

We were all paired up with a manager from Murphy USA that we would be traveling with. We were asked to be sure to take lots of pictures and whrrl them along the way. I was paired up with a manager from my area and met her at the airport. Jennifer Davis was my manager.

I had no idea there were 40 Murphy USA gas stations in Ohio. I only know of 2, one in Newark in front of the Walmart and one in Whitehall.  (I’ve not been to that one)

We arrived in Orlando and were all staying at the Coronado Springs Resort. There is a convention center attached to it, so it was perfect. It was so beautiful.

We had a meet and greet with some of the managers before dinner the first night. I am not sure if it was the regional managers, but it wasn’t a huge group (and there were over 1000 managers there). I know the president Hank Heithaus was there and the new president Tom (from Scotland) was there. Hank is retiring and just announced it. This picture was at one of the general sessions where Hank (left) is basically saying goodbye and introducing Tom on the right.

Their theme was “We The People” because they were making sure their managers knew that it was all of them that made Murphy USA successful.

Jay Staggs who I had a picture of in my last post, was in charge of running the show.  They had a good time with it, bringing in Tammy and Tommy through out the conference along with “their parents” for comic relief.

They had a speaker Peter Wahl do a speech/painting… lol  He is a motivational speaker and he painted these 3 paintings during his talk. He would have a music video on the screen while he was painting (in like 2 min) these paintings. He used his fingers (Bruce Springsteen’s hair) and spattered paint… really incredible to watch.

Each of us bloggers had to work a 2 hour shift in the Murphy Whrrl booth in the expo hall on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun. Teaching the mangers how to sign up for Whrrl and helping to try to get them to understand how it could help their business. This was my manger Jennifer on the left.  She had been signed up for FB already and I think even signed up for whrrl.. or did it at the airport. But she was all for it and was great to travel down with. We ended up not getting to really see each other much once we were there. It was crazy for both of us.

We had managers signing up via their smart phones, via text on their phones, or by computer. They could also sign up for a Facebook or Twitter account.

Melissa Garcia from the Consumer Queen had several managers recognize her from her picture being on the pumps or her fun Murphy videos.  Ok.. Melissa on the left.  The Red Strike girl on the right.

John Kim from Whrrl was there to help the managers and he also helped me… as usual with my problematic phone.

The managers could win a $50 gas cards and chances to win this autographed  Slash guitar worth over $900 just for signing up and checking into Whrrl.

I took this picture of Casey from Murphy USA with the Slash guitar and then posted it to Whrrl.  The screen it came up on was just outside the booth in the expo hall.

We had time to go and check out the rest of the expo hall. It was really huge and there were a lot of fun things to do. Wii games were set up, prizes to win… hippies to see

Mars candy and Wrigley’s were there in a both together. Neither of them knew much at all about social media or how it could help their business.  Melissa and I talked to them about it and told them bloggers would love to work with them!

I mean.. really? Who doesn’t love M&M’s?  They had a new candy bar for us to try, actually 2.  There was the new 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp and the Peanut Butter Snickers.

Here is my verdict.  Loved the 3 Musketeers.  I was actually surprised. Well… I mean I love # Musketeers anyway, but when I first broke it in half. It didn’t seem gooey and it almost seemed… well…boring inside. But… I took a bite and it was so light and it was like the chocolate was so creamy and just filled the whole taste. I loved it!  It gave you the feeling of Dove chocolate (not sure if I should say that or not… but that chocolate is about my favorite.. so it is a big compliment) creamy and light… oh… I WILL be buying more of these. Just not in high numbers since I have really been trying to not eat as many sweets.

I tried 1/2 of the Snickers bar. It was actually in 2 square pieces, so unlike a normal Snickers. I ate half on the plane on the way home and was saving the other half to take a picture of when we got home. But …. my dog found it first in my purse. Oh yeah.. nice.  It was good… the peanut butter wasn’t over powering. But do I think I would pick it over a traditional Snickers… no, probably not. I love the regular Snickers too much.

Here are the 2 reps that were in the booth. Nice guys, but they need to realize how social media can  help them!

Wrigley was giving out packs of their new gum – Prism.

There are 15 pieces of sugarless gum in the pack. This was electric watermelon. I will tell you what. The smell of watermelon is strong, you can smell it as soon as you take the wrapper off the box.  The green foil that wraps the piece of gum looked kind of cool too. Different you know? My mouth was watering before I put the piece of gum in. I thought it was really going to be a gum for kids…. sour and all. But it wasn’t. As strong as the smell was, the taste was nice. I mean it was totally watermelon, but not a sour one. It is good… and with just a hint of that gum mint to it after you chew it for a little bit. (does that make sense).  I know the kids will love it, but it is a refreshing favor for adults.

There were ICEE’s there. I love Icee’s! I have always liked the Coke best. They are coming out with Root Beer float and a blueberry one (oops forget the name of it). I tried the root beer. It is awesome! It really tastes like a float. The foaminess of the Icee is just the right consistency.  I do have a new favorite favor.  You will have to watch for them to be released. (Try the root beer!!)

