Our 1st mother/daughter vacation - a digital scrapbook trip report - Updated 2/18, pm

[Disneymoon2013]

DISers, I have a confession to make: My mother & I took our first ever mother/daughter vacation in September 2015 (to Disney World!), yet I STILL have not finished my scrapbook!! I keep doing it in small bursts with large lapses in between. I thought maybe if I shared the pages I've done so far with ya'll, it would help me get back on track! So here I am!

Speaking of track... I don't have the best track record on the site. I mean that I started a Pre-trip report before, which I didn't end up finishing... my Disneymoon thread. I had a valid reason though. Our pastor, who was going to marry us, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, and in the grief that followed, I just didn't make it back on the site to finish my thread. Plus, there was *a ton* of family drama. Maybe it was for the best. Or maybe I'll eventually go back & finish that story. I was enjoying writing it. If you want a little back story on me ("Bunny") and DH ("Oppa"), you can see it there.

We did get married in November 2013, and we did make it to Disney World, which was my first ever visit. I loved it so much that I ended up planning this mother/daughter trip, and now I'm planning a second mother/daughter trip for January 2018!

But in the meantime, I really need to finish this scrapbook. I plan on having it printed once I finish, and I'm going to send my mom a copy. At this point, I want to finish by the end of March at the latest.

I do digital scrapbooking using Photoshop (CS4), and my supplies come from The Lilypad, Digital Press, Digichick, Designer Digital, Peppermint Creative, & Sweet Shoppe. I own the art elements, but the designers/shops always ask that anyone posting images online credits them, so here it is. If you're a digital scrapper, too, and you're curious about any particular part of a scrapbook page, just ask me and I'll look it up in my computer.

With that said... here's the first page!



In the lower left corner, you're seeing a homemade white board: a glass picture frame. Did you know you can write on glass with dry erase markers? One day I came home and found a pamphlet jammed into our door frame. It was a Mormon brochure with this picture of Jesus on the front. "I have to save this picture of Jesus! What am I going to do with it?" I pasted him onto scrapbooking paper, put him into the frame I inherited from my great-grandmother, and surprised Oppa with it:



Of course, he one-upped me on this:



and thus the "Jesus Board" was born..



So I was delighted to see his message when I left home at 3 a.m. for WDW and rightfully put it into the scrapbooking spread.


I'll post links to other pages here, or you can just scroll through!

Pages 2-7: Day 1, Magic Kingdom!
Pages 8-11

 

[Disneymoon2013]

I did not take the ride photos in the spread above; I found them from a Flickr photographer, and I used them because it was for a private scrapbook. I didn't originally plan on sharing on DIS... I'm having a hard time finding the original photographer right now; I will have to search more.

As a general rule, I don't take ride photos because I prefer to experience with my eyes rather than through a screen. I do have a Nikon DSLR, with a viewfinder, but I didn't take it on this trip because of the anticipated rain and because I didn't want to carry around a heavy camera; on my first trip, DH carried it for me!

Even though Goofy is not one of my favorite Disney characters, somehow each meet I've had with him is even more satisfying than anticipated. Just look at this picture from my first WDW trip for our Disneymoon:

It's one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. Unfortunately, we learned during that trip that while I loved meeting the characters, Oppa hates it; he would rather be on rides. (In fact, at one point I waited in line for Stitch, and when my turn came, Stitch pointed in confusion to my bride mouse ears hat and the CM asked where my honey was. I pointed over to a bench, where he was playing his 3DS. "He didn't want to wait in line." Stitch was NOT having that. He put his hands on his hips and marched away from the queue, right over to Oppa, who looked up in shock and started blushing profusely when he realized that Stitch had come for him and that everyone in line was watching this. Stitch took him by the hand and directed him back over.
(^__^) Heh.

I was nervous on this trip that mama would feel that seeing characters was a waste of time, but it ended up being one of her favorite parts of the entire trip. She asked me recently if we were going to meet more characters again for our trip in January 2018. I think visiting Pete's Silly Sideshow again is going to be a must!

The signatures are from my homemade autograph book (4x6 cardstock bound together w/ a chipboard backing). I scanned them in for my scrapbook pages.

Pin trading was another favorite pastime on this trip, as you'll see from various pins included in the spreads. I got my first set of (authentic) WDW pins through yard sales and consignment shops for $1-$2 a piece before our Disneymoon in 2013. I used that original set to pin-trade then, and had more leftover to pin trade on this trip. I'm pretty pleased with this frugal approach, which also avoids the scrappers on eBay.

