I finally got the pictures off my camera, and I have to show you all this picture. This is what happens when bloggers meet with their kids. This is Elizabeth from Table4Five with all the kids. Of course, there was no way to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time, so I had to settle with one person. With this many little ones running around, I am so glad I don’t have any glass sinks! Amazingly, nothing got broken and everyone had a good time, so we are going to have to plan on doing this again soon!

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I had these pictures taken of the kids right before Will’s birthday. I finally got them scanned into the computer and up on my walls!  Aren’t they the cutest things?

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It is official.  Starting today, my house will be under construction for the next month.  It’ll be cool when it is all done.  However, I am not exactly looking forward to living in a construction zone for the next month.  I finally took some before pictures: (though they did a little electrical work last night)

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We stopped by my inlaws house last night.  On the way there, our local radio station (Q101) has a feature called “This Request Sucks”.  It is an alternative and rock station, and people can call in during this time and request songs that suck.  Well, yesterday, we listening while the “This Request Sucks” was on.  A song came on and I said to Bill that I thought it was Miley Cyrus.  Madison said, “It’s Hannah Montana”.  At the end of the feature they tell you who all the songs were by.  Well, guess what?  The song was by Hannah Montana.  Here’s where my confusion comes in.  We don’t watch Hannah Montana.  I have never seen the show.  It isn’t something we discuss in my house.  How did Madison know that was Hannah Montana?  Any ideas?

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I am so bad. I have been so busy since I got back, I am finally now writing about this awesome event. I was contacted about this the day before my birthday (I know, what a great birthday present!!!). Sony wanted to talk to 15 mommy bloggers and give us some cameras (I didn’t know this last part till the day before I left for the trip!). All expenses paid trip, how could I say no?

I flew out on April 16th to San Diego. They got me an a flight through Midway (which I seriously needed since Midway is only 15 minutes away and Ohare is about an hour). Sitting in the airport always sucks, but I made due. My plane flight there sucked. A little girl screamed the whole way. This is why I don’t fly with my kids. I am terrified that is going to be me. The mom was by herself, and she walked up and down the aisle for the four and half hour flight. I felt so bad for her.

We then got to San Diego and I had a limo driver waiting for me. He had my name on a sign. It was super cool. I know I’ll never see that again. He took me to the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla (it was about a half hour drive). The hotel was awesome (I’ll be writing about it on my travel blog, so I won’t go into too many details here). Sony had boxes set up in our room (to use to Fed Ex our cameras back). They also had left us headphones for our kids, a rose, and two chocolate candy bars. They obviously know the way to a woman’s heart. We were on our own for Wednesday night (though we did have a $50 certificate to use at the restaurant). I met up with Deanna and Anne Marie , and we went to dinner. I had filet mignon. It was super yummy. It was one of those steaks that you didn’t even have to chew it — it just melted in your mouth.

The next day we had to be at breakfast at 9:00. We had a buffet breakfast (which was awesome). This is the view we had from the room we were in. Beautiful, isn’t it? We spent the first two hours after that introducing ourselves. We then had lunch out in the beautiful sunshine. We were only out there for about an hour eating some of the best food ever and I got sunburned!!! Here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who were there (if you have more blogs that I haven’t listed, let me know and I’ll get them added):

• Ciaran from MommiesWithStyle.com, Celebrity-Babies.com, CarandCaboodle.com
• Jenny from Momminitup.com
• Stacy from MomCentral.com, MomCentralConsulting.com and Mother-Talk.com
• Deanna from DomesticChicky.com, Apronista.com and HappyHousewivesClub.com/hotmama.html
• Kim from InAShoe.com
• Tracey from Sweetney.com, MamaPop.com and RocknRompBaltimore.com
• Erika from PlainJaneMom.com and emomsathome.com
• Heather from TheDomesticDiva.org and idivalicious.com
• Anne-Marie from AMamasRant.com, MyReadableFeast.com, ThisMamacooks.com, The-Write-Spot.com
• Christina from GeekGirlfriends.com and Tynanwood.com
• Amy from Amalah.com, MamaPop.com and Advice Smackdown on AlphaMom.com
• Laura from PaulnLaura.com
• Janice from 5minutesformom.com

After lunch, we got to learn about Sony and the impact of women on their business (Let me tell you, we have a huge impact!!!). We then got to start playing with the cameras we got. Oh wait, I didn’t show you the cameras yet —-

Camera #1: Sony Cybershot

Camera #2: Sony DSLR-A300K

Camera #3 – Handycam HDR-SR10

Yes, Sony gave us all three cameras! They also set aside time for us to work with their trainers so we could learn how to use them!

We then got instruction from photography expert Me Ra Koh. She gave us shooting instruction and tips of how to get specific results. She was really nice and she’s a blogger too!

We then got to go out to the beach and play with the cameras!

We then got a little bit of time to run up to our room and get ready for dinner. I took these pictures from my room!

We then met up with Sony and went to dinner at the Azul Restaurant. I got back to the hotel between 10 – 11 and went to bed.

On Friday, (April 18th), we met again for breakfast. Me Ra took some of our photos and critiqued them for us. She told us how to make our photos better. We then had a presentation from Rocket XL (the advertising agency who helped pull this all together). Us mommy bloggers ended up taking over that session with our opinions and thoughts.

After this session, we were able to do whatever we wanted till we caught our plane. Sony also gave us certificates for the spa, so I went and had a deep tissue massage. I then ate lunch and then had to get on my plane.

And that was my trip to San Diego!

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