Come sail away...

SO - first, I have to show you the result of living through a two week tropical depression - This was the view from our backyard once it finally stopped raining! Sometimes the beauties in this world just absolutely amaze me! While I loved the rain, it was a huge blessing that it stopped just in time for Al, Shell and Lisa to fly in for our cruise!

Life aboard the Disney Wonder for four wonderful days was nothing short of fantastic! We began our adventure in Port Canaveral - where you get your Key to the World Card and get to walk through a magical Mickey tunnel to board the ship. Let the picture taking begin!

Once on the ship, we made reservations for Palo's, ate our first meal and headed to deck 9 for the sail away party! One of the best parts about Disney Cruises is the fun entertainment - and the ships horn! "When you wish upon a star..." blasts into the air before you sail while Mickey and friends dance on stage. Once the sailing started, we spent four days eating way to much, riding scooters around Nassau, laying on rafts all day at Castaway Cay, singing Karoake, going to dance parties, seeing Up and Earth, playing ping pong, going to an early morning stretching class, ordering room service - it was all just amazing.

The first night on the ship we ate at Palo's, which was AMAZING (we may have ordered nine desserts)! We got our picture with the best Captain ever before dinner!

This was our first trip to the pool - well at least to the hot tub!

This is in Nassau - with the incredible ship behind us!

Scooters in Nassau! We all learned to drive, but Shell and I took the reigns around town. We drove them to the Atlantis Hotel where the next picture took place...

We won $22 with just 50 cents! Shelley would have probably won more, but I started dancing and screaming "cash out! cash out!"

Formal night on the ship!

These are the happy rafts we spent the day on in the water. Shell and Al had a big head start blowing theirs up, so a magical Cast Member named Adam from Australia who is a diver offered to blow up mine and Lisa's for us! He actually saved the day more than once - he also MADE an elastic for Ally when she lost hers in the water. Definitely a high point on the trip for me!

Isn't it gorgeous!

We were Pirates IN the Caribbean! We waited a while to get this picture with Captain Jack - he actually got quite stuck in that treasure chest, he sat in it about 5 families before us, and while they tried - he sure couldn't move through the rest of the pictures!The last night on the ship - we ate at Animator's Palette, saw Disney Dreams, danced, played shuffleboard on deck 4 while we sailed through the night - pretty much anything we could do to stay awake and enjoy our last night on the ship!

Getting off the ship on Thursday morning after a 6:30 a.m. breakfast! They sure will see us soon!!

SO many pictures and so many fun stories to choose from! It was a wonderful trip with wonderful people! I highly recommend sailing Disney style to anyone! The only hard part is adjusting to life on land!

Two fold...

Happy Saturday to everyone! It has been a beautiful week of straight thunderstorms here in Orlando, and while I'm fairly confined to the indoors, I thought I'd send more happy thoughts out into the world! Todays blog serves two purposes. First - to wish one of my favorite people, Shelley a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Here is a small tribute...

Our friendship has made it through fights of every kind - cake, lemonade, sand, flour - and I'm sure will make it through whatever else comes our way! Love you Shell!

Okay - now for purpose number two! Exactly one week from tomorrow, I will be boarding the Disney Wonder with three of my favorite girls - Shelley, Lisa and Ally-baba!! Now, I think it has probably 5 years since all four of us have been together, and I couldn't be more exited!! We are sailing for 4 days and will visit Nassau and Castaway Cay! Love you girls and can't wait! Here are a few photos from the old days...

Halloween 2003 - Al and I are  bobble heads in case it wasn't obvious...

One of our many trips to Vegas! GO Cougars!

We had just made s'mores with Shelley's new S'more maker - this tree graced our apartment from November - February that year. And yes - Lisa's hair is as big as the tree. 

