Saturday, February 21, 2009

WPPI and the Parade of Homes

On Wednesday night we got home from our adventure at WPPI in Las Vegas. It was great to see our loyal photographers and a great chance to meet lots of future loyal photographers. Here's Adam saying, "Another picture?!" Unfortunately it was the best one of him in our booth.

When I say it was an adventure, I mean that not only in the sense that it was our first venture into formally marketing Instaproofs (it's all been word of mouth for the most part), but it was also my first time leaving Max for any real period of time. Adam's mom, Sybil, came with us to help out, and it was such a great experience! She stayed at the WorldMark resort with him while we were at the trade show during the day, then had dinner ready for us when we got home. It made me seriously think how great a nanny could be . . . and a housekeeper/cook . . . . But Sybil was really so great because she has a vested interest in us. We sure appreciate her support and love.


Speaking of great, this whole trip wouldn't have been possible without my mom and Shelli taking the big kids for us. They had such a great time, neither of the kids had any interest in talking to me on the phone ("Mom, can I get off this phone now, we're trying to play . . . ") and could have stayed days longer. Friday they acted like they hadn't seen their cousins in years (actually less than 48 hours) when they got to play with them again while Shelli and I went out to the Parade of Homes.

And here we come to my rant for the day . . . why can't I have a 3.5 million dollar home?! I don't think it's too much to ask to have a full basketball court, racquetball court, climbing wall, and putting green in my basement. Right? Okay, maybe it's just the economy, but the excess of the Parade this year was irritating. At least this year there were several affordable homes, including a 650 square foot senior community home, that was beautiful and so well-done. Many of the houses were much more realistic than they have been in the past. And the big houses were cool, too. But they were also just . . . well, to quote a breathless someone I ran into while touring the 15,000 square foot behemoth that prompted my rant . . . "ridiculous."

Here's a shot I got of a house on the next block from it. A literal castle, complete with creeping vines:

It makes me wish I was a princess, or at least a multimillionaire . . .

4 comments:

Colleen said...

Oh, man, I miss going to the parade of homes with you. Some of them do get ridiculous though don't they? 15,000 square feet, seriously? That's insane! You would need a nanny for sure if you lived in that house, or you would loose your kids!

Kelie said...

Glad you were able to have some time without the kiddos...hope it was fun. A nanny for the weekend sounds marvelous! And I heard about that crazy huge home! yes, irritating! one can only dream.

Molly said...

I really don't think you'd feel like much of a princess cleaning that sucker. 15,000 square feet. Honestly! I would be embarrassed to live in the castle house, like I'm what, sleeping beauty? Sorry, did I mention my feet are swollen and my back is killing me? My outlook might not be so sunny these days!

Haley said...

Glad you had such a fun time! I would have loved to wander around that show...
That is so fun you got away to go to the Parade. I decided not to this year with sick kiddies, but they are always so fun to see and get ideas from.