Shake It Off Disney Style

Here is the music video I was in. RJ did a great job with it. I have one close up... and I'm in the background a bit if you are really looking for me. Still fun to be a part of. Maybe I will get to be in his next one as well.

Flashback Friday 179

I'm maybe going through Disneyland withdrawals since I haven't been since October 2012... so I'm flashing back to March of 2004 when I took my good friend from Massage School, JaLane, to Disneyland with me with my free tickets that year. Oh how I wish I had free tickets this year.

PS Remember when overalls were in? I loved that trend. Most comfortable trend ever. ha ha

15 Years of Candlelight

Anyone that knows me, knows that Disneyland is a big part of my life. This is for a few different reasons. First, who doesn't love Disney? Second, I have the Peter Pan Syndrome so I love being somewhere that makes me feel like a kid every time I'm there. Third, I was born in Anaheim... which is where Disneyland is located, which pretty much makes me a Disney baby. Fourth, my sisters attended Disney Elementary school. True story. Fifth, We had Disney wallpaper in our play room in our Anaheim house. Sixth, one of the main reasons is because since I was a freshman in high school, I have attended Disneyland twice a year for free, one of those times each year being at Christmas to perform in Candlelight. Even when I moved to Utah, I have still continued to come down every year for it. Obviously I love it. It holds a special place in my heart. The Christmas season doesn't feel the same without it!

Yesterday was my 15th year performing in Disneyland's Candlelight Choir. I like to say that I am a seasonal cast member. Sounds pretty legit right? They did things a little different this year, so my mom and I were really hesitant about going this year. We had to see what changed though... so we committed. Biggest changes were that they are performing everyday for the first 20 days in December now instead of just the first weekend of December. Before, I could always count on when it was.... now we don't know what day we will be asked to perform on. This year, it was the 16th. It makes it a lot harder to travel down that late in December. So we will see in future years if we will still go if it is so late in the month. The second big change is that we went from an 1,000 voice choir to a 600 voice choir. Everything was still set up the same.... just a lot less of us. Still a lot though. For 5 years we performed in the Fantasy Land theater as a 500 voice choir... so nothing too new there. Another change was that we didn't process down main street as far as we normally do. We didn't have to bring our own robe this year... which was really nice and we also only had one hour of rehearsal and it wasn't with the narrator or the orchestra... so we didn't get a really good practice in. That and we are singing less and less of Candlelight Carol. I think those were all the changes.

With all of those changes, was it worth doing again? Yes. Will I go again next year? Quite possibly, yes. The biggest fear of making the trip down there and spending the time getting ready and practicing behind the scenes at Disneyland is ... bad weather. We were having it on Sunday. It was very much rainy. Out of the 15 years that I have gone, I have only not been able to perform once because it was rained out. The one year our choir didn't make it (a couple of years ago) it was rained out. So it doesn't happen often, but it is a possibility. As my mom and I drove down to Disneyland we were worried it wasn't going to happen. They won't tell us if we are going to perform or not until right before you are supposed to go on... until then you act like you are going to perform. Luck was on our side and it was just barely dry enough (even with a little drizzle in the air) that they let us perform both shows. SO glad.  *I hardly took any pictures this year... weird, I know. This is a picture I had my mom snap right before we turned our robes and candles in.

Patricia Heaton was the narrator. She was okay. The show was great. After the second show was over, my mom and I went back into the park and we went on Indiana Jones (my favorite that happened to be closed when I was there with my roommates) and then we caught the end of Fantasmic (which is my favorite show) and then we got to see the amazing fireworks show. After that we went on Space Mountain and then headed to Aunt Valerie's house for the night.

So glad that I went. It truly is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I love it. Thank you Walt Disney for putting in your will that Candlelight would go on forever. It sure has blessed my life. 

Halloween - Disney Style

To celebrate how much I love my new roommates, I decided to take them to Disneyland. We were all super excited about this. I wanted to bring Rich, but he couldn't go with all of the homework he had, so we brought Kylee, a friend of Megan's (and now our friend) who I LOVED having with us. She was so much fun. They were all so lucky to get free tickets from me. You know how expensive 1 day Disney Park Hoppers are these days? $125! Your welcome!

We went yesterday and it was a great day to go because it wasn't crowded. I think the longest we waited in line was a half hour. Most of them were a lot less than that. Some we got to walk right on. So great. The only bummer is that my favorite ride (Indiana Jones) was closed. We started our Disney adventure with Big Thunder Mountain. It was Megan's first time and it had been YEARS since Kylee and Sarah had been to Disneyland. We switched who we rode the ride with every ride. Loved it. Got to bond with everyone.

Then one of my favorite things about being at Disneyland during Halloween/Christmas is the Haunted Mansion being decked out with Nightmare Before Christmas.

We of course watched Captain EO (because I made them) and after going on Space Mountain twice, we went into the Star Wars store (as we call it) to get Rich a Star Wars Disney gift since he couldn't come. While in there, Megan and I were SUPER tempted to buy these matching Ewok shirts and Wookie hats. As much as we loved them and wanted to get matching shirts while we were there... we just couldn't justify spending the money... so we opted for the picture instead.