So, those are the magical tidings from my end of the country for today! I'll make sure to update ya'll on how the cruise goes! <3

Beautiful April Sunshine!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year. Spring brings pretty flowers and fun friends come to visit me in the happy Florida sun! The first of such visits was Shell bell who came to run the distance in the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

I went bright and early to watch her run down Main Street... and gotta say - there were some characters in this marathon! Lots of princess two pieces and some boy princesses... one woman with an actual full blown Ariel tail! How you run with that sucker for 13 miles is beyond me. I was super proud of Shelley - she finished in good time and received her one of a kind tiara medal. Then we spent the rest of the weekend at the Parks and going to Blizzard Beach. It was my first time there - and take my advice - if you ever go on the slide races - make sure you are in lane 5. It is definitely the slipperiest and the fastest and I'm pretty sure I almost hurt myself going down them the 10 times we raced.

Right in the middle of Main Street, U.S.A!

The amazing, new Americal Idol Attraction. SOOO fun!

Next I actually left the Florida sun and headed to Utah to spend time with Brooklyn - and the rest of my wonderful family! We got to celebrate mom's birthday with the Vicchrilli's, we went to Disney on Ice, I was the jackpot big winner at Chuck E Cheese (250 tickets baby - which still gets you nothing from the prize desk), ate at Cafe Rio and went for fun walks through the beautiful mountains. Brooklyn's new thing was to put diapers on Mickey Mouse - who she already loves. She is talking so much and has the most infectious and beautiful little laugh! This video is of Matt and Brooklyn playing - she is in the phase where she mimics everything you do - he is teaching her to "slam" Mickey (we don't condone this behavior of course) - but at least you get a taste of her cute little laugh!!

Next brought Clark and Amy Schmutz! It was wonderful having them here for the weekend! They spent three full days in the Parks - I got to spend one full 10 a.m. - 1 a.m. day with them going to Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Magic Kingdom. We rode Everest, saw Finding Nemo, went on Soarin, went on super secret missions on Team Kim Possible, watched fireworks... we may or may not have ridden Splash Mountain four times in a row - without even getting off! That one tree log brought Clark more happiness at 1 a.m. than anything else could have - definitely a slightly different experience from our earlier adventures which involved hiding and terror in the dark, rough terrain of the dinosaurs. (sorry Clark ;o) It was the first time in a long while I have spent an entire day at the Parks - and I loved it!

Everest - "I was not expecting that!" -Clark

We definitely helped defeat the pending evil trying to take over Germany...

4th times the charm! Do we look wet to you??

Our last act before they hit the road was to play tennis. This is SUCH a happy place for me. Clark and I used to teach tennis together, so it was super fun to get back on the court with him. I love the game and we had a great doubles match!

This week was back to normal - back to the gym and working full 40 hour weeks. I got to go see Cameron in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Thursday and really loved it! It is a great, very cute family show if it comes to any theaters near you - go see it!

Blogging... isn't it about time?

Hello all! It's been a long while! Life is great! I've been traveling, working and keeping busy! I thought I'd do a quick photo update this time and then try to light the fire to blog more often! My most recent traveling adventures were home to Utah for Christmas and then to the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bahamas on a Disney Cruise! My hair is longer than it has ever been, my niece Brooklyn is my absolute favorite person, I'm actually feeling pretty good about staying in Florida for a while and I have officially decided that if I ever get a dog I really would like a husky. I think that covers all the vitals... so enjoy the pics (in no particular order) and talk soon! <3

Christmas in Utah - lots of shoveling! Pirates IN the Caribbean on the Cruise!

Isn't she beautiful!

Dustin's last night in La Nouba :o(

White girls can jump!

Everything is Rosie

To catch you all up, I decided to post 26 things that have happened in the last few months or just general happy news in honor of the big 26th birthday!

1. Well, the first one must be that I have made it to the age of 26 and looking back I'm thinking things have gone pretty well so far!
2. I can now make Peter Pan fly... I am teaching myself how to use Flash so I can get more into the web side of design.
3. I have applied for a passport... possibilities are endless.
4. I visited three new places! Which means they get to each be there own bullet... so this one is for ST. AUGUSTINE where we visited the Fountain of Youth... but THAT is another story.
5. OREGON... where I thought of my good friend Rosie and got to spend time with the Nelson clan! We golfed (I need a golf viser), white water rafted, talent showed and enjoyed the beauty that is Oregon.


