My not so happy working song

Can't I just go to disneyland?! PLEASE?! That's all I want in life. I need to find a bird that will talk to me so I can prove I'm a disney princess and leave all these dingle hoppers behind for a whole new world.

These are a few of the things I want to ignore today and forever and how being a disney princess would eliminate the urgency/necessity of these tasks.

• The 20 minute call wait line I'm on (If only I had a conch shell)? 
• Enrolling for health insurance junk that's TOTALLY RIDICULOUS (princesses only require a kiss if they fall ill)! 
• Homework I have due (an eternal sleep sounds more relaxing)!
• Taxes (when you live in a tall tower where nobody knows you exist you don't have taxes)!
• My messy room (living in a castle would give me more closet space)!
• 12 loads of laundry I need to do (those talking birds would come in handy)!
• Replacing my license plates which I got back in OCTOBER (pumpkin's turned carriages don't require license plates)!
• My messy desk (living underwater would take care of those pesky papers)!
• My messy car (Horses don't have trunks that stuff can be shoved into)!
• Boxing up craft stuff downstairs (castles have whole wings that go unoccupied leaving lots of room for guests, thus eliminating the need to box stuff up)!
• Getting my tires replaced (my fairy godmother could bippy boppty boo those things)!
• Getting an oil change (the ability to create ice and snow from my fingertips would allow me to make a big skating rink so I could skate everywhere I wanted to go)!
• Getting a car wash (canoes floating down the river bend get automatic washes)! 

Those are just a few of the things I really don't want to do. Alas I'll put my Spotify Disney playlist on and whistle while I work as I reflect on when my life will begin. Or better yet I can let it go, or I can build a snowman, or I could paint with all the colors of the wind. Those sound like better options. But a dream is just a wish your heart makes and I know I need to get one jump ahead but all I really want is a magic carpet ride.
I'm a fixer upper but I will be swift as a coursing river with all the force of a great tycoon with all the strength of a raging fire. I can go the distance and that's the gospel truth.

HPOE Day 4 & 5

Day four of our wonderful trip found us, finally, at the Magic Kingdom!! Yahooooo. Let the Memories Begin.

Like all the other days, it was HOT. Probably one of the hotter days of the week.

We were sure to take advantage of the free cool down system they offer:

Splash Mountain. We got 2 fast passes for this ride. It feels really good to be splashed with cold water on a hot day. We did goofy faces for ty. This ride helped us cool off very well. It also camouflaged our sweaty-ness win win.
just a few more:

we're violent like that haha jkjk

this picture didn't turn out. But my dad and I ran over to this side of the park before they closed while they had the fireworks show and nobody was in line. They let us stay on the ride for 2 turns since there was no line. Even though it was like 11pm it was still hot and the water felt good...we were in the front and I got SOPPPPING wet. next time we go we are going to bring old books to 'read' on the ride. this time we pretended to be asleep. Man we are funny.

We accidentally got stuck on this reallllly boring ride called the carousal of progress. we almost missed our lunch reservation because of this dumb ride. but it's all about the AC remember so we weren't really that mad.

We also went on Space Mountain, thunder mountain, (basically all the mountains were covered), the hall of presidents (accidentally fell asleep, dont' judge, haunted mansion, etc...there are a lot of rides here. OH DUH my favorite, Pirates was CLOSED the first half of the day, luckily for them it reopened before we left. That's my favorite boat ride.

We also got ONE count it ONE bowl of Pineapple Dole whip to share between the four of us. LAME. I wanted to bathe in the stuff it's so good but perhaps it's better for everyone that I only got a few bites, it allowed me to still fit on the plane seat for the ride home.

here's jack sparrow....you're welcome

after a day at MK we traveled over to Downtown Disney where we decided to skip our dinner reservations and do a little shopping. We didn't do much though. We got some italian ice and walked back to the bus. 