Dr. Pepper was there… giving away guitars and pictures with a couple cute girls.  What did I like? They had diet Dr. Pepper. It is one of my favorites. Really nice people too… also learning about social media and how it could benefit them. (Yes…. I had 2 diet Dr. Peppers that afternoon.. although there were other drinks I could have picked from.)

Are you used to seeing gas pump handles?  I wasn’t.. I thought they were cool.

What about a full size gas semi?  I wanted to get in and see the cab… but I didn’t.

John Andrews from Collective Bias was there. This is who these people need to talk to about social Media.. he knows first hand how the power of bloggers and social media can benefit the Brands. (That is what Collective Bias is all about)

The announced to the whole group of managers that they were taking us all to Disney World on Monday evening. That was about 3:30 and we had about 45 minutes to get ready to be on the buses.

I got to have dinner with the Collective Bias team that was there, Jerra and John and also with Casey from Murphy USA and John Kim from Whrrl. Also Kerry and Kristine from Nomadic were there.

Us bloggers ran around together at Disney. Mel Lockcuff from MamaBuzz and Leigh Caldwell from Theme Park Mom

Along with Courtney Solstad from My DFW Mommy and Melissa Garcia from Consumer Queen Jerri Ann from Mom~e~Centric was on the trip but didn’t come to Disney.

Mel introduced us to Dole Whip.. it was good.

I also got a picture with Eeyore. what fun!  I don’t know… I guess there is still kid in all of us!

Jerra from Collective Bias looked so cute with Piglet.

We had a full day on Tuesday and they announced all the Murphy USA Circle of Winners. After that they again surprised everyone with a trip to Sea World. I felt terrible because it was pouring rain, and storming.  But they had rented out half of Sea World and 2 roller coaster (announcing there were 2 coaster got a bigger whoop out of everyone than telling them they were going to Sea World).
I didn’t go. Even if it was beautiful outside, my feet hurt so bad (I’m such a wimp) and I hadn’t had a chance to get work done that I need to get done on my computer. So I took the evening off and had a wonderful dinner with Mel and Leigh..and then went back to my room and relaxed.

Thanks so much Murphy USA, Collective Bias and Whrrl.. it was great fun!

Disclosure: My trip was sponsored by Murphy USA and Collective Bias.

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 47

Tailgating with Collective Bias

I had told you all I was doing a lot of traveling in the last few week. This was the last of my adventures. I went to Bentonville AR to the Collective Bias offices for several days.

We were invited to stay a couple extra days so that we could join in the Tailgating festivities with them!

Kim from @Craftymamaof4 and I got some duds to wear so we would fit in (and not be OSU or Stealers fans for the day).  I will tell you that living in the Columbus Ohio area all my life, I have only been to one OSU football game. That was before I was ever married. I’ve never been to a real tailgate party. What fun!

I was amazed at everything people had. It was a super windy day and many people couldn’t put up their tent things. (What are those called? lol)  But there were plenty of TV’s hooked up!

I had to laugh at myself because I couldn’t for the life of me remember to call this (their mascot) a Razorback.  I wanted to call their mascot a hedgehog!

We didn’t go to the game, but the stadium was right in front of us. We had a cool view of the ramps going into the stadium.

When Kim and I left to walk back to our car, we were able to get a better view of inside the stadium, although you could only see a little of the field.

I like this picture

Thanks for a fun evening!
Link up to My Linky Party

What is happening in your life this week? But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my top “Buttons” Tab.

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog
2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)
3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it
4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating
5) No sales pitches or web sites.
6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.
7) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list. If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple. If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s on this post please Click Here.
This party will be open until November 27, 2011

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 46

Vacation in Denver Colorado

Dave and I are celebrating our five year anniversary in Colorado. We are in a cabin about 12 miles away from Divide, CO.  It is beautiful! The only issue is that we are both having some problems with the altitude. We are about 9,000 ft. Even though we have been trying to drink a lot of water, we are both having problems with headaches.   I woke up this morning feeling terrible! First morning here.  My head was throbbing. But it did get better after I was up a little bit, ate and drank and took some ibuprofen.

Here are some pictures of our place.  I might not have any more posts up this week. As soon as we get back from our trip on Tuesday I’m off again for business on Wednesday.

This is looking down on the living area. Look at that window to the left….

Here is looking out that window from the 2nd floor of our place.

This is it from the outside.

So we have a cool window… but if we aren’t looking out onto a cool view – what good is it right?  This is our view! That is Pikes Peak out there.

 

We got there and within ten minutes this is what we see off our deck.

We are staying at a cabin called Pikes Peak. This is not a review, we paid full price for our place. But I wanted to share how wonderful it was. I’m sure I’ll post some more pictures later this week if I get a chance.

Link up to My Linky Party

What is happening in your life this week? But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my top “Buttons” Tab.

