TaylorHaps

Anaheim Haps 2022

I moved to Anaheim alone to pursue a career at Disneyland. Moved some stuff down on October 16th, went back again for a week, drove my car down with the rest of my stuff, and then started at Disney on October 29th.

First day of training…Traditions. What an incredible day! I shared my inspiring story and one of the facilitators made me a button 😊

Mickey brought us all our badges at the end

Couldn’t get into the parks that first weekend which made me sad but I was able to take a photo of me in front of the park.

My apartment is really close to Disneyland. I can crawl out my window onto the roof and watch the fireworks!

Spent the first weekend getting my room all set up. I rent a room in a 3-bedroom condo in a gated community that is a 5 minute drive (10-minute bike ride) from the park. My roommates also work there is it has been fun talking to them about their experiences

Since I couldn’t go play, I ate in downtown Disney and played with the free photo lenses.

Later I did the ones that you had to be in the park for. What fun!

I brought something from each member of my family to help keep them with me in a way. 💚 Alex’s Iroh bobble head, Tingo who Mars loved for so many years, the jar that I made Ada in Young Women’s, and one of the sticky animals that Steve sticks up all over the place. They sit on my bedside table. 😊

I went home for the week after my first weekend of training and the snow painted me a beautiful scene.

My first costume. Guest Interaction and Show Operations training. Still didn’t have an attraction assigned.

Cast preview for the new Christmas parade. They gave us free peppermint suckers. It was freezing cold, but still so much fun!

My place is a gated community with a pool. Too cold to get fully in except on the sunniest days since it’s not heated but I do some kicking stuff in the hot tub 😊

Teri was here for a couple of days with her work so I spent a little bit of time with the group and then each night stole her to go do the parks in a better, more magical way. We had a lovely time. She didn’t get to go on small world so I went in her honor later.

They added some characters in wheelchairs. Love it 💚

Found some of the hidden 25s fur the 25th anniversary of the holiday version

Went camping at Doheny beach on Nov 16-17

It was a bit cold but nothing was keeping me from going out of my paddle board! Didn’t stay up but had a wonderful time.

Put up a tent but ended up in my car. So cold!

And had a beautiful experience doing baptisms at the Newport Beach temple. I was the only one there!

Got the highest score I have ever gotten. Hit zurgs chest like 8-9 times!

I love coming into the park as a guest. I do it most days.

Fireworks are awesome reflected off the water in front of the edelweiss seating area

I had thanksgiving dinner alone. I ate turkey dinner. Just without the turkey. and the apple pie at carnation cafe is unforgettable.

That night getting off the parking tram, I twisted my knee so bad that I couldn’t walk. Security found me a wheelchair and pushed me to my car. Went to the instacare the next day. Didn’t the weekend on bed rest. Had to call out of my shifts.

I went home for a few days the next week. Hobbled around. Went to the doctor on Thursday and she said that I should just wear a brace and work like normal 🙁

Went to the festival of trees with Gary’s fam and alex and ada. So fun!

With the permission of my kids, we used a chunk of our Christmas money to buy gifts for a family in need that our Disney group sponsored.

I decorated a gingerbread nativity since I left all my Christmas decorations at home

Alex and mars came down in December and we had a good time at the parks.

I wasn’t working but my friend Jocelyn took us up into the Twain wheelhouse. They loved it!

Alex’s friend Sasha was with us that day and he thought it was the highlight of the day! I’m proud of my boat 😊

That night, Alex and Sasha stayed in the park while mars and I drove out to the beach. The traffic was bad though so we didn’t get there until after dark.

One of the things that I love about my job is picking up shifts from all the different lands. This costume is for Main Street

Love the Twain costume! And the awesome pocket watch Steve got me for Christmas

Fantasyland GC. The greatest coat on the planet!

Had some great Christmas treats. Peppermint sundae

Bananas foster cream puff. The most amazing dessert currently at the park. The crème brûlée in the background is also great

Anne and Teri created a Christmas box for me. The sweetest thing. Now I have 2 decorations

The boats CMs do a secret Santa trade. I didn’t actually get mine until after the new year. Haha

On Christmas I opened and built my 1 present

And made Chinese food for my dinner. I talked to the fam on Christmas Eve while they were at hq but it made me sad so I got off the call pretty quickly

My family held Christmas for me. My flight home on the 26th got cancelled so I drove. Stopped to sleep for a few hours and made it on the 27th. The kids had already been hanging out for days so I’m really sad. Ada likes her Hercules blanket I got her

Carrot cake stayed too so that ada could stay longer.