We went to Toon Town and met Goofy.

Since the park wasn't very crowded, we got through Disneyland by the afternoon and spent the rest of our time in California adventure Park. It had been a while since I had been there. It has changed a lot. The added Cars Land! Which was awesome. Loved it. They did an amazing job with it. Seriously though... this is Disney we are talking about. Of course it is awesome.

Probably my favorite part of the day happened towards the beginning when we went on Splash Mountain. It's a fun ride. Megan was so excited she wanted to be up front... not knowing how soaked she would get. I got pretty soaked too being number 2 in line. The guy running the ride was a jerk (weird to be working at Disneyland) and gave us some quotes we used for the rest of the day.

The best thing that came from that ride though was the picture. I told everyone to strike a pose and this is what we got.... my favorite picture of the WHOLE TRIP!!! Awesome!

Flashback Friday 86

Since I am getting pretty excited to go to Disneyland here pretty soon, I thought I would do another Disney flashback. This goes back to January 2002. I was BFF with Shawntel and Aaron and we all shared a love for Disneyland. They had season passes and I got a couple free tickets from singing at Disneyland and sometimes my mom would give me her tickets as well.  Because of this, Shawntel, Aaron and I were going to Disneyland like every other month. No joke.

When we went in January, there were not a lot of people in the park. We would get irritated if we had to wait longer than 5 minutes to get on a ride. Because not as many people were there, more characters were out. We made it a goal on this trip to take pictures with as many characters as we could. We got a lot! Here are just some of the pictures we got on that trip.

 The ant stole my lunch

Oh how I love Disneyland. 

Flashback Friday 79

Today we are going back to August 2004. My niece Reanne (who is now almost 10) we little and we took her to Disneyland for the first time. It was just me, Lori, Kristy, Jess and Reanne. It was for sure a different experience than going with a group of friends since we had a small child with us, but it was so fun to see her see Disneyland for the first time. I also remember everyone commenting all day on how cute she was. Which is totally true. :)

I love Disneyland and am ready to go back! My free tickets are calling my name.

Flashback Friday 46

Today's flashback takes us back to May 2003. My BFF Lolly and I had little crushes on a couple of guys in the singles ward in Santa Barbara. We wanted to spend some time with them... so what did we do? We planed a group date to the happiest place on earth. The guys didn't realize it was a group date. I wonder if they ever figured it out. Hello 3 girls and 3 guys. Is it not obvious? Ha ha... regardless... it was SO FUN!

On the tram, excited to spend the day at Disneyland.

My "date" and the other guy that I started to have a crush on when the first guy didn't work out.

The girls! I Love these girls.

The group trying to take the sword out of the stone and riding Splash Mountain.

the WHOLE group.

Group date at Disneyland = Best Group Date EVER!!

Disneyland's Candlelight

Ever since I was a freshman in High School, the first weekend of December = Candlelight at Disneyland. Last year we didn't make it and I was quite depressed about it. I missed it so much just missing one year. Had I got last year, this would have been my 15th year performing in Candlelight... instead it was my 14th. I guess it doesn't matter anyway since my wish came true of them getting rained out. Anyway.. if you have not been following my blog for a long time and am not sure what Candlelight is, I have explained more about it in past posts like this one and this one.

This year I was especially thankful to be there because I didn't do it last year. I realized how much I missed it, how much I love it. Candlelight and Christmas time at Disneyland really does hold a special place in my heart. I was so glad that my mom wanted to make the drive with me to do it. I think we both got a little teary eyed when singing with the amazing choir and Disneyland Orchestra. It was a great performance. We also had a great narrator this year. Gary Sinise! He is a great guy turns out. I had no idea that we put so much time effort and money into helping out military and their family. He did a fantastic job.

As always it was an amazing experience that I loved every minute of. I am so thankful to Mr Huber (my high school director) for putting this together every year and letting me drop in from Utah. I am lucky to be a part of it. Truly. When I die and go to heaven... I want to find Walt Disney and shake his hand and tell him thank you. Not just for everything Disney... but for his Christmas Card to the community, Candlelight... and for making sure that it would go on forever. It is an awesome experience. *First picture is part of the choir lined up and waiting to get our candles for our first performance*

 Violet is a friend I have had since childhood... she has done Candlelight for many years as well. It is always fun to see her there and know that someone else I was in choir with loves it as much as I do to keep going back.

 One day... I would like to see it live, from the audience. Until then, I'm thankful for people who have video taped it and put it on youtube. Like this one.



After both shows are over, we are allowed back in the park to play. My mom's sister Valerie came and watched the show and then met up with us after. We watched the Christmas firework show... which I really love.