This is at the lego store. They had lots of things made out of legos, imagine that. legggo my lego.

After we decided that was a waste of time we headed back towards magic kingdom. We ended up getting dinner at some fancy hotel that had the monorail driving right through it. Then we took the monorail back to MK where we went on space mountain...awesoooome!! Then sam and my mom decided to go on that ride again then go over to it's a small world (gag me), so my dad and I booked it over to Splash Mountain again. I accidentally stepped on some kids hand because the whole park was sitting in front of the castle to watch the fireworks which meant, NO LINES!! we also got to watch the fireworks on the ride so booya.

After getting off the ride we tried to beat the mass exodus but the fireworks show got over at the same TIME dangiiiit. We ran as best we could through the crowd to get the heck outta dodge. We met up with my mom and sam at the front and fast walked it over to the monorail which had a HUUUUGE dang line. I'm sure the people who were stuck behind us had to wait an hour or longer to catch their ride. We made it on in about 10 minutes, YES.

At this point my foot was hurting something fierce from all my sweet maneuvering/running through the crowd. my foot was so swollen my shoe wouldn't fit on it YIKES and I couldn't move my toes. bad news bears. but I preservered.

We then monorail hopped to catch the one going to Epcot. Once there I shut down one of only 2 open lines because my pass was soaked from splash mountain and it jammed the machine. GRRREAT. but they fixed it and the guy was really nice and kept telling me not to worry about it.

Since Epcot was open late it was pretty busy so all the rides had long lines. We decided to shop at one more place. After that we got 'lost' although I knew where we were. I could hardly walk at this point so we decided to call it a night and headed back to a boat.

Since day 5 wasn't anything fun I'll combine it with this post:
Day 5 was our last day :( we woke up and ordered room service for breakfast then started packing. We had a shuttle bus waiting to take us to the airport. We were on the plane from 11:30pm (florida time) to 6pm (our time) with one brief layover in Atlanta again. I'm happy to report that my father did not receive a full body pat down at this airport--huzzzah!! It was a long day. I changed the language on Sam's personal TV on the flight to Dutch and thought it was the funniest thing in the world (could have been the Dramamine). Couldn't sleep at all on the flight again. looked at a skymall catalog, my favorite part of the airplane ride.

After landing in Seattle we gathered our belongings and headed to our car. We decided to stop for dinner since the last time we ate was at 8:30am Florida time so we were hungry. We found a Chipotles mmmm mmmm gooood I tell ya.

Then we got home a couple hours later and went right to sleep...after talking to my aunt and uncle for a bit.

It was such a fun trip and I can't wait to go again!!

One last picture from our Hollywood Studio day:

Tower of terrrrrro. I had just got done doing something really funny and I stopped right before it took our picture. DANGIT. look at the top row on the left, they were from austriala and one of the ladies was like peeing her pants she was so scared. The people in front of us were French and weird.

HPOE Day 3

Beware: all these pictures are bad quality because they came from either my phone or my dad's point and shoot.

This day we went to Hollywood Studios. It was one of the funner parks of our stay. The only bad part was I had to rent a scooter because my foot hurt like a zebra to walk around on it. I felt like an old lady and it stressed me out really bad. Here is proof of my scooter-dom

ya I was super happy about it. Just like all the other days today was HOT, at least it wasn't raining though (although apparently it rained while we were on Aerosmith rollercoaster because my scooter was all wet after we got out but it stopped quickly.)

This was my favorite ride probably of the WHOLE week. Seriously if you ever go here, you HAVE to go on this ride. It has good music, it's in the dark, you go upside down several times but you don't really know it because it's in the dark. It's legit. The only bad part was when I almost shut the whole ride down because I dropped my huge scooter key down into the track in the beginning...ya awesome, NOT. They had to call maintenance in to get it out which caused a small delay but it was better than shutting the whole ride down...phew!!
Here is our picture while we were on the ride:

this is taken right at the beginning as it SHOOTS you super fast into the dark tunnel. we are so original. we rode this ride a few times because it was just that fun. it's a fast-passer for sure though because the line is always long.

we also went on the Hollywood Tower of Terror a few times in a row. This one is MUCH less scary than the one at California Adventures. It doesn't drop you as fast and the people aren't in character as well, they aren't scary at all but in Cali. they are all in character and scare the life out of you.