I had to drive back home on the 30th. Ace turned over 400,000 miles on the way down! The trip home took 14 hours! I was 2 hours late for my fantasmic shift 🙁

New Year’s Eve was a soggy mess. Rained the whole shift. Everything got cancelled but we still worked. The dance party must go on. I talked to ada and Steve when they had their midnight. I wear my turtle necklace all the time. Helps me feel close to steve.

Built the Lego castle that echo gave me 💚

Disney with the Christensens 2022

19-22 Dec

We had such an AMAZING TIME! I was able to get 3 of them in with me for free. Thanks Disney!

We met in downtown Disney and went to eat at tortilla Jo’s. They seated us at this huge table upstairs overlooking the restaurant. The servers had to come up a whole long flight of stairs every time.

Did a little browsing through shops after that. I love Disney with my brother 💚

Ethan being a goofball 😊

Ellie is so ready to go on Tuesday morning!

Severe trauma commenced for some. Claire and Ellie both had a rough time. 🙁

And Ethan is chill to the comatose level. Haha

Ben rocked the pirate hat the whole time.

We arrived to save Ben and pull him from the Incredicoaster line. Ethan and Jace hopefully enjoyed it more than it appears. Kaylie couldn’t possibly 😊

I pulled off in the afternoon to work a shift on the Twain. I had hoped that my fam could come up into the wheelhouse with me, but I had a horrible mortifying run-in with another cast member and I left early and super upset.

We had dinner at the Golden Horseshoe. Didn’t even know this crazy long skinny table existed!

Thanks to my friends, we got amazing seats for fantasmic!

Christmas time is so wonderful at Disneyland

Wearing all my pins for Day 2 in the parks. 😊

Kaylie got matching shirts so they could have a nice Christmas photo with the castle. The sun was really bright so it ended up a bit squinty 🙁

We did one in the shade from the back of the castle 😊

We did splash several times since we were already wet and about ready to head back for nap time.

Ran into chip and dale in the wilderness park

Me and the girls got to hang out for a while.

Kaylie and I broke off and went on guardians…twice! She loves that rude so much and I really wanted her to do something fun for her after devoting all her time to the kids. Unfortunately the other photo did not make it. Alas.

Sad that I missed this! I was waiting at Indy for them and didn’t know about this detour 🙁

After naps, I took ben and max to see the Spider-Man show.

Grizzly with my ponchos this time so that we wouldn’t be cold all night

The girls and I finally made it on grizzly. It was down when we tried earlier.

After the kids shopped for their Christmas gifts from me, we posed at the tree one last time and then…

Oogie Boogie Trip with Gary

18-22 Oct 2022

We drove down together, swapping work and drive time. Spent parts of 5 days at the park and did the Oogie Boogie Bash! Then we drove to Vegas to see Hamilton. Kaylie flew down to join us but her flight was delayed and they missed most of the show. But they drove back down a couple of weeks later and got some decent seats for free.

I had my onboarding appointment so I’m officially in the system as a Disney employee!

Got a magic band on the first day! About time they got them here!

Gary had never been on Jessie’s carousel

Dance party!

Cool magic band effects with world of color

…But Villain’s Grove is the coolest part of Oogie Boogie in my opinion.

Has lunch at Carthay Circle, also a first for Gary.

I had box seats for Hamilton. What an amazing show!

October with the Fam

Jim and Julia stayed with us for about a week. I hiked up to timp cave with them which was awesome but, man, is that a tough hike!

My buddies Michelle and Beth Ann who I will miss greatly

Because I was moving to California, we had a kind of farewell get-together as a family…and I mean, a whole family! Dave even drove out from Denver! We haven’t done it since Covid started and I was starting to worry that we never would again. There were some bad feelings that materialized. But here we are! Love these guys so much 💚

Emily 💚 who made the beautiful Disney goodies!

