Boom!

There always seems to be some sort of fun new adventure to experience out here. On Tuesday we went and visited hot tubs at some different resorts. It was fun to see some of the different resorts. The theme of each is so different and so amazing. Coronado Springs is like Mexico and the pool is an ancient temple dig site. It was great fun and then we went to Wilderness Lodge which is themed after the lodges at the national parks like Yellowstone and such. The pool is like a river and they tried to make the hot tubs look like natural hot tubs. It was great fun and we had a blast.




On Thursday I ran some errands getting ready for Andy, Chelsey and Cali to come this week. I am so excited to have them come play! I got Cali and Kaylee some Mickey ears at the discount store and then took them to the Magic Kingdom to put their names on them. It was kind of lame because it cost just as much to put their names on them as it was to buy them. We then went and looked for Tiffany to see if we could stalk her at all. It didn’t see her on Main Street or near the castle so we decided to just leave and stop by Guest Relations to make a dining reservation. As I was making the reservation Tiauna went outside to watch the Pinocchio meet and great area. She soon came back in and said that tiff was the photographer with Pinocchio. So we went and stood in line to have her take our picture with him. Then she had to leave so we got out of line. Then we went to my house and made cookies and watched Twilight. It was a first time for me and it was good. Tiauna was also working on a ransom note for a guy in the ward. It was hilarious and I was rolling on the floor laughing when she told me how the two of them delivered it to his apartment.
This weekend was another fun festival weekend. I had some really good groups this weekend. I had a blast talking with the adjudicators that were here. They are hilarious. The instrumental adjudicators wanted to see Voices of Liberty at EPCOT so we had a break during their last set of the day. We rushed over to there to see them and we walked into the building during their last note. It was kind of sad but a fun adventure. The thing that made me laugh the most is some of them were sitting on their iphones checking their facebook between groups. They were hilarious. Another good thing about them is we bring in catered meals for them. Friday night I got to take home some left over breakfast food. Saturday was the best though. I was sitting in the trailer entering scores into the computer and the server asked us if we wanted some of the leftovers from lunch. I jumped right up, you don’t say no to free food at Disney, especially catered because it is way good. I enjoyed some Caesar salad, angel hair pasta and a DIVINE flourless chocolate cake covered with ganache. It was so good. I should have taken a picture because it definitely looked as good as it tasted. The meals are so exquisitely prepared that the adjudicators were even taking pictures of their food on their phones. Also while sitting on the computer working I heard this crashing sound and thought to myself, “Did something just crash into the truck or something?” I just kept on working because I didn’t hear anything else. A little while later I was talking to my manager and he was talking about the space shuttle landing, and how it has sonic booms when it does. So that is what I heard, the space shuttle landing. I didn’t know that they did that, but if you think about it they are going really fast when they are entering back into the atmosphere. So there is some space shuttle trivia for the day! The awards ceremony was fun again. We get to go out a little before it starts and get everyone pumped up, one of the best parts of the job.

Today was a great day too, because we finally got a new bishop. Our bishop got a new job in California about 2 months ago and left so we have been just going. It will be a good change, I am excited to meet the new bishopric and their wives, and they seem like really cool people. We had break the fast tonight that was our easter dinner. It was so good and there were some way good desserts that Tiauna and I ate too much of. Now it is time to go to bed. I need to get up early in the morning to start working out because I am going on a cruise at the end of May with people from work. So I need to get ready for that and on my days off this week I am going to be playing nonstop. I am so excited, so next week there will probably be tons of pictures!

Mr. Sandman

There always seems to be some sort of new adventure awaiting here in florida! To celebrate St. Patrick’s day we went the Boardwalk to go experience the fun atmosphere that is there. We ended up on the other side of the lake at the Yacht and Beach club eating delicious cheeseburgers and watching a movie on the beach. Each night at most of the resorts they have inflatable screens and watch movies, and we have made that one of our new hobbies. It is really fun, and could be quite romantic, but it is a fun cheap activity. Oh the free things that you can do at Disney! On Tuesday Tiauna thought it would be fun to order the kids meal just so that she could get the bucket and shovel to play with while we watch the movie. She had a little bit too much fun, you can see what I mean! It was really dark so I didn’t really know what she was doing until I took a picture of her sandman!

