California/Dancing With the Stars

What a weekend! I am so glad I got to go. We left last Friday night after Ryan got off work and drove to Vegas to stay at his grandparents house. We didn't get there until 2 am. He has the NICEST grandparents I have ever met! I just loved them. After they made us breakfast, we loaded up and headed to Cali! We got a little lost from not paying attention, despite the fact that we had a GPS (that was sitting in its box.) We finally got to the Clark's late that afternoon. Chelsie invited us to go to a UCLA scrimmage game with her friends that play football for them, but I opted to go shopping with Jeanine, Lauren, Ally and Taylor instead....Stacey and Ryan went to the game. I actually found out once I got home, that I ran into a friend I went to high school with in Flagstaff. She didn't say anything because she didn't know for sure if it were me. Sad. Small world! So onto the good part.....
Monday, we went to Chelsie's to pick up Laurie (her mom) before the show. She wasn't quite ready, so we took a few pictures around her house while we waited.
What and amazing experience. It's so strange to be there after watching it every week for so many weeks. One of the first things Stacey noticed when we got there was that Lance Bass was sitting just 20 feet away from us. (Stacey was OBSESSED with NSYNC.) She was really hoping we'd get a picture, but he was one of the first to leave after the show. They keep you entertained each night with an emcee who makes jokes during commercials and claps and cheers/boos real loud to get you to copy him. The first night was Cory....real nice, but not quite as entertaining as Gary Cannon, who was the emcee Tuesday night. He was hilarious! He does improv tours, so if he ever comes to your area, I would highly recommend him. Here are pictures we took with each emcee.

























I was so impressed with the whole show. Thoroughly entertaining! Chelsie and Ty were amazing! After the show, they kick everyone out, excpet those that are there with the stars or dancers. For about an hour, they do a media circle where all the media such as Entertainment Tonight and other shows like that, interview each of the couples. We just stood around and watched and waited while they did their interviews. This is where I was able to get all my pictures of the other stars.

Shawn Johnson and Mark....only media were allowed on the front side of the circle, so most of these pictures and not the best.

Karina was there doing some of the interviews.

Gilles and Cheryl

Melissa and Toni (She was there on Tuesday night)

Lil' Kim....I never did see Derek. He disappeared both nights.

Chuck and Julianne

This is one of my favorites of Ty and Chelsie in the media circle. I love the way she is looking at him!

And the best part of the night for me........














I've been a fan of Jewel for a long time and it was really awesome meeting her! She is really nice....she told me she liked my dress! :)
After the media circle, we went back to Chelsie's trailer so she could change. She was actually REALLY sick. You couldn't even tell while she danced. She had cold and flu symptoms and had thrown her back out on top of it all. She felt really crappy, so we got take out and took it back to her house to eat. The show is taped at 5:00 CA time and doesn't air until 9:00 so we actually got to watch it when we got back to her house. I couldn't believe how often it showed us in the audience. I was surrounded by black in my red dress and there seemed to be a light shining right on Stacey so she was easy to pick out. Tuesday, Tom and Samantha did a segment right in front of us, so the camera was on us for a while.....everyone keeps giving me a hard time about leaning over to see around Tom....yes, I did it on purpose! :) He was blocking me! Monday night, we helped her move into her new house in Beverly Hills. It was an awesome house with incredible views! Yes, Stacey and I helped in our dresses and heels!
We actually headed straight for Vegas after the show (of course after picking up the babies....Jeanine and the girls babysat for us.....THANKS so much for that!) We didn't get to Vegas until 4 am! I am so glad I got to experience this! I really really enjoyed myself!