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog
2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)
3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it
4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating
5) No sales pitches or web sites.
6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.
7) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list. If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple. If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s on this post please Click Here.
This party will be open until November 13, 2011

Ford Explorer Review

The 2012 Ford Explorer

Dave and I got to take this beauty on our trip to Corydon, Indiana.   We started off on a Friday late afternoon to drive the 5.5 hour drive to IN.  I wanted to drive (Dave did too.. but I won! lol) and Dave decided to set up the built in GPS.

The first thing we learned was that there is evidently a safety feature set on the GPS. You can not drive and set the GPS at the same time. We had to pull over to set it.  Dave wasn’t too happy about that, thinking that if there is a passenger in the passenger seat it should over ride  it.  But he did think it was easier to set up than the GPS we had on the Lincoln MKT we reviewed.

The ride was great, loved how it drove.  One of the things that I loved on this car was the cruise control.

It has the radar cruise – when you have your speed set, but you are coming up on a car that is going slower than you are.. the cruise automatically slows you down.  So you are not having to constantly manually speed up or slow down. It does it for you.  Love that!!

The interior was a two tone leather and looked sharp.  I think Dave took the kids for a drive in it before I got back from a trip and they all thought it was roomy, and liked it.

There were enough cup holders, and they were large enough for my larger bottle of water.

We had dual air conditioning and satellite radio. It is so nice to have radio that doesn’t come and go when you go out of towns.  Dave really liked listening to the comedy channel.

This is one feature that I REALLY miss in my present car.  I would love to see this be a requirement on all cars some days.  It gives you such a piece of mind to back up and know for sure nothing is behind you.

 We made it to Corydon, Indiana and had a very enjoyable weekend.  Driving a comfortable car made it that much nicer!!

Thank you to the MI Ford Fleet for the use of this Ford Explorer for the week.

Cheap Sally Party & Collective Bias

Best Party at Blogher 2011 This Year!

That is simple!!  The #CheapSallyParty! It was slated to be the best party – that can be a bit scary! Expectations are high! But guess what?  There was no question. Hands down, this was the best party – and not by our accounts…. but by almost everyone who attended!  Collective Bias sent me to Blogher (loved it! I’ve never been to San Diego in CA before.. now I know why people love it so much!) this year as their photographer for several events. I was primarily behind the camera lens this trip, but had plenty of pictures with me in them too.

The atmosphere was amazing! We had the entire Stingree Nightclub to ourselves.  Three floors of awesomeness!

There were food stations, plenty of drink stations and no problems finding a place to sit, talk and relax.

The rooftop was the highlight of the party! We couldn’t have had better weather if we had ordered and paid for it!

The Brands had exposure in the cabanas that gave them plenty of attention, but they weren’t in your face. This was Collective Bia’s cabana – our community of bloggers is called Social Fabric.

Aren’t our Collective Bias pillows awesome! Love them!

It was a nice place for bloggers to come and know they would find Social Fabric members.  Here is Kim @craftymamaof4 and Michele @scrappinmichele

Udi’s Gluten Free Food gave us a loaf of their bread in our swag bags. They also gave us some granola. Later that night I sat in my room and worked… I was starved. I opened up the loaf of bread, fully expecting some terrible tasting stuff (I don’t eat gluten free… can you tell?) I was completely shocked to discover it was moist, tasty and I really liked it. I didn’t have anything to put on it, like butter or jelly… and didn’t miss it. I ate some more the next morning along with the granola (dry) and enjoyed that too.  Totally recommend this.

I loved this space.  KMart is coming out with a new line of Gordon Ramsay kitchen accessories this fall.

Doesn’t this look cool? I’d love to try out some of those pans… they look nice.

I also loved that they gave away all the items they were displaying there to a local food pantry that helps the homeless. Really … so much cooler than giving it away to the bloggers (we get so much at these conferences)

The Bloggers were able to go and visit and talk sitting on comfy couches, pick up awesome swag at the cabanas as well as in their swag bags on their way out.

Cheap Sally announced an awesome giveaway! I mean … really awesome!! The Cheap Sally Bring Home The Bacon Contest!!

They are having a contest and the winner will get a contract for a year – to write one blog post a week on the Cheap Sally blog for $100,000 for the year! Can you say OMG!!

This is Brian Markley (a Top Chef and owns two restaurants in San Diego) beginning the announcement for Cheap Sally Bring Home the Bacon Contest.

We had several of our bloggers interview Brian at the beginning of the party.  Melissa had him laughing!

Ok.. I wanted a picture too.

Melissa and Daniel (ConsumerQueen and ConsumerKing) are so sweet. I always love seeing Melissa and enjoy when Daniel gets to come to the conferences too.

One of the things I LOVE about any blogging conference is when we can meet people in real life that we are used to just talking to online.

