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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I got home last night around midnight, so I am dragging some major butt today. My goal is to get some posts us this weekend about the Sony Mommy Blogger Event, but I am not sure that is going to happen. I have to apologize that I haven’t been able to answer any comments or anything. They had us jam packed for a couple of days and now I have to play catch up with my kids, do some budgeting and planning with the bills, and catch up on laundry. Tomorrow, we have a birthday party to go to, so that kills getting anything done.  Bill has been playing with  cameras all morning.  I got a couple of good pictures of the kids.  I am hoping to get those up shortly too.  I just feel like I have a ton of stuff to do and no time to do it in.

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This is going to be a short and sweet post. The time change here is killing me. I just got back to the hotel a little while ago. Now, on my time, its 12:30 here, so I am dragging major butt! Sony gave us all three cameras we got to try out. We got a SLR camera, a cybershot, and a camcorder. After I get home, I’ll link them up and show you some pictures. I am just too darn tired right now. All I have to say is that Sony is awesome for doing all this for us! This is beyond cool. I am so glad I came. My goal is to get some of the pictures I took downloaded, so you can see how awesome these cameras are. However, that’s not going to happen until I get some sleep.

Crazy thing happened at lunch today though. We sat outside and ate for about an hour. I got sunburned. My arms are bright red right now. I didn’t figure I’d need sunscreen for an hour. Obviously, I was wrong!  However, this is California, so I guess I should have expected it.

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So far it has been pretty exciting.  The plane ride here sucked.  It was four and half hours with screaming kids.  I made it through it though.  LOL  They had a limo pick me up.  It was pretty cool.  I got to baggage claim and the driver was standing there with a sign with my name on it.  I probably will never have that happen again, but it still was super awesome.  We are staying at La Valencia Hotel and this place rocks.  I highly recommend it to anyone staying San Diego.  I have an ocean view room.  I can literally lay in bed, open my balcony doors, and watch the waves.  Sony also provided in our rooms some chocolate and a rose.  We also were given gift certificates for dinner.  I had fillet mignon.  It melted in mouth, that’s how good it was.  Even though I didn’t order dessert, I tried my fellow bloggers desserts and they were to die for.  So far, this trip has been awesome.  Tomorrow should be another fun day.  We get to play with the cameras that we are getting.  They have us going from 9 am – 9 pm, so hopefully, I will get a chance to blog somewhere in there.

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Yes, its about 1:15 am and I am still up. I leave for the Sony Mommy Blogger event in about 9ish hours. I am almost completely packed. I am still debating if I should grab my leather coat and put it in the suitcase or not. Depending on which website you look at, its either going to be 60-70 degrees or 70-80 degrees. I agree, there is a bit of a difference there. I am packing my swimsuits even though I think I need to take Alli before I put them on.

I am glad yesterday ended up being such a good day with Madison.  I am super proud of her and can’t wait to tell the other moms of her accomplishments.  Well, I think I need to head off to bed, since tomorrow is going to be a long day.

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