Like I said, it was HOT. so whenever we could take comfort in air conditioning we did!! This was kind of fun, I don't watch/like American Idol but it was a cool concept..mostly because of the AC. My person didn't win so I was bitter for 12 seconds then I got over it. Anyone can audition then they chose 3 to perform at each showtime at the park. Then the audience picks 1 winner from each show then all the winners go back to compete that night. The winner gets a golden AI pass which lets them cut in line at any of the real AI audition spots.

After that we walked (rode) over to the Indiana Jones stunt show

That was pretty cool. They are really good stunt persons.
We went on a few other rides. We FORGOT to go to the otherside of the dang park so we missed all the cool areas with the fake towns which sucks but i guess we'll be going again. If it wasn't so hot I think we would have had more time/patience to explore more.
After this we tried to find a place for lunch since it was like 3 and we didn't hardly have breakfast. No air conditioned places were open/had an opening so we decided to leave the park and grab lunch at a bakery at our hotel. They had really good sandwiches.
We rested a bit again and showered/swam to cool off. This night we had dinner plans made by DIS. It was all kept a surprise so we had no idea what/where we would be doing/going. We all met at big shuttle buses which drove us back to Hollywood Studios. We got to go behind the scenes and skip all the crowds/lines (holllla). We were taken into a big room where they keep all the extra park props. We saw lots of lion king lifesized puppet things, finding nemo, beauty and the beast props etc...We had snacks here and stood around and talked for about 45 minutes.

They also brought in the two people you see on the right who are dressed up. They are CRAAAZY. They stayed in character the whole time. The lady kissed my dad on the cheek and forehead which made him embarrassed. Here they were talking to Sam about how understated he was acting and how he would be perfect for the part of a little orphan boy who wears lederhosen, and begs for the last cup of porridge while dancing. It was for a new movie they were developing. They were pretty funny but they followed us around ALLLLLL night long and never once got out of their weird characters.

After this ew were led across the whole park to a special VIP section that was blocked off for the Fantasmic water/light show. We were served dinner while we waited for the show to start. Then we watched the show...which was kind of scary for little kids. I held Reagan during this show and she kept her ears plugged the whole time and at one point, quickly grabbed my hand and covered her eyes with it then placed them back over her ears. I just kept telling her Mickey would save the day and he did. It was a fun show and it was nice that we didn't have to deal with the HUGE crowd. We got to have dessert while all the people filed out and watched us with envy.

Once we were done with that part they had us walk back across the park even though it was now closed...and we stopped in the Pixar area of the park. That's when the announced they had rented the Toy Story Mania ride for us to ride on for 2 hours. They had prizes for who got the best score, 1st place was an iPad, 2nd was Bose headphones (which was what I was going for) and 3rd was a kindle. I guess that ride always has an hour or longer wait time and it's hard to get on it so it was cool that we got to have free reign over it.

At one point they told us to get off and go meet Buzz and Woody and some army men who were waiting to have their pictures with us. Then we could go back on the ride for however long we wanted.

I didn't win anything...boooo I was actually pretty terrible at this game. It was really hard and we all had carpal tunnel afterwards it seemed like. We were all sweating like crazy because it was such an intense game. hahahaha

After our time was over it was around 12pm so we got back on our shuttle buses and went back to our hotel for the night. It took awhile to unwind after that crazy game. It was really fun though.

Stay tuned for Day 4, the Magic Kindgom!!