One of my favorite people to meet in real life was Lily @MiliaryFamof8. I discovered that Lily is extremely shy and wasn’t real happy that I was taking her picture. But she is SO giving, has such a loving and giving spirit and looked absolutely hot! Her hubby bought her outfit for her to wear and she was very uncomfortable. She had not been to other blogging conferences and has a comfort behind the computer.. not in front of it (not unusual at all for many bloggers).  But she got to meet many people from Social Fabric… how could you not love her?

Check out her shoes! Aren’t they great!!

Here are Amy’s shoes… love them too.

Amy Callahan from Collective Bias looked great. This is her and Lauren before the party.

Again at the end of the party with Kate Berg

Sears Style had a booth and the ambassadors that went shopping (that post will be coming soon). They were manning the booth and handing out some awesome swag too! Don’t they look great?

And more.. I’m excited about the age defining cream (I can use all the help I can get you know!)

Liz from Smarties is the bomb! Can you imagine being a 5th generation candy maker and looking like this? I think I’d be a two ton tessy if it were me!

She made a swag for her booth using the candy necklaces! lol

We also discovered that you can put Smarties into a Martini and it was dubbed the Smartini! Can I tell you that when your drink is gone… eating the martini soaked Smarties… was the highlight!

There was also Smartie appetizers all over!  (yum)

The evening  was beautiful…

Loved taking pictures of everyone! Mel from MamaBzz met Ted Rubin

Ken Barnett and his wife were there. Ken is the CEO of MARS Advertising.

Debba from Girlfriendology with some of the UPS Store crew

Lifetime Moms was one of the sponsors

I don’t know who this is, but they were sitting in the Lifetime Moms area… and I love this peach dress! I felt like she looked so beautiful in it. I had to ask for her picture.

That was one of the things the bloggers loved. They felt they could relax, visit and have a space to visit with the Brands that was not pressured… not crazy crowded.

Amy Lowe looked so cute. She has been helping me so much writing tweets for cbSocially!

I was excited to meet Shelby @GlitterfulFelt  She and Steve did daily videos when we worked on the Lean Cuisine campaign. I felt like I already knew her because I saw her on video. She was so cute with her (fake) tattoo with Steve’s name on it!

These two wonderful ladies are from Canada.  It was fun to have someone be excited about having a picture taken with me!  Melissa @TimeOutMom on the left and Margarita @DownShiftingPOS (another professional organizer!!) on the right.

Kim, Monica and I posing inside the Social Fabric Cabana. Look at our cool Collective Bias QR code badges (Jay is the bomb!)

Courtney, Kim and I out front before the party began.

Everyone left with plenty of swag (including these great flip flops from ViX Swimwear…these are no cheap little ol’ flip flops ladies!!)

They got a bag as they left which also had more goodies in it (other than what they picked up at the cabanas.) Like Peets Coffee! Yum…. good coffee!  I also found out they sell it at my local grocery store.. so it’s all good!

I had a wonderful time, even though I was running around taking pictures of everyone (that was fun!) and what was nicer was knowing that everyone else had a great time too.

Thank you to all the sponsors and Dawn and Elizabeth from Party BluPrints (thank you for your book in the swag bags!)  along with everyone from Collective Bias who put in so many hours and so much time to make this party happen.

 

Collective Bias sponsored my trip to Blogher11.

I was not asked to write this post. I did that on my own because it was so stinkin’ awesome!

Evo Conference 2011

I Love Utah!!

I went for the second year to Park City Utah for the Evo Conference. I love it there!! I am SO going to bring Dave next year, and we are talking about bringing the kids.

We stayed at the Canyons Resort and it was the bomb!

The Collective Bias group got a suite again, and I think there were like 8 of us in there. Three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and huge dinner table. So fun!

The conference itself was great! I love the workshops that Jyl Pattee has worked in so that we get hands on attention.

The sponsor suites were really nice… and we had plenty of time to get to them all.
Jenny from Kodak  – yes those are Cake Pops!

There were some that were so pretty and calm.

Bert and Ernie were in the Sesame Street Suite

We also got to Just Dance!

I went up to a photography workshop on the lift by myself… and just couldn’t stop taking pictures.

I wish you could tell how steep this was going down! If it was going fast I would have freaked! I was in the chair by myself and realized it was just too beautiful to be scary.

We were able to go zip lining

on the “roller coaster” that goes down the mountain – this was on our way up. Look at the deer to the left. I didn’t even see that until I looked at my pictures later.

We also went on the Alpine Slide, carrying our slides to the starting point.

Getting all ready to go (Kim Janocko – Crafty Mama of 4)

And flying down. This pic was taken as I was going up the chair lift, so I have no idea who is going down. But it looks like the dad is having fun!

Bush’s Bake Beans put on this night for us including a wonderful dinner and all these fun activities.

Our last night was also up the mountain. There was a storm going up…. wind and a chairlift going over the mountains is a scary thing! lol Monica was scared enough going on the chairlift – let alone as windy as it was. We were trying to distract her.