6. and CHICAGO... where I ate deep dish pizza and walked till I dropped!
7. I also went to Atlanta with my parents (not new, but still fantastic) where I saw the soon to be married Hillary Swanson, toured CNN and sprained my ankle right before watching the cool yet somewhat odd lazer show at Stone Mountain.
8. I am an aunt to the most adorable 14 month old there ever was!



9. My sister and her husband and the above perfect niece moved to Tennessee, putting them within a 9-hour car drive of me instead of 27!
10. I learned to re-create the peanut butter bars that they used to sell in Junior High... do you remember???
11. David Cook sang to me at American Idols Live on Tour 2008 - for those of you who want sneak peak...
    
    


12. I wore a sombrero.
    
    
    
13. I am studying to take the GRE and remembering how terrible I am at taking tests.
14. I am considering the following life changes... moving to California and staying with Disney, going to grad school in Arizona or perhaps Salt Lake and most recently throwing it all away and pursuing a career in tennis.
15. I played a wicked game of tennis in the hot Florida sun.
16. I went to the dentist to get a fairly obscene amount of work done... in one visit while I was home in Utah.
17. I bought postcards in Oregon for a few peeps and ACTUALLY mailed them. A few of you know how significant that truly is.
18. I went to the brand new Whole Foods that they opened in Orlando... WAHOO!
19. I created floral arrangements for a wedding.
20. I went to see my fourth Cirque du Soleil show - Kooza - amazing!



21. We brought back the always hilarious shakey face pictures! Starting a new tradition of taking one on all vacations. A few samples for those of you who haven't experienced shakey face. It is an art form.
    
22. I sang in church.
23. I officially fell off the caffeine wagon and enjoyed a bit of Dr. Pepper during my vacations... Nectar of the Gods its been called, and I won't argue.
24. I registered to vote.
25. I realized once again that the best things in my life for the last 26 years is ALL OF YOU!
26. And last but not least... I finally updated my blog.

Experiencing the Magic...

So... I thought I'd post about some of the goings on at work the last few weeks. Every day is a completely new and different experience, which I love! This past week, I was able to go and tour Cinderella's Castle Suite and it is beautiful! I saw it once when it was first finished, so it was great fun to go back a year later and see it again. We are all pointing to the 24 karat gold that is in the mosaic in the entry way... the detail is incredible... and the story of Cinderella is carried through the entire room. Plus... it is INSIDE the Castle! I loved every minute of being up there. They even have a little spy glass so you can look out the window into the Park. The bottom picture is of Lindsay and I after our first trip to the sign shop to pick up signs she had designed. Goggles were required... and we got to see how part of the imagineering magic happens! We were so excited we wore our goggles the entire drive back and up to our office in Magic Kingdom. I love where I work... and what I do! Such fun adventures!

It is a BEAUTIFUL spring!

So, in my four years in the great state of Florida, I have actually come to love and appreciate many things that I was worried about before I moved here. Namely, the humidity and hot weather. Granted it is April, and still absolutely perfect outside... but I must admit, I find myself becoming quite at home here! In the last week, I have gone to two of my happiest places on earth... First to the Tampa Bay Rays game! I'm not sure when they ditched the Devil part of there name, but I'm pretty sure it is gone. Here I got to sit in the grass (actually really impressive grass for Florida) in 75 degree PERFECT weather and take turns watching the hilarious children that were scattered around the hill and the baseball game. Baseball games remind me of Minnesota and summertime going to Twins games with my family and my dad teaching me to keep score and stats. Of course no ballgame is complete without a hot dog and nachos.

Second... I WENT BOATING! This picture is of me jumping into the mouth of an Alligator... or so I thought. :o) Boating and being in the water is truly the one thing that has made me happy since I was a baby. We spent the day skiing and wake boarding and barbecuing (we even bbq'd pineapple and corn!) and serving (pulling grass roots out of the lake so there was an area to swim) and soaking up the sun! So mostly, today I love Florida.