We have been wanting to watch High School Musical 3 for a while and could never find the time, but we finally did on Thursday. We found out it was showing at the Contemporary that night so we made plans to go. Along with the movie they also have a campfire where you can roast marshmallows, so we brought stuff for s’mores. It was so much fun and so delicious. My manager told us about making s’mores with peanut butter cups instead of just chocolate bars. Let me tell you it is so good, one of the best treats I have had in a long time. I will never eat plain ones again. The movie was ok, I’m glad I didn’t waste money in the theater to see it. You can tell it had a much bigger budget than the first two. On our way back to the car we saw a friend of ours working at the monorail and stopped to take a picture. It was tons of fun, and then we went to TGI Fridays. I probably shouldn’t have gone because we were up way too late, but it was fun!
Friday night we were up late again, but such is the life of single adults. There was a dance we went to, and it was interesting. I tried to have fun, but it didn’t work, there wasn’t really a DJ so music selection was very interesting, and some of the people were very odd. I survived but had a much better time afterwards because we went to IHOP at 1 am! I got some delicious butterscotch pancakes. They were so good, I can’t wait to try and make them myself! I got hungry during church and started craving them!




The space shuttle launch. Didn't get as good as I had hoped!






Saturday was another fun and exciting festival day! We had 1/3 of the groups this weekend than we did last weekend, so it was a lot more relaxed. When we were done plating all of the awards we took our dinner break and rode bikes to the break room. It was probably at least about a ½ mile trek, if not more to the break room. My thighs were a little sore when we got there. I love working at the studios because they have bikes for you to ride backstage, it is so much fun! The awards ceremony was fun. We get to get the crowd pumped which is a blast. The kids are so excited to be there it is awesome! When we were done handing out awards and got all cleaned up we all went to TGI Fridays because I found an awesome coupon for 1cent appetizers. I paid $3 for potato skins and lemonade; it was the greatest thing ever. We had fun just hanging out because we haven’t all been together lately because of our lame no overtime schedules. It felt like I hadn’t seen some of them forever.
Today we had another fun and exciting day of church at the Sheraton Safari Hotel, home of the world’s largest python waterslide! We went early because tiff was playing the piano for a musical number. We get there and the piano wasn’t working. They couldn’t get it to work at all so we had to sing everything a capella today. It was kind of interesting; some of the pitches were very high! The weather has been perfect lately, not much humidity at all. I want it to stay like this a lot longer! The humidity is horrible, stay away! Now it is time for another fun and exciting festival week. I have 5 choirs I am hosting so I am so excited to be at the choral venue all day. I am learning some cool stuff to use when I hopefully get a job!



here is the video clip from the space shuttle launch last week. I didn't get as much as I hoped because my the batteries were dying. Oh well!

Spring is Broken?

We had a fantastic and crazy busy week! Marilee came on Sunday and we played the whole time till she left on Thursday morning. I sadly had to work on Monday so it was just her and tiff until I got off. Luckily I was working backstage at the Studios getting awards ready for the weekend, so when I was done I just walked “onstage” and joined them in the park. We went and watched the American Idol experience which is so fun to watch, I could go see it a couple times a day because it is always different. To end the night we watched Fantasmic. It is one of my favorite shows and it is a must see. They are only showing it 2 nights a week right now so we had to schedule what night we were going to watch it and be able to see the other nightly fireworks.




We got an early start on Tuesday because Tiffany wanted to see the park opening at Magic Kingdom. She gets to see the backside of it when she works in the morning, but never gets to see what it actually is. The show was fun and the best thing was that it wasn’t too busy when we first got there. We did 2 rides in about a half hour. We then left the Magic Kingdom and headed over to the Grand Floridian for a delicious breakfast buffet at 1900 Park Fare. It is a character dining experience and was so much fun! As we were sitting in the waiting area the Mad Hatter came running out of the dining room and sat between these two ladies and started demanding that they get seated right away. It was hilarious. I love doing character dining because the characters come right to your table. We got to see Mary Poppins, which I think was all of our favorite! Then the Mad Hatter, he was crazy funny, and so loud! He was at a table chatting with a guy and he had already set out the tip, Mad Hatter then picked up the cash and started waving it in the air yelling, “Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins, tuppence, tuppence a bag!” He then got in a fight with Tigger when they were by our table. And then we got our picture with Tigger, Pooh and Alice. Alice was also really funny. We were wearing “I’m celebrating” buttons and so she asked what we were celebrating. We told her Spring Break, even though just one of us was having a spring break. Alice then playing her part said “I didn’t know it was spring yet?” and then she said the funniest thing, “I didn’t know spring was broken?!” Brunch was so good! We ate so much, including a breakfast pizza which was so good and something I had never heard of before. We finished off the meal with some soft serve ice cream. We were full the rest of the day! We had a magical day at the Magic Kingdom and finished off the day with a delicious fresh handmade chocolate chip ice cream sandwich while watching Wishes!