But seeing the aftermath is worth it..a double rainbow

Doesn’t it look like the rainbow is going into the “pot of gold” cloud?

Here is the most of us from Collective Bias!

I wanted to be able to tell Dave I saw a Moose…this was the best I could do.

Loved Evo!  Loved Utah.. can’t wait to go back!

Here are the list of sponsors of Evo.

I was sponsored by Collective Bias for this conference.  Thank you Collective Bias and cb.Socially!

Type A Parent Conference 2011

Social Media Conference

I’ve been to this conference three times now. Think I enjoy it?

I drove to Cincinnati and picked up my friend… Debba of @girlfriendology. That made the nine hour drive go so much quicker. I think I passed her driver test! lol

We also shared a room, with Kim @Craftymamaof4.  What a riot we had….

I always enjoy Type A conference.  It is in Ashville, NC and it is a fun, funky town.

Here are some of the sites.

I thought they were neat.  You might notice a couple of these pictures on some twitter pages…  (cbgardening and cbglamour) .. yes they are mine. I just loved how this one turned out. It was the reflection in a store window. I didn’t even think the picture would turn out.

This was one funky statue.

Type A Parent, formally Type A Mom – my take on that…. is you don’t have to be a Mom or a Parent to attend. I don’t normally think about it so much… all the “mom blogger” talk. I’m not offended by that title, I don’t get up in arms, I just don’t really care one way or the other. I do what I do… call me what you will.  But Debba deals with it, because she doesn’t have any children. She gets classified as a mom blogger. I’m sure there are many others in the same boat.  She doesn’t make a big deal of it, but it just made me think more about it.

Ok.. onto more pictures! I have lots of them.

We had a Collective Bias dinner with several of the CB members who were there.  If you were there and didn’t realize it, we weren’t neglecting or keeping anyone from dinner. There was a discussion in the Social Fabric community, everyone in SF was invited.

 

 

 

The party that I thought was the most fun at Type A conference was the Smurf party!!

They had the place decked out and looking so nice.

All the tables had smurf on them.

Ubisoft sponsored this party and there was some new dance games coming out… so of course… there had to be a dance contest!

There were teams… that took it very seriously…

and others that signed up when they got there. Here is the Collective Bias Team

Of course I thought they should have won… but alas..

But the finals came down to just a few.. The three up front were in the dance off.. the rest were just joining in for fun.

Chris on the left ended up being blocked by the Ubisoft guy who was also joining in and dancing (at least this is my version of what happened) Because she was totally “on”.  I think we were all a bit shocked when she didn’t actually win. But it was all in fun.

We decided to go out to dinner. Kim was craving lobster mac & cheese. The place we tried to go, had a really long wait. So we ended up at this really fun little restaurant.

Ted joined up with us after his workout.(My new boss)

Mayfel’s was a quirky cute little place to eat. Loved it.

They had the most awesome sweet potato fries that I’ve ever tasted!

And to top it off… there was a peanut butter frosting on this devil food cake that was to die for!

We all had a great time…. and were very full. I will be sure to stop by this place again if I go back.

More sessions…. more fun… more friends. It’s all good.

Watch tomorrow for my “Shoe Envy” post from Type A Parent Conference.

 

 

 

 

 

Lincoln MKT

Review of the Lincoln MKT Cross-Over

Our family had fun getting to review the Lincoln MKT crossover vehicle. We went on our family vacation around Ohio and to Kentucky.

I can’t even tell you how many times I heard the kids say, “This is the nicest car I’ve ever been in!”

We first went down to Hocking Hills in Ohio and went on the zipline.

Then we drove further south and went to Mammoth Caves in KY.

The kids loved the sunroof. We didn’t have it opened all the time, but they enjoyed it when we did. We did learn that you do not open it too soon after it has stopped raining! (Yes, we got some drips down on us! lol)

The car was very comfortable.  It was leather and looked very nice inside.

I think it would be perfect for a family of four.  The only real complaint I had was the amount of storage space for packing.  There was no roof rack, so we weren’t able to use our car top carrier.  We put one of the seats down in the back to provide enough space (and we used every bit of it). So the child who had the back seat was a little crowded. But the kids rotated seats.

Loved several things:

The dual heat/air controls
The heated and cooling seats!
The Navigation system
The backing up video (loved that and really miss it… such a great safety feature)
The little frig/freezer
The sunroof
The looks of the car (I thought it was sharp)
The little hidden space behind the front console
The steering wheel controls for radio and cruise
The satellite radio
The auto back hatch lift and button just inside the back to close it.

One of the things the kids all wanted to do was to hit the button to make the middle seats go up automatically.  That was a really nice feature

After Mammoth Caves we came back into Ohio and went on a three day Roar and Explore package which consisted of staying at Drury Inn and Suites for two nights.

We also got to enjoy a day at the Columbus Zoo, a day at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and  would have had a day at Zoombezi Bay if it hadn’t rained.

We had a great time and really enjoyed the Lincoln MKT.

