Roos N' More

Who knew that such a random zoo in such a random town would turn into such a fantastic adventure!! Animals of every kind that you are able to touch and hold. 

Just to name a few: I got to check seeing a living/breathing armadillo off of my bucket list, got to meet a friendly bearcat named Frito, got beaten by a monkey wielding half a carrot, got to hold a baby kangaroo, and got to have an otter climb into my lap. 

Since I'm not so good with words and describing all the details I'll just let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Enjoy.

And if you are interested in seeing video of my monkey beatings check out my sister's post of the day's events here.

Go ahead. Laugh at my pain. 

Check another item of the Disney bucket list:

Space Mountain with the lights on!

I must say that the ride is more fun with the lights out, but it's been a dream to ride with the lights on. Technically I wasn't supposed to even be there, (it was for a party for Tomorrowland merchandise cast members) so I think the feeling of rebellion added an extra element of excitement to the whole experience! All in all it was a great night! Danee, Janelle, and I rode 3 times, got some snacks, and then took a quick walk through the empty park. Disney life is an exciting life!

When Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out To Socialize

6:45am Tuesday morning, a small group of "foolish mortals" from the Emporium dared to venture into a backstage tour of the Haunted Mansion.

As we walked thru the ride we were shown how it works and told the stories behind everything.

We were able to pet Lucifer.

Lucifer is the name of the raven on the wreath in this next picture. He was originally intended to be the narrator of the Haunted Mansion ride, but instead they ended up putting the voice inside of the doom buggies. 

Every morning when the cast members walk the ride they pet Lucifer. One morning a manager refused to pet Lucifer. That same day the ride broke down for 8 hours. The manager now pets Lucifer every morning.

Madame Leota is the head in the crystal ball. Disney has a patent on the technology that makes her work and therefore if you can sneak her out of the mansion you can make a lot of money! She is very well guarded but there have still been several attempts to steal her - most of the time ending in the 'want to be' thief hurt and arrested. 

The "Black Widow Bride" 

The Graveyard

The Hitchhiking Ghosts

From right to left:

Gus(prisoner). Means you will have a good day.

Ezra(skeleton). Means you will have bad day.

Phineas(traveler). Means your day can go either good or bad.

We even got to go down into the ballroom. Which was SO cool!! We learned that the ballroom dancing ghosts are wearing the original princesses' dresses from Disneyland.

After the tour I was made an honorary Haunted Mansion caretaker.

And I'm very proud of it!

Cake Boss

That's right folks! 

Buddy Valastro

The one and only Cake Boss!

I was so starstruck! I couldn't even believe that I was really meeting him! I was shaking and tongue tied! Pretty sure I told him I was a huge fan about 20 times!

He gave me a giant hug and asked "How ya doin?"

It was so cool to hear his voice in person!

He was extremely kind and funny! Exactly how he appears on TV.

"What are you celebrating?"

"Meeting you of course!"

"That's so cool! I've never signed a pin before! You will be my first!"

We were so giddy afterwards! Walking away with big goofy grins on our faces!

 "He asked me where I worked! And I told him!" Haha... oh Janelle!

Even looking at these pictures now I feel all giddy again!

This was definitely a check off of my bucket list!

{Make it work}

Tim Gunn

I absolutely adore this man! He's just so sophisticated and wise! I got to know him from watching Project Runway and I've loved him ever since! Tim is a celebrity that I'd die to even just get to see from a distance!

If you don't know Tim Gunn,

Or if you adore him like me,

then watch these clips:

He has a book out called: 
Gunn's Golden Rules
Life's Little Lessons For Making It Work
I have only read a small bit of it, but trust me that it is great! It's all about the importance of being kind and "making it work". It made me love Tim even more! I'll definitely be getting this book and reading it from cover to cover!

Anyways...
As much as I love Tim (which is a lot) this post isn't just about my love for him.


-----------------------------------

The other day I got a text from my sister saying that Tim Gunn will be speaking in Salt Lake on April 30th! 

I died!!

{{I bet you can guess where i'll be April 30th!}}

It's my dream...

**Change "drink a delicious brewed coffee" to "eat a delicious crepe"**

We {heart} Pawn Stars

We were both quite excited to go to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. We are big fans of the History Channel's reality show, Pawn Stars, which is filmed here. Even though the store looked much different then on TV... it was neat to get to see it in real life! We even noticed some items in the shop that we saw them buy on the show! Devin bought 2 awesome Chumlee shirts. {Chumlee is definitely our favorite on the show. Probably the best way to describe him is as the pawn shop's "village idiot". He isn't too bright, and he makes some stupid mistakes. But he provides some great entertainment!} Devin and I are scheming on what fabulous thing we can find to pawn and get on the show! Hopefully one day will find the perfect piece! So keep your eyes open for us!