Wednesday we started off at Animal Kingdom rode Everest, saw Finding Nemo the Musical and then rode the safari. There is some more to do there, but we didn’t have time, we still needed to hit Epcot and the amazing rides there. We had lunch at the restaurant in Italy. It was so good, it was kind of pricey, but it was somewhat affordable since we used Tiff’s 50% off coupon that we had, and we used mine for breakfast. The meal was worth it, and not just the food. The servers were very attractive and fun to look at! Epcot was a lot of fun, because in addition to the rides they have a new attraction to make the World Showplace more kid friendly, it is the Kim Possible experience where you get a kimmunicator to help her save the world. It is a cool interactive thing that you get clues to solve in a country and help save it. It was so much fun, we saved 4 countries that day! We then ended the night with one more firework spectacular “Illuminations” it is a fun show that I love to watch, the soundtrack is so cool too and makes me happy each time I hear it!










I loved this mission in Germany. The notes spelled out the word. Yay for being a music nerd!


Sadly all the fun had to come to a close and I took Marilee to the airport at 4:30am on Thursday. I got to go back to bed for an hour before getting up for another busy day of work. Work was crazy because the first Festival Disney weekend was upon us and things have been very intense in the office, lots of changes have been happening, thank you budget cuts! My poor manager has been running around like crazy doing more than he is getting paid to do. The festival was so much fun and look forward to the next 7 weekends of them! I got to hear some good and interesting jazz bands on Friday. Saturday I wasn’t hosting any groups, I just got to sit in an office and get scores inputted into the computer and get all of the awards ready for the awards ceremony. We had a huge weekend and kind of crazy for the first weekend of the season. It was kind of a baptism by fire to make sure everything got done! We were a few minutes late getting started but it was fine. We had the ceremony at Lights, Motor, Action at the Studios and it was so much fun, there was a DJ getting the kids all pumped for the night, and we got to dance around a little too. We then gave each ensemble their awards, handed out the special awards, gave the directors their bag of medals and scores and then Mickey comes and says hi. I really enjoyed getting to be down on the stage at LMA, and it was kind of intense too because they were also showing stuff on the jumbotron. We waved goodbye to everyone with our Mickey gloves and it ended sooner than we thought and we all soon crashed! Today has been a nice day of relaxation and it has been wonderful, just enough to get me ready for the next weekend of fun! Luckily this weekend is about half the size of groups as last week.

I also got to watch a shuttle launch tonight. I tried to video and take pictures of it but my battery decided to die, so I didn't get everything I thought I did, oh well. I will try and post them later.

What an Honor

The week has been another fabulous one down here in Orlando. Work has been starting to get busy, which makes me really happy!

I had Monday off so I went and did some playing in the parks. I went with Tiauna and some girls from the ward. We went to Animal Kingdom and it was great fun. It was one of the girls first trips to that park so it was fun going on the rides with her like the Safari, Everest and Dinosaur! After the park closed we went to Cici’s pizza for dinner and ate too much! It was so good. To make the not so healthy dinner worse we went to a friends house to watch the finale of the bachelor and eat fattening foods. I brought crème puffs and you can tell it was a bunch of girls eating them because we ate the whole container or 90!