I think overall it might be a little too small for us.  There are seven of us who are home now. Although it is rare anymore for us all to go together in one car, we still want to have the ability to.

It was awesome for our trip with just the triplets.  If we had a luggage rack on top… it would be perfect (oh…and maybe the DVD  players… )then it would be really perfect!

 

The Ford Fleet out of MI asked if I would like to review this car.  We had the car to use for about a week, without cost.  We purchased the gasoline ourselves. The pictures, video and thoughts are my own.

Roar and Explore

Looking for a mini vacation in Ohio?

We were asked to check out the Roar and Explore package that you can get through Experience Columbus.

What a good deal.  Staying in a hotel when you aren’t far from home can really make you feel like you are on a vacation in another state.  The kids love it and it is nice to not have to worry about laundry and cleaning the house and making dinner for two nights!

Columbus Zoo

Our adventure started at the Columbus Zoo. The day was perfect (in the 70′s) and the animals were out. There was a good crowd, but not too crazy. The kids had a blast. We were there almost all day. We went to an animal show, saw the gorillas (their fav), elephants, the aquarium, rode a train and much much more.

We checked into the Drury Inn and Suites in Grove City. The hotel was very nice! The kids kept saying it was the nicest hotel they had ever stayed in. (I heard that phrase for the hotel and also the Lincoln MKT car we got to drive.. this is the nicest car we have ever been in. lol)

Drury Inn & Suites

Over the course of two days they were in and out of the indoor/outdoor pool SO many times. They loved it.

Zoombezi Bay Water-Park

The weather was great for the zoo and COSI, but not so great for Zoombezi Bay.  We ended up not being able to go on the 3rd day because of storms.  But the tickets are still good until September, so we will be able to go back and use them.  This isn’t my picture, but I was given this picture to use so you all could see what an awesome water-park this is.

COSI – Center of Science and Industry

We went to COSI on the 2nd day and saw some of what there was to offer. I don’t know if you could get through all of COSI in one day or not.

There was an awesome dinosaur exhibit.  Our tickets included this, but normally you have to pay extra to go into the exhibit. The kids enjoyed it.

We also got to watch one of the 3D movies (which is also normally extra, but is included)

My favorite part of COSI was the big machine display they had.  The kids got to actually work some of them and climb in them. It was great.

This package starts at just $375 plus tax for a family of four. (That is saving $84).

Here is what you get with the Roar and Explore Package:

1) Four tickets to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
2) Four tickets to Zoombezi Bay
3) Four tickets to COSI
4) Two nights stay at a hotel. (Columbus area Drury Inn & Suites is the preferred hotel – prices may vary at other hotels)

The package is designed for a family of four, but you may add extra family members.  You can make reservations by going to the Columbus Vacation Package on Experience Columbus.

I can highly recommend this for you and your family. We had a blast!

 

Canopy Tours

Hocking Hills Canopy Tours

Last week the triplets and my husband and I went on a vacation. We did wander out of Ohio for just a couple days, but our main activities were in Ohio.

The hands down winner was going on the canopy tours or zip line tours as others (including myself) call them.

We first suited up when we got there. Of course they help you with everything.

We had a lesson on what to do and then we did it on a practice line.

The triplets are ten now, so they were old enough this year.  I had gone on a small one while I was in UT last year, but had never done a canopy tour course as I would call this.

It was 3,300 feet, ten zips and five bridges long…

We all had a blast!!  lol…. Alex had fun, he just was nervous doing this maneuver they showed us. The tethers were holding you from falling off the edge of the tree stand. You can’t tell in this picture, but we were up at least 50 ft.

You can see our video of our zip lining on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog.

 

 

Gleek Retreat 2011

Holland, Michigan is one cute little town!

I loved the location for our retreat this year! Holland is on the west coast of Michigan, right on the water. It is actually a college town. A private Christian college called Hope College is there.

There is a fireplace always going and their brick walks are heated! Can you imagine? (So nice in the winter right?)

It was a six hour drive for me, but the weather and traffic cooperated and I got there on Friday about 5:30pm.  I met with Courtney Velasquez and we went out to dinner at a place called CityVu Bistro with a few other Collective Bias members. Some old, some new.. some yet to be. lol

From left: Sylvia Hubbard, Elena Wollborg, Elizabeth Edwards, Deb Steenhagen

Look at this spinach dip!

Courtney, Elizabeth and I.  Thank you very much for a wonderful dinner CityVu, Courtney and Collective Bias.

It was a small group of us for the Gleek Retreat which was so nice. I think we were around 40 or so from what I heard. We all met in one room and we all heard the same speakers. The positive thing about that was that you didn’t feel like you missed anything.

Lisa Lehmann started things off. It is so neat to hear about the person behind the business.  She did a fabulous job.

We had some network time to get to know some other the other bloggers.

We also heard from an author of over 20 Romance novels; Sylvia Hubbard.  I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of her speaking (ugh)… but she is up in my picture of when we ate at CityVu.