Celebrated Alex’s birthday with a family dinner at HQ. We got him lots and lots of presents.

Alaska Cruise Part 2

The whale watching boat part was incredible!

So many humpbacks!

It was pouring rain but we went out on the open bow so that we could see better

Sea lions 🙂

Bonus orcas 😊

Very wet day but a satisfying one. My camera needs to be dried obviously.

Love chillin on the balcony. So much incredible scenery passing by

We had to skip our Skagway port because of bad weather. So we didn’t get to see the cool town or the awesome railway. Sad face.

They reinstated our original Sitka excursions (Sitka was our original port but right before the cruise they changed to Skagway) which included this snorkeling that I was SO excited about.

But then it got cancelled! Dang it! I was so tired of getting jerked around that we cancelled Steve’s boat tour and just decided to walk around town ourselves.

…full of salmon!

The raptor center is full of rescue birds, some who will be released into the wild ( no contact with humans) and some like these who wouldn’t survive and so get to be seen by the public

Saw eagles in the wild off the balcony before we left Sitka

Time lapse leaving Sitka

Took lots of time-lapses

Disembarked and walked along the waterfront. Turns out they have chevron on the water!

Did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Got off and walked around Stanley park

Capilano suspension bridge with mike and Risa

Alaska Cruise

17-26 October 2022

Steve and I went to celebrate our 30th anniversary (in March) and my 50th state for my 50th birthday (in May). We spent a day in Seattle, first at Pike Place Market and then at the Space Needle.

Clear enough to see Mt Rainier. What a day!

Freaky glass floor

Huge evergreen in the middle of the city. We rented scooters to get around. So fun!

We stayed with Jim in Poulsbo that night… played games and went to see Corwin in a show. The next day Jim took us to a ferry, we took a taxi to the dock and boarded the ship.

Love boat chocolate dessert. The food was really delicious!

The comedian wasn’t that funny so we had to make our own fun 😀

Our first full day at sea started out nice but turned windy

Stormy seas the first day caused queasiness and crazy waves in the pool

Time-lapse

Crazy rock standing tall just on an island. Igneous intrusion.

Saw a few little waterfalls along the way

It was a nice day on the water and they fed us good chowder but we were ultimately disappointed. We were promised wildlife that we didn’t see and the guide on the boat was condescending.

After the tour, we went into the town to look around. The local wildlife was pretty intimidating. 🙂

And the creek attached to it. There were a ton of dead fish all along it so it was really smelly!

We went to Alaska fish house for lunch and had great fish and chips and drank the spruce tip soda (so yummy!) I bought earlier

After dinner back on the ship, they wished us a happy anniversary and brought a delicious death by chocolate dessert

We watched the sunset and hoped for whales

The ship sailed the Endicott Arm that morning so we woke up early. The first iceberg was hyped even though later I we saw lots

Bonus waterfall. Check out the color of the water!

And then turned around at the Dawes Glacier

Time-lapse of the trip out. I sure used my flexible tripod arm thingy a bunch on this trip. Attached it to a chair on the balcony

Saw another glacier as we rounded the corner toward Juneau

First thing in Juneau was the tram ride to the top of Mount Roberts

Our excursion started with a lovely hike through the rainforest

from which we could see the glacier but not walk on it 😦

Beach camping

And Disneyland. With Alex and the Freelands. 29 Jul – 3 Aug

We got in really late and set up our tent. First thing the next morning was a whale watching boat trip. Anne didn’t come because she gets sick so she stayed behind to work.

I loved just being in the wind and spray! I stayed the whole time right on the front and went way out whenever it was open.

We didn’t see whales but we did spend sine time with these little beauties!

The seals on the buoy were a nice finishing touch.

Here is the beach we camped on. Unfortunately the nights were hard. People talking so loud right outside our tent and then such a horrible smell from the beach! I very nearly bailed and got a hotel room!

Brunch at lamplight lounge. Yummiest brunch impossible burger and French toast

I had just seen the matching clock and the inspiration in Marceline MO so that was fun!

It was fun to have a day with just Alex!