Note to self: I need to add some words to the tabs on this Minnie page. Hmm.. If you have ideas, share them! (^__^)

I'll post more pages soon! As I mentioned, I have 21 pages done. I have more to complete, and my goal is to finish by the end of March at the latest! At 21 pages, I left off with DHS, where we experienced some Disney Magic -- my mom's absolute favorite part of the entire trip. I have so much to scrap about DHS that it's spanning multiple pages. Whee!

 

[Disneymoon2013]

Still on day one in Magic Kingdom!

In the tale above, I'm referring to the book "When I Say No, I Feel Guilty" by Manuel J. Smith. It's an amazing book with a very unfortunate title & cover design. If you tend to be passive aggressive, or aggressive, and want to learn about assertiveness, this book is worth its weight in gold. Based on what we observed with the CM & the guest, CMs for character queues probably receive professional assertiveness training from Disney. Watching the CM was honestly one of my favorite parts of the trip because he just handled it so well.

Any CMs on DIS want to inform me about the makeup artists? I'm guessing it's probably done by makeup artists on staff.

Have other folks had experiences where some of the characters kind of give off the vibe that you are way too old to be visiting them? (^__^)

One of my favorite pictures from this trip!


More already-finished pages to come soon. This week I want to get some fresh pages done. I am, most unfortunately, unemployed this semester. I'm an adjunct professor, so I'm part-time contract-based each semester with no guarantee of work — in other words, no job security at all. This semester, student enrollment in higher ed across our entire state dropped substantially below the norms of the past 6 years. Fewer students means fewer classes offered, which means fewer professors needed... It's funny how, when you're employed, you have all these side projects you want to do that you fit in, but when you're unemployed and have hours upon hours of free time, you lack spirit & energy to do much of anything. If it wasn't for my husband's job, I certainly could not remain in the field of higher education, regardless of my skills and work ethic, nor would I have been able to splurge on this WDW trip, nor the upcoming one I have planned in January 2018. Crazy stuff.

My hope is that doing more pages & staying involved on DIS will be a positive distraction in the interim. I'd love to hear from other DISers!

 

[PrincessVi]

Look forward to hearing more about your trip Bunny.

 

[Gigi@Disney]

No matter how long it takes to make, your pages are SO cute!

 

[PrincessVi]

Hello Bunny (cutest name ever by the way)- I am sorry to hear of the loss of your pastor; life is so precious and fragile. It is easy to get off track when an event of that magnitude is placed right in the middle of well laid plans. I'm glad you have decided to post your trip report. Your resilience is inspiring, so much so, that you have lured a long time lurker out of the shadows. Your story really appeals to me. I am a traditional scrapbooker and I went on my first mother daughter trip to Disney last August, although, I am the mom rather than the daughter. The enjoyment I am getting from reading your report has prompted me to become a DIS member and who knows what will happen from here. Your scrapbook pages are wonderful, especially the journaling and I like the addition of the scanned autographs. I can't wait to see and read more. The J.C. frame cracked me up; I like to think he has a sense of humor. What a funny experience with Gaston; it sounds like the queue interaction was as zany as the meet and greet itself. People never cease to befuddle and amuse me. Glad to see that you and your mama had so much fun together. Thanks for sharing your creativity and experiences. I look forward to hearing more about your trip.

 

[Disneymoon2013]

Hello Bunny (cutest name ever by the way)- I am sorry to hear of the loss of your pastor; life is so precious and fragile. It is easy to get off track when an event of that magnitude is placed right in the middle of well laid plans. I'm glad you have decided to post your trip report. Your resilience is inspiring, so much so, that you have lured a long time lurker out of the shadows. Your story really appeals to me. I am a traditional scrapbooker and I went on my first mother daughter trip to Disney last August, although, I am the mom rather than the daughter. The enjoyment I am getting from reading your report has prompted me to become a DIS member and who knows what will happen from here. Your scrapbook pages are wonderful, especially the journaling and I like the addition of the scanned autographs. I can't wait to see and read more. The J.C. frame cracked me up; I like to think he has a sense of humor. What a funny experience with Gaston; it sounds like the queue interaction was as zany as the meet and greet itself. People never cease to befuddle and amuse me. Glad to see that you and your mama had so much fun together. Thanks for sharing your creativity and experiences. I look forward to hearing more about your trip.

I was so busy this past year that I didn't even see this. Thank you so, so much for your kind words. It means a lot to me. I realize I fell really behind on this... Mama and I were just on the phone laughing about how I still haven't finished the first scrapbook... and we're about to go to WDW again next week! I have so much catching up to do!