Brittany Gibbons and Heather Spohr gave us all the ins and outs of how to start and run a group blog.

Katie Kimball from Kitchen Stewardship talked to us about writing E-books. This was really useful to me. I have been planning on doing a couple, and she gave me some great info!

We were finished up pretty early. I’m guessing around 3pm.  We had time to walk around the town… and go in a bunch of the cute little stores.

There has to be a cute coffee shop in a cute town right?

You also can’t forget the fudge shop. I guess they also have awesome milk shakes.  There was SO much I wanted to buy there, but I was good (for me) and only got a caramel covered pretzel stick.

I loved this cute little shop – it had some really creative hand made items in it.  The owner had made these cake pops.. and they were awesome!  I almost bought the book by Bakerella… and I wish I had. I am going to get it, either in a book store or online. These were just too cute. When I do get the book, I’ll make some and share it on my blog.

There were five of us walking around.Shanda, Jodi Michelle, Stacey and Courtney. Jodi and Stacey both live close by, so they knew the stores well….. especially Jodi! Heck, they know her by name when she walks in!

After our run around town, we got ready to go on the Holland Princess dinner cruise.  It was only a short bus ride there, in the rain….

Thank goodness there was a closed section downstairs.  We all got two drink tickets… hee haw!

We were served a lovely dinner (well…. not really very good. The chicken was cold, cheese not melted and noodles dry and it was salsa instead of tomato sauce… but the roll was good! I didn’t eat the dinner, but I did eat my roll and Courtney’s roll.)

But my drink was good!

Courtney, Shanda and I went on top of the boat after the rain and it was so nice and cool and the view was great. Shanda was saying how she didn’t have a good profile picture…. so we decided to try and get one. Here are several I took.

 

and here is one more

The lighting was being a pain. But we had fun. I took a whole lot more than those… lol

Guess where Courtney and Shanda pretended to be?

Here are a few other fun pics from that night.  (I was trying to hide my band-aide on the side of my nose. But I just photoshopped it!)

I love walking around with Shanda!  If you have met me, you know I’m 5’10″ tall.  Shanda is obviously taller than I am and I love that! lol

I think this picture of Courtney and Shanda is so cute!

There was karaoke on the boat… and Heather and Meredith from Life’s Crazy Joke were such a hoot! You can’t fully appreciate it if you weren’t there. But ….there were plenty of video cameras going, so it is possible the rest of the world might get to experience the fun of these two at some point down the road.

Sunday morning started at 9am. I was already checked out of the hotel and ready to go. There were three speakers today, Cynthia from Nap Warden,  spoke on blog design. She showed some great examples of what to do and what not to do with your blogs. Ok… so this isn’t the best picture. I mean, it isn’t a bad picture, I just wish I would have gotten a smile!

 

I also realized I didn’t get Kris from Little Tech Girl talking! What the heck?  All I can figure was that I was too nervous about talking myself. Sorry Kris! She was full of awesomeness as she always is. I wish I could just “steal her tech brain” for about 24 hours and I think of all the stuff I could get done on my site etc during that time.

Up next…. me and Andrea from Simple Organized Living.  I went first and discussed organizing your blogging life. I discussed making a blogging binder and I gave two of them away.  I’ll be getting them ready before long so that you will be able to download the printables or get an entire notebook already prepared.

After looking at these pictures of me, I realize more than ever that a face lift, neck lift and eye lift are well in order! Getting old really sucks! ugh.

Andrea took the stage as our last presenter. She discussed how to organize your life and family as a blogger.  She said she could talk about five hours on time management, but would talk only as long as Julie wanted her to.  lol

Julie from Dutch Being Me organized the retreat this year.  Lots of work. wow

It was nice to have a few sponsors there. The “Bissel” guys were there and had carpet cleaner with them (I got some for my sad carpets that need to be replaced… but that we will try to clean and have last a little longer since we have 7 of us and 2 dogs here..{breath})  and also some coupons to rent a free steam cleaner!

Christina from Therapon was also there. She was giving free facials. I needed one, but didn’t get one because I didn’t want to put my make up back on, plus I was sporting such a fashionable band-aide on my nose (the basal cell thing ya know).

Mabels Labels provided the bags and also their cute bag tags. (love those)

Last years organizers were there… Jodi and Stacey

Courtney also suggested that we get a 2010 Gleek retreat reunion picture!

Thanks ladies for a fun weekend and thanks Holland MI for such a cute town!

 

 

 

 

 

Packing Tips

Tips and Tricks to Packing the Perfect Carry-On

I consider myself very lucky; I not only enjoy my job, but I also have the
opportunity to travel all across the United States. As an account manager for a
storage company, I am required to visit our facilities. About a year ago, I realized
just how much of my “free” time was being spent waiting at the airport’s baggage
claim. It was then I became a dedicated carry-on traveler. Since then I have not only
saved a bundle of airline baggage checking fees, but I have learned many tricks on
how to pack a carry on. There is an organizational science to packing a carry on and
by following these tips you can avoid baggage fees and minimize travel time.