HPOE Day 2

(HPOE stands for Happiest Place on Earth from here on out :))

Day two started out a lot earlier than we all would have liked...we had to be down in the lobby at 7:30am. Once all the DIS people were gathered we walked out to wait for the boat to take us over to breakfast at Epcot. They opened the park early for us and we walked over to the aquarium room place and had breakfast. They also honored the people who have worked there for 20 years at breakfast. Afterward, we decided to catch a bus and head over to Animal Kingdom.

This park was probably our least favorite of all the parks because air conditioning was scarce here. But it was still fun. We only went on one side of the park though. It was more for younger kids in my opinion.

We went on a fun safari ride through Africa here. It was realllly cool. You sit in this big truck jeep thing and drive through 'Africa'. They have all these animals that roam free (roaming free might have been an illusion, I'm sure they have a way to keep them separate) around this part of the park, hippos, lions, cheetahs,  ostrich, giraffes etc...

Giraffes and Elephants are my favorite...although that's not a good picture, I have a bettter one but blogger is buggin'.

Next we went on the Everest ride which was the funnest one there. It has a yeti theme and you get in this roller coaster thing and you go backwards, frontwards, in the dark, up, down, all around. It was fun. We went on it two times in a row.

these sideways pictures are driving me nuts but blogger doesn't give me the option to change it. Some people got really freaked out on this ride but I thought it was a blast.
We ate dinner at some fancy restaurant...the only one we could find with AC so we stretched out or experience there :). Did I mention that Florida is HOT? cuz it is, and it's humid. Next time we go were are all bringing 4 outfits per day geeeesh.

After lunch we wandered around. Sam lost his wallet by the river raft fast pass booth, more on that later. We made our way over to the river raft thing that promised to get us soaking wet, which is exactly what we wanted. That was the other fun ride here. My dad and I sat on the side of the raft that didn't hardly get wet AT ALL, the ones who didn't want to get wet (Tiana, Stephanie, my mom) got sopppping wet. Lucky doggggs.

After that someone had the brillant idea to go to the stupid 4D bugs life show. I have said it before and I will say it again, I HATE 3D and 4D is just much worse. I knew what to expect so I propped my feet on the seat in front of me and used my legs to hold my bottom off the seat where I knew 'bugs' would be crawling. I honestly get so much more scared at the little kid rides than the upside down roller coasters, I swear. You shoulda seen me on Finding Nemo, forgetaboutit. I hid my head behind Sam that whole ride...

After that terrible experience we decide it was really hot and we were tired so we made our way to the front of the park where we asked the customer service section if someone had turned Sam's wallet in, they had (!!) so he got that back with everything still in it!! Only in Disneyworld.

We took a bus back with the Pratt's...well half of the Pratt's. Then Sam and my dad went swimming while I took a cold shower and got changed. It started pouring down rain while they were out so we waited for it to stop.

After resting for a little bit we decided to go to Hollywood Studios. The rain had stopped and we made dinner plans. After being told wrong directions we decided to walk 15 minutes to H.Studios since it was just going to be faster. After about 10 minutes of walking, the park was in site and it DUMPED on us. I mean we were soaked to the skin after only a few minutes. We were stuck. There was no cover, no way to get out of the rain. So we decided we needed to go back to the hotel because it looked like we just went swimming in our clothes:

sooooooo..............

we decided to check the park and see if we could catch a bus back but buses don't run from their to our hotel, only the boats. So we were told to go to the boat dock...once there they said they were shut down because of the thunder and lightening, so we ran to the bus station he told us too...it was the wrong one and by now there is a line that was too long so we started walking back to our hotel. We figured we were already sopping wet and it was actually a very comfortable temperature for the first time our whole trip.

While running and puddle jumping in the rain I got a stress fracture in my foot which made it just lovely to walk on the rest of the week. My $300 camera I had just bought 3 days before FOR THIS TRIP was completely ruined from the rain (Amazon is the best though they are sending me a new one free of charge!!). So that left me without a camera for the last several days of our trip so I had to use my phone.