Waiting inline for Everest, you can kind of see the mountain in the background




The big prestigious Disney Honors was this weekend, where they brought in big name Instrumental and Choral adjudicators for the National Concert Band, Orchestra and Choral Invitational. It was a really cool event. It started Thursday night with a welcome celebration at the Animal Kingdom that was a little private party just for them at Dinoland USA complete with burgers and a DJ, I sadly didn’t get to work that event but oh well, there wasn’t much for me to do anyways there! Then Friday they had some seminars for the kids from Disney Entertainment and Dr. Tim, who is an amazing speaker for music students. He talks about leadership and stuff, and I saw him in high school and he does kind of the same stuff I saw back then, but it is still a good message to hear! I was actually in the office again on Friday so I took an extended lunch to go watch his spiel with the choral kiddos. I almost got stuck in parade traffic backstage which would have made my lunch break even longer, it was kind of intense for a second!

Saturday was the big day of performances. I got to be at work at 6:30 am, boy it was not fun getting up at 4:30 on a Saturday! I’m not a fan of being to work before the sun is up. We got all the little last minute things set up and then the groups started arriving. The performances were held at a gorgeous theater at the Orange County Convention Center. That place is huge! When you are walking through it kind of feels like an airport and they even have announcements going as you walk through the huge corridors that sound like you are in an airport. The theater was amazing; it had a very live sound that I loved. The piano was a beautiful natural wood color to match the sound shells that where on the stage. The group that I hosted was so good, and one of the girls that I work with told me that a girl from my choir had won American Idol the night before at Hollywood Studios. (Each day there are like 7 shows, 3 people sing at each show, one wins and goes to the finale show at the end of the night. The 7 sing and one wins a golden ticket which is like a fast pass for actual American Idol auditions. It is a cool new attraction they have) I was super excited because the way the rotation worked out with the adjudicators, Craig Jessop was the one that worked with my group. It was so fun to sit in on their clinic and listen to things that he had to say. I am so excited about this aspect of my job, sitting in on the clinics. I bought a notebook to take notes to learn from all of these amazing musicians I get to work with the next 10 weeks! After I took my choir back to the bus I went and sat in on the last choral clinic of the day. This choir was also very impressive, it had about 90 students in it. I learned some very neat conducting tips from this guy. I didn’t get to see the whole thing because I was called on to use my mad string skills. The Con Selmer family of brands supplies the bigger instruments for us to use during festival season like basses, cellos and all the fun percussion stuff, and then they sell them when we are done. It is pretty neat and they come with the cool Disney performing arts logo on them. So since it was the first event of the season the instruments were brand new and needed to have packaging stuff taken off and then when we opened the cellos we noticed that the cellos didn’t have the bridges in them, so I then started to finish assembling the cellos, since no one else had any string experience and had no clue what to do or what strings they were, because I then tuned them a little to get them in the ball park of where they should be, not octaves off! I did break a bridge and a string, but oh well I had to tune like 10 of them so such is life. Then I was done, I didn’t get to hear any of the instrumental groups, but I’ll survive, there will be plenty to hear throughout the rest of the season. I then went home and pretty much crashed, I can’t tell you when I fell asleep, I don’t remember!

Today is daylight savings, so we lost an hour. I think it is kind of dumb because now you have to reset all you clocks and then in six months you have to change it all back. People think I’m weird because Arizona doesn’t do such foolish things. We are just fine with not ever changing our time! This week will be fun because Marilee is here to play for a few days, it is going to be tons of fun!

ESPN Weekend

Life down in florida continues to be fun. Work has it's times of being busy and boring. Next week the 8 weeks of festivals begins, so it is starting to get crazy. This week is the Disney Honors and I am very excited for it, the parts I get to attend. Marilee is coming into town on Sunday and Tiff and I are very excited to have her come play!

On saturday I went with my roommate to the ESPN weekend at Hollywood studios. It drew in a large crowd. We really didn't do any of the activities, we were just there to see what it was. We stood in line for about an hour to get a free caricature drawn. It was worth it and it was my first time getting one drawn. The main reason I wanted to go was to see the only 2 athletes I knew that were coming, Shawn Johnson and Misty May-Traenor. It was fun to listen to them talk about their experiences. It is crazy to think that she is only 17, and at times she acts they way, she is so young, but cute, winning 4 olympic medals your senior year of high school, how amazing! There were tons of sport stars, and it would be funny because you would see security and the Disney Guest Relations people and then all of the sudden there would be a huge flock of people around the star. Silly Wendi left her camera at home, luckily I could take pictures on my phone! That is pretty much all for this week, hopefully I will remember to take my camera along with me for the awesome events that are happening!