Preparation

1. Do Your Research: In the past few years, airport security has beefed up significantly. So before
   you start to pack, do some research on the airports you will be passing through,
   double check the regulation carry on bag size, the laptop policy and the rules for
   carrying on liquids. There is nothing more frustrating than having all your toiletries
   confiscated at the beginning of your trip. So it is well worth it to do a little research.
2. Make Use of Available Resources: When it comes to picking your carry-on luggage, be sure to maximize your
   options. Most airlines allow you one carry on and one personal bag or purse, which
   essentially means two carry-on bags. I often bring a small rolling suitcase, to stow,
   packed with my clothes and toiletries and a briefcase with my laptop, reading
   material for the plane and work papers, that I keep under the seat. For the carry-on
   bag that you plan to stow, make sure the bag fits airport regulation size. Most
   luggage is now sold based on airport regulations, but don’t be afraid to ask at the
   store to be certain. Depending on your preference, hard cased rolling bags or soft
   duffel bags make great carry-ons.
3. Be Budget Conscious: Since you will be carrying everything on, you will need to pack toiletries in
   your bags. Now that airport security regulations dictate the volume of liquid you can
   bring on the plane, you will need to purchase security certified sized bottles of
   shampoo, conditioner, or face wash. Instead of buying brand name, airport sized
   shampoo bottles, try buying a bunch of plain three ounce bottles. That was you can
   fill them up with whatever toiletries you already own and can reuse them for
   multiple trips.

Let the Packing Begin

Before you put anything in your bag, lay out everything you plan to pack. Try
to wear your bulkiest clothes and shoes on the plane so you can avoid packing them
and wasting precious space. Since you need to fit everything in one carry-on bag,
there are two strategic packing strategies to choose from. Folding clothes is one of
the least efficient ways of packing your carry-on:

1. Many of my friends swear by
   the “rolling” method that they claim allows you fit the most items in your bag and
   also keeps clothes wrinkle free. This method is pretty self explanatory, but consists
   of rolling your clothes up in to tightly compacted tubes. Then you pack them into
   the suitcase.
2. The other option is lying clothes completely flat on top of each other.
   This option eliminates the extra bulk of folds and allows you to fit quite a bit of
   clothing into your carry-on.

Once you have packed your clothes, put your toiletries in a quartz sized, clear
plastic bag on top. That way when you go through airport security, if they request
you remove your liquids and put them in a bin they are easily accessible. Remember
you can’t bring full water bottles through security. Instead back an empty water
bottle that you can fill up on the other side of security or once you are on the plane.
Also keep a jacket handy, there are usually drastic temperature changes on the
plane and it can also serve as a makeshift pillow.

Once you are all packed, you can print out your boarding pass, skip the hassle
of checking a bag and breeze through airport security. Carrying on saves a bundle of
time and money, once you make the switch you will never go back!

Sunny Brady is an account manager for Storage Arizona. 

 

photos provided by Sandy

Inn at Honey Run

Beautiful Place to Visit in Ohio

The Inn at Honey Run in Holmes County is in the heart of Amish country.

I will be doing a full post on Inn at Honey Run on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog in the next week or two, but I wanted to share just a couple pictures I took today that I liked.

This is a picture of their Facebook  bird cam. I kid you not. They have a camera mounted that takes pictures. I am assuming maybe it is action motivated.  I wondered who was spending all the time watching for birds and taking pictures. They are posted on their FB page. How fun is that?

There is so much nature here.  It is sooo quiet and peaceful.  It began raining right after we arrived, but only lasted a half hour or so.  When we came out, the sun was out, the rain was dripping off the flowers and it was absolutely beautiful. Everything looked so crisp and clear, the birds were singing.

Isn’t this orange tulip awesome!

This candle that hangs from the walk way up to the entry had a drip of rain that I kept trying to catch as it hit the top and bounced off.  I didn’t have the luck, but still loved the picture.

This robin was very accommodating as we were driving out of the parking lot to go to dinner. She just sat there and let me get a couple good shots.

We went into Berlin and had a great dinner at Boyd and Wurthmann restaurant.  It is an Amish run restaurant and the portions were huge and food was great!

I always love to see the horse and buggies.  Dave’s farm is in Amish country, so we get to see a lot of them, but I don’t know that I will ever tire of trying to get some good pictures of them.

Be watching on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog for the entire post.  I’ll plan to link it to this post once it is finished.

Also be sure to look for the exclusive offer at the bottom of that post. (Hint…. if you call and reserve a room for at least one night, you will get a $25 gift cert to use in either the spa, restaurant or gift shop! You just have to tell them that Explore Ohio with Sandy sent you!!)

 

My room at the Inn at Honey Run is complimentary, but has nothing to do with my opinions.  The photos and thoughts are all my own.

 

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