Breakfast at the carnation cafe was delicious and fun. Best hot chocolate on the planet! We decorated our noses in its honor 😃

Splash was a blast! We got into the line right as it opened up after a closure. We did that with rise of the resistance too! watched the app carefully for that very thing since the lines were really long

Lunch at Blue Bayou was so delicious. Alex raved about his pasta for days 😊

By the evening, everyone was getting a bit tired.

But we made it all the way to the end of the night with Space Mountain…Jonah was worried about going but he loved it!

Love me some tea cups 💚

St. Louis and Kansas City

23-25 July 2022

The temple site is totally surrounded by Missouri Baptist University!

Grant historical site…the tour of the house was really cool

I went to Prison Brews in Jefferson City for lunch…yummy eats in a strange place 🙂

I didn’t stay long…there was a whole string of picketing trucks and cars circling the place

The Main Street clock that the one at Disneyland is based on

A piece of the Dreaming Tree where Walt didn’t hours as a child

Ripley Park is where Walt’s mini autopia was supposed to be…and maybe will be someday

Refreshment Corner is based on this place

Main Street USA at Disneyland was inspired by this one

A replica of Walt’s barn at his studio in California, on the site of his childhood farm

The view of Kansas City from the monument

After enjoying the WWI museum (awesome!) I took a lunch break at Jack Stack BBQ.

The most incredible blackberry lemonade and blackberry BBQ salmon

Hiked around the Parkville Nature Sanctuary

I did pretty much ruin my boots. I can’t help getting into things. Ha!

Dinner at smokebox bbq cafe. Then I caught my flight back to Utah

Chicago NSTA

19-23 July 2022

Flew in Tuesday night. Stayed at the Hyatt loved staying in the hotel attached to the conference center! Went to a short course on Wednesday morning, had lunch here in front of the fountains and then headed to the Museum of Science and Industry

Such an amazing place! Unfortunately I had a hard time getting into anything. My science was broken!! Very disconcerting.

The only things I super enjoyed were the adorable baby chicks…

The artwork looks like real pelicans until you get close up

For some reason I keep repeating this terrifying activity.

Trying to get rid of my fears…not working yet

I went in the late evening so I could also see it all lit up

I got to do this twice without editing in the incredibly long “general public” line. Buy the city pass…so worth it!

Went out to navy pier after the tower but missed the fireworks 🙁

Glad I didn’t buy advanced tickets for Pixar Pitt..,absolutely nothing special

Spent the day seeing the sights instead of at the conference. Now that I’m not teaching it’s just not that interesting.

Really thick glass makes for some funny effects

Jellies!!

Giordanos…I like it a little better than Gino’s

Art Institute was my next stop…the Chagall windows are incredible!

Nature watercolors by Cezanne. My new favorites!

Friday morning is when my presentations were. The MS Evol one went so well! About 25 teachers came. We had a great time and they LOVED the curriculum. Then I did my poster sessions. I’m #2…

…and #33. There were so many teachers! It was crazy!

They gave us table space and then I also had the video of my science songs running. I had spent lots of time on premiere pro getting it ready. I really need to get a YouTube channel and post them. But I would need to make them first and it’s a lot of trouble

That evening I went downtown to see the public art and to get delicious food.

Chicago pizza and oven grinder. Incredible Mediterranean bread that I ate over several days…

…and this beauty – a pizza pot pie. Dang!

Chicago river is so beautiful at this time

Ran through the fountain at millenium park!

Cloud Gate reflecting the skyline. Nice.

Spent Saturday morning at the conference

Took the train out to the airport, picked my up rental car, got some delicious fried catfish and peach cobbler at Chucks southern comfort cafe, and set off for St Louis!

Oregon Coast Part 4

On Friday we drove into Lincoln city for the kite festival

It was super hot so playing in the cool river water was lovely

We did leave early because of the heat and the crowds. It took forever to get anywhere because of the insane traffic.

We drove out to Tillamook and got ice cream and Soda on our way to Portland. I dropped them off at their hotel by the airport. Alex crashed on their floor since his flight got delayed mail the following morning

I drove north and stopped at a rest stop for the night in Washington. I had planned to go to mount rainier and then on down through Idaho and back home but the pull of the ocean is strong so instead I drove back out to the coast 😊