We went on Star Tours which they changed... it has a new video and it is in 3D. We also went on my favorite (Haunted Mansion/ Nightmare Before Christmas) which we saw Violet and her brother and sister in law and so I rode with Violet on that one and one of the guys running the ride completely scared the crap out of me... randomly peeking his head in our cart after we had already started on the ride... which means he followed our cart up the ramp a bit. CREEPY!! ha ha. Then we also went on Small world, which they switch up for Christmas. With all of the lights... it is hard not to be lead straight there. Ha ha.. it was a good time.

Then it was time to go home. What a great day. What a way to start off the Christmas Season. I love it. I heart Candlelight. Until next year.... I hope.

Candlelight Carol

Tonight is the night that I would be at Disneyland performing in Candlelight for the 14th year in a row... if we (my hight school alumni choir) had made it this year. Don't know what Candlelight is? I posted about it here and here.

A big part of me is still really sad about it. My good childhood friend, Violet and I were talking when I was in Santa Barbara a few weekends ago about how we were so sad that we were not going to be doing it this year. Its something we both love VERY much and our choir has never not made the auditions. So being kind of angry and sad, we wished a crappy narrator on them and also wished that they would be rained out.  A couple of days ago, I looked up who the narrator was going to be. It was Tom Skerritt. The only thing I know him from is "Top Gun"... so... not too sad to be missing him. I was also informed today by my parents and Violet, that it was raining in Santa Barbara today AND Anaheim... you know... where Disneyland is located.  Yep, I'm pretty sure they go rained out today, which if that was the case (and most likely it was) I wouldn't have been able to perform anyway... which has only happened once in my 13 years of doing it. So, I guess wishes do come true. :o) And serves them right for them not letting us make the cut for a dumb reason. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and I will be back at Disneyland next year performing in Candlelight.

Since I am usually singing in Candlelight the first Sunday of every December, I thought it would be appropriate to share a video from Candlelight. It was hard to choose which song I wanted to share because I love them all so much. I decided to go with Candlelight (which I couldn't find any of our performance of just that song, so you get an extra as bonus, but if you want to listen to ONLY Candlelight, skip to 4:50 on the time of the video). This video is one of the best copies I have found online and its from last year on the night I performed, so me and my mom are somewhere in that choir.  I love this program with all of my heart. It was so fun to watch last years performance on youtube. This video is part 2 of 6, which is the whole show, so if you want to watch the whole show you can. It really touches me every time I hear it or sing in it. Enjoy!

Christmas at Disneyland

So, as you already know from recent blog posts, I went to Disneyland a couple weekends ago. I didn't want to post it until December because it was all decked out for Christmas. Christmastime at Disneyland is simply magical. You have no idea unless you have experienced it for yourself. I love it. I look forward to it every year. This was the first time however, that I have been able to experience Christmas at Disneyland in the day & the night. Usually I am just there for Candlelight and we are rehearsing behind the scene's until dark when we perform and then after we are done performing we are allowed to play in the park. It was awesome to see it during the day. I think I noticed a lot more of the decorations rather than just the lights. I loved it. I loved every minute of it, even though the first few hours were spent in the rain. First time at Disneyland in the rain. And because of the rain and it being the weekend before Thanksgiving, we didn't have to wait longer than 15 minutes to get on a ride. Which for a Saturday is pretty awesome... and rare. Get ready for a picture overload of the Happiest Place on Earth! :o)

New Orleans Square

First place we ventured was New Orleans Square. Rode the rides and then my friend treated me to "The Blue Bayou" for lunch since I gave her a free ticket to Disneyland. I LOVE that restaurant for many reasons. We both split a dish so we could try two different things. They even had a live band in there on the balcony. It was awesome! I have to say that New Orleans Square was my favorite as far as Christmas decorations go. Whoever decorated that place, can you please come decorate my house for Christmas? That would be great.

Toon Town

Since this was my first time experiencing Christmastime at Disneyland in the day time, I had to check out Toon Town to see what they did over there. I have to say, my favorite decoration over there was Miney Mouses Christmas Tree in front of her house. TOO CUTE!!! We had a lot of fun over there and even saw Miney, Pluto & Goofy all dressed up in their Christmas Sweaters. 

Fantasy Land

Next we headed over to Fantasy Land. I don't think we rode any of the rides there except for Matterhorn, which was awesome because I was in the front sled... by myself... and... well, have you ever been in the very front? You feel like you are right on the tracks and you get bumped and shifted around a lot and I pretty much loved it. Other than that ride.... Fantasy Land had the best picture taking I think.

We went to Tomorrow Land and then went to head over to California Adventure Park, on the way out, we caught the cute Christmas Parade! We always rehearse for Candlelight where those floats are stored and you see them come take them out for the parade, but I had never seen it until now.  The Seven Dwarfs were my favorite.

California Adventure

In California Adventure park we went on the new Toy Story Ride, which = awesome and then we got to see the new show they started there called "World of Color". It was neat. A little mix of the Ballagio Water Show and Fantasmic. I liked it. 

Then we head back to Disneyland for the last part of our night. Soak in the beauty of Sleeping Beauty's Castle before heading home. Oh how I love Disneyland! So glad I got to go this year.  Thank you Disneyland for always making my Christmas so magical.