Once back at the hotel, we made a huge wet mess getting to our room and getting changed. Then we decided to wait until the rain stopped and go back to the park since it was opened late. We ordered room service and got under the covers for warmth. Well the rain didn't stop, and most of the rides were shut down anyways. My dad and I walked on the boardwalk to a small store to get some treats but that was it for the night. LAME.

Stay tuned for Day 3 at HPOE!!

P.S. It's FREEEEZING HERE!! I have 2 photoshoots today so I'd better layer up, and figure out how to walk normally on my bum foot.

Happiest Place on Earth Day 1

I'm baaaaaaack!! And oh boy what a week it has been!! Let me bore tell you about it:

We left Saturday night for Seattle around 6pm. We got to security and like usual my father had some...issues going thru security...he always 'forgets' to empty his pockets, take off his belt, etc...so he and my mom got chosen to go through the xray body scan machine and afterward my dad had to have a full body search because he forgot to take his contact case out of his pocket. He made a new friend that night.

Anywho our flight to Atlanta left at 11pm and not one seat was empty on that plane. who would have thunk that many people would fly there in the night?! We landed around 3:45am our time or 6:45 their time. We slept very little. We had about a 20 minute wait until our Orlando flight. Once in Orlando, we found our driver who took us to the Boardwalk Resort in a stretch SUV limo...holllla. It's how we do. (I should mention that this was paid 100% for by my parents company who honors all their 20yr staff with a big trip to DisneyWorld. They paid for flights, food, hotel, limo, and a special after hours park rental for the employee and his/her family. We kept joking that if it was a trip we were paying for we would be staying at a budget hotel 30 miles south of the park and we would be eating whatever we could find for cheap at the grocery store...)

So we decided that even though we all got minimal sleep the night before that we would check into our hotel, shower then go over to Epcot for the day. Epcot was pretty fun. Our hotel has a boat launch right outside on the boardwalk and it's about a five minute ride to that park.

We spent the day there and walked around to lots of different countries. My favorite rides were Soarin', and the Scandinavian boat ride. That day we ate lunch at some big place that had lots of different options for people and for dinner we went on over to Japan for some delicious food. They had the best salad dressing I've ever eaten in my liiife there.

Then we were SUPER hot and super tired so we went back to our hotel. I took a small nap and when I woke up my mom said my dad had left to go to Magic Kingdom to walk around without us since we were all sleeping. I was soooo bummed but oh well.

Next we will talk about day 2. But I can't sit here at the computer anymore, I'm too ADD.

Whaddddya Doing?

There seems to be a lot going on lately, which is good... I have lots of photoshoots set up and scheduled (which is the same thing?) so I'm excited for that. Here are a few random peeks into my life the last week or so. In no particular order:

Shelley thinks Ty's coming home September 20th..which was yesterday. He didn't, he hit his one year mark a few weeks ago but she doesn't understand the meaning of 2 years. So she made him a cardboard sign, homeless person style, and sat with it all afternoon waiting for Ty to come home. Sad but kind of funny too. I explained to her several times that he would be home in a year so she's saved her sign for then.

I've been knitting a lot again which I love. It's not really a summer activity but now that's it's cooled down and there's no more sun :( I started up again. These are just a few real simple baby cocoons from the pattern I made up a few years ago. They are super simple which is good because I can knit it and not have to concentrate on what I'm doing. They only take an hour or two to make if I put my mind to it. I'm trying to build my collection for baby photography and I might start selling them...? I dunno that ANYONE would ever buy one but maybe they would?! I guess since I offered my 'pattern' for free they can make their own :D.

