We are still in flight from Orlando to Atlantic City as I write this, so hopefully we’ll arrive and make it to pick up the kids by 4 pm.  Miss those little nuggets so much.

Big Thank You again to Laurie and Corrin for hooking me up with my Izeafest ticket – they are two really great ladies – wish we were able to chat more. 

Also great to meet Toni, Heather, Elizabeth, Ashley, Joe, Kelly, and many MANY more!!!  This was my first conference I’ve attended since I started blogging back in March, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  Ted Murphy the CEO of IZEA is quite an exciting person who’s companies have provided me as a blogger with some great opportunities through Social Spark, Sponsored Tweets, and hopefully through their just-unveiled Sponzai application.

[TY to froggybluesock for the photo of Ted Murphy's keynote]

I think it’s great that I can blog about my life with the iTwins and also share some great opportunities, products and services with you via Izea-facilitated programs.

As for Izeafest itself, it was filled with informative speakers and some fun events. We attended the ICEBAR and SeaWorld compliments of the Fest.

I was a little disappointed that there was so much actual social media “drama” surrounding some of the speakers.  They were all there to contribute their little piece of the social media world and many were not taken seriously.  However it was awesome to see the years-ahead-of-his-time wisdom of Tommy during his “5 minutes of fame”…he WAS taken very seriously, and was very impressive. 

All of the speakers had some great insight into social media and blogging – and I was able to grab bits and pieces from them all.  Most importantly, I think I figured out the direction I want to take my “mommy blog” through everyone who spoke here.  You’ll have to stay tuned to see more…

Also loved the new logo and identity Ben Spark was given by Ted.  Everyone wants one now!

Woah turbulence.

Also a fun treat was getting our Crocs! Wanted to meet the man responsible for that – George, but only realized we were sitting next to him after we left the restaurant last night – bummer.  My glasses of wine were making me second-guess if it was actually him.

Darn, more turbulence.

We had so much fun…we didn’t get a ton of photos, but there are plenty here on flickr – you get the idea!

So I’m looking forward to landing safely and seeing our children and family.  We picked up some fun souvenirs for the iTwins from SeaWorld…shopping for them was so fun! Cant wait to bring them down to Disney and Seaworld in a few years from now.

Heard from my Mom that both kids were up by 6am each morning! Yikes… they sleep until at least 8am for me – they must have been excited to see my family and to go play.

Both hubby and I had a great time away though.  We picked up some useful social media information and enjoyed NOT changing diapers for over 72 hours.  Lots of great food and drinks as you’ve read about.  Back to sober cooking for myself and family – it was fun while it lasted.

Soooo happy to be back home with my tots…they are my world!

Got the iTwins to my parent’s house – they were SUPER excited to be there – so we said our quick goodbyes and drove another 100+ miles down to the Atlantic City airport.  Hubby wouldn’t let me stop to play some slots on the way, oh well.  We almost got pulled over again…figures.

After a quick lunch and a few drinks and tweets in the Atlantic City airport, hubby and I boarded our plane down to Orlando.

Received a quick text/pic from my sister reassuring me again that the iTwins were just fine :) Pinkie took a nice nap, ate lunch and was playing outside with Aunt D and MiMi.

She looks so big in this photo my sis sent.

Had a nice flight on Spirit Airlines $50 later for baggage check and $5 in flight soda and water.  Sat in the very 1st seat on the plane – that was exciting.  They don’t have first class, just this business class deal w/larger seats and you get to BUY your soda first.

1 hour and 50 minute flight with beautiful conditions.  My husband only got up 67 times to use the restroom. ugh. 

FUN FACT: You know how you are asked to “open window shades during takeoff”? Well someone asked why. The answer from the flight attendant: “so you [passengers] can see if anything [plane parts etc.] flies past the windows during takeoff”. FABULOUS!

So we are starting to descend now.

More once we touch down.

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Checked into the Renaissance Orlando Resort in SeaWorld.  The chilled glass of champagne at check-in was a nice touch.

Pretty hotel with lots of fishy-themed murals and LCDs all over with soothing under-water scenes — my son would be screaming “NEMO!!!” if he were here (gosh I miss them :()

Huge Atrium at the center of the hotel.

We went to our room to find out it was super-small with 2 Queen beds…we were supposed to have a King Suite.  We were so beat we just wanted to grab dinner and take care of whining about it later.

So we had some drinks (like a whole bottle of wine) here at the Mist Sushi Bar – yummy!  Hubby even ate sushi with chopsticks for the FIRST TIME!! So proud of him :)

So after dinner and finding out that it would be $30 for the 2 of us to have internet access per day – WHAT?!?! – we were actually about to switch hotels (because we NEED our interwebz), when the folks at the Renaissance called us up and offered us a King suite with a balcony overlooking SeaWorld — with FREE wireless for the weekend!!
Rock. On.

So we had great food, great drinks…and now a GREAT VIEW!

Here is what it looks like tonight…

Going to get some rest and just relax for the night — we missed the bus to the hour-and-a-half away Howl-O-Scream event at Bush Gardens, but that’s ok because I think we did enough traveling for one day.

Looking forward to the IZEAFest events tomorrow :)

Good Night my sweet babies – sleep nice for Mimi & PopPop.

Speaking of babies — a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to one of my lovely bloggy/twitter Moms Elaine of The Miss Elaine-ous Life…she had a beautiful baby girl today — oh you have to see the pics – she’s the sweetest little princess :) So happy for them!