 I couldn't put off packing any longer. So yesterday I got some of my toiletries ready for our trip to here:

we leave on SATURDAY!! We'll be flying all night and land early Sunday morning (well Florida time it won't be that early). Seriously cannnnnot wait. I'm most excited for Tower of terror and Splash mountain...and lets not kid ourselves, Pineapple Dole whip is the MAIN attraction for me :D. KIDDING. Kind of. If i can figure out a way to transport gallons of that stuff home, you better believe I will. It would make excellent food storage.

Monday night I went with my friend Nicole to a FHE with her ward. I'm not a social person and I'm just way too awkward to hang out with strangers but I managed to Lamaze breath my way through...not literally but internally I was heeee-heee-hoooing the whole time. I'm so dramatic. It wasn't that bad.

well just turn your head cuz I'm too lazy to change this picture. I've also been busy with Church stuff. I make it more difficult than it needs/should be. This was my handout for my lesson on Sunday, our lesson was on scripture study and our activity tonight relates too. I gotta get stuff for tonight ready too...shoot I need to stop blogging and get started on that.

I've also been working lots Mondays and Tuesdays are my crazy 2 shift days (3 if you count shelley which technically is my other job). But I don't mind it very much, it's actually nice to have an excuse to knit/read in the evenings since there's not much else to do.

Anywho, I doubt I'll blog before I leave or while I'm gone because duh, I'll be busy. But fear not (ha) I will be back with a vengeance and boat load of pictures when I return from my travels.

P.S. Watch this, it will make you strong.

Just do it.

Back...been back for awhile

i was in disneyland earlier this month. i've been home for some time but haven't posted anything b/c i'm really busy. i'm posting real quick between dropping the kids i'm babysitting off at school and visiting teaching and turning in an application for a new job. if that makes sense. here are some pictures from disneyland. i had a post planned out to write what i did on the days but decided that's really boring so i'll just put a couple pics up.
at one of the hat stores. i ended up getting some pirate mickey ears-they have a pink bandana and skulls on the ears. they're pretty legit. too bad i can't wear them anywhere else.

the QUEEN. talk about wench bag. she almost ran me over. jasmin ended up getting her signature but she never stopped walking or frowning. we had to chase her.

ROB C FROM SURVIVOR AMAZON AND ALL STARS! he was standing 2 feet from me and i didn't get his signature...i'm such an idiot!!!!!!! he's my favorite survivor EVER.
this was in california adventure...screamin' california. not scary even though it goes upside down and all around. we had our hands up the whole time. we're cool. i love how they guy is the only one holding on. haha
i loved these cars. besides sully from monsters inc. these were my favorite "characters" from pixar at C.Adventures.

ok there may be more later but i have to get stuff ready for the day. so bye.

DisneyLAND

tomorrow morning at oh eight hundred thirty i will be on my way to DISNEYLAND! (please note that time measurement might be written wrong 8:30 is what i mean). I am going with my aunt and her three kids, i'm not excited AT ALL... don't let my running and jumping around the house singing Disneyland over and over again fool you. i made up a song to count down the days, and now i have to revise said song to document the HOURS...that's right...hours. I will be gone until next thursday at which time i will madly scramble to try to put together a baby shower for that weekend, yay me!
ANYWAYS i won't be on here for that time. don't be too sad... i have a few plans for a little idea i had. i am going to make a What Not to Wear Disneyland slide show. i'm going to coach my cousins and aunt to stand so it looks like i'm taking their picture but i'll really be taking undercover bad outfit pictures. i'll have to make up a word to say to them so they know when to pose...like pineapple or chap stick. i might just be included in some of these photos, just a warning. i'm going for comfort and cool--just like most of the people i might be taking pictures of. so i still have several things i have to pack and get ready for my absence, i'm realizing i have to prepare everyone else for me going away more than getting myself ready.

here's a picture just so this post isn't TOO boring. my pretty organized suitcase.

alright i have to finish things up so i'll be done know. i'll think of you when i'm having lunch with the princesses, eating at the fancy pirates of the Caribbean ride/restaurant and spinning endlessly on the teacups.