We all know how much Disney rocks and here's an opportunity for you to help them help others. My friend Wesley Davenport has set up a team to walk for the Children's Hospital of Orange County aka the CHOC Walk. Wes and his team needs sponsors so if you are at all interested in helping out the kids or even if you just want to learn more about it (it's a really neat charity), click on this link. You can donate through his website or just look around and learn more about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome home! My family through me a welcome home party in true Disney style. Everyone was dressed in Disney and/or Florida apparel. We had so much fun with surprise drawing to win Disney prizes and of course and awesome Mickey cake!
Mickey, we're not in Florida anymore...
All of the decorations were Disney, down to the napkins. Cute!

It was all so cute, some thought it would make me miss Disney World but really, it reminded me why I was so excited to come home. Thanks guys!

My last pose at Disney. (My dad made me do it.) One day I hope I can be as successful as Walt. He is my hero and everyone should look up to him. Remember, it all started with a mouse...

My mom and dad came to pick me up on my last day and we spent a night at Disney's Pop Century Hotel. My mom's first impression was not good, referring to it as "ghetto". However, once we got inside her eyes lit up! The walls are a timeline with all of our favorite things from the past. Terry, if you'll look closely, you can see that this picture is for you. (I won't tell anyone why:)
Each group of hotels has a decade devoted to it. We stayed in the 70's where disco music was constantly playing outside. The rubix cube was in between the 80's and 90's and below is some of the pictures from right outside our door.
Lifesize foosball anyone?
Big wheels rock my socks. I was so sad when I became too tall and my knees hit the handle bars as I peddled. Some people call me a giant but I still don't think that I'd be able to ride this one.

Yay! We finally graduated. Disney College Program '06! We received our graduation ears so now we can finally say that we "earned our ears". From left to right we have Bryan, me, Lauren and Toni. We all worked in the Animation Courtyard/Sunset Boulevard Area. Go MGM!
Here's my Gallery friend Kim! She pretty much saved my life in there, I couldn't have worked there without her. She's extended her program and is going to be friends with Belle. How fun would that be?! She will be great at it.
And finally Mickey and Minnie in their graduation garb. Notice how I am so close to Mickey, I don't like Minnie. I've come to the conclusion that it is because I am jealous of her. No matter how long I work for Disney, I will always be a sucker for Mickey Mouse. Always.

One of my favorite things to do here was go to the drawing class (go figure!). One of my favorite teachers was Pete. Before the class started, he asked me who I hadn't drawn yet so he taught us how to draw Stitch. Although mine looked a little handicapped, Pete said it was good. He gave me his (which I am holding) as a goodbye present. Oh, I'll miss talking to all the artists.

Oh yeah, who's the artist in the family now, Karlee? That's David Rippberger, an Ink and Paint artist at the Disney MGM Studios. He works in the gallery with me and let me come in early one day so I could paint a cel. Yeah, it's Jedi Mickey. How cool am I?
Yay! I painted Mickey's ear. It is a long process so of course I could only do a little bit but it's looks like I've found my new passion. Not really-I couldn't even stay in the lines. It would take me too long to go back and fix everything.
That's David, Me and my dear little Shirley. I'm gonna miss them a lot. Shirley is the funniest woman to ever work for Disney. She's the type of woman that will tell you what's up! For example, I was having a bad hair day, I knew that and everyone knew that but she just had to tell me. She said, "Why did you do your hair like that? It doesn't look cute." I'll miss her and all of her gossip as well. Oh the good times.

We spent about five minutes trying to convice Peter and Wendy that we weren't Pirates. They thought because we were wearing stripes like Mr. Smee that we had to be on his side. I however, would like an explanation as to why Peter has a five o'clock shadow at one in the afternoon and why Wendy looks like she's pregnant in her dress. There's something going on here...

It's Shlee and Smee! He was very friendly, however, Captain Hook scared me a bit so I sacrificed JennaMarie and made her stand by him. He tried to steal her jewelry and just kept staring me down, I knew that couldn't be good. After we left, we immediately saw another pirate as Captain Jack Sparrow ran past screaming, "That was not good! Definately not good!" He turned around and saw us and gave a polite, "Oh hello there!" and then continued running. I love Captain Jack Sparrow.

My favorite place in the Magic Kingdom. Expo Hall...the perfect place to take an air conditioned nap.

Yay for the day parade at the Magic Kingdom (which they are changing August 10th, wanna go Mom and Dad???). There are a lot of characters in it that you don't get to meet very often. Let me introduce you to a few. By the way, we sell this float in the Animation Gallery as a snow globe if anyone's interested...
It's the brooms from Fantasia! Awesome huh? I was so excited to see them, I'm actually a really big fan. Especially thanks to Mickey's Philharmagic where you can see a baby broom. So cute.
Hey! It's the Dopester! He's saying "Hi" to you Mom.
Isn't Ursula creepy looking. What a great villain. It's a good thing she normally lives under water and doesn't come out too much.
Hello mice from Cinderella. Thanks for helping with one of the most romantic fairy tales of all time!
Oh, and Sleeping Beauty's Fairy Godmothers. Thanks to you guys too! Five points to whoever can name each one according to the color of their dresses. I was never really good at that.

A whole new meaning to "You look like a bug in those glasses".

Um, JennaMarie? Do you realize what your are standing in? Run before it's too late!

All right guys! Are you ready to go swimming with the fishies? I think the guy in the speedo behind me looks ready!
Shark!! Everyone out of the pool! Oh wait, it's supposed to be there. People often say that there is glass between you and the sharks but I'm not so sure. However, I am glad that they like more on the bottom of the pool than right by my feet.
Whoah, that's an ugly fish. He looks mad too.
This is the part where I almost passed out. Luckily I was in salt water so I couldn't have really drowned. I did get a nice gulp of it once though. The fish were everywhere. It was like their hang out and I decided to join them. I guess it's good that I did because I don't think there were nearly as many in the other direction.

Eww! This is a prime example of why I don't care to eat fish. They are so weird looking. Cool. But weird. Overall this was one of the neatest experiences I've had down here. The fish were amazing and it was, sadly enough, one of the most daring things that I've done. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

Peace out to the biggest fan of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" I have ever met. (That's hard considering how much my family loves it!). Goodbye to the man who you could never ask "Where should I put this?" without him cracking up and asking if we really wanted him to answer. Adios to one of the coolest managers I've ever had. We'll miss ya Jimmy!

What's this? Let's check it out!

My very first character dining experience! I was so excited that all day at work I kept telling guests that I was going to eat with Mickey Mouse later that night! We went to the Garden Grill inside the Land pavilion at EPCOT. The restaurant is constantly turning so the scenery changes slowly as you eat. You get to see parts of the ride Living with the Land. It was really cool. Thanks go out to Bryan for organizing all of this and letting me tell him what to do! From left to right we have Jennamarie, Jon, Bryan and Emily. I didn't know Emily before that night but she works in the same area as I. Turns out she goes to BYU too! Go Cougars!

It's a buffet style dinner. They bring you all of the food that you can eat. Starting out with a yummy ceasar salad and bread, they then bring you a huge plate of steak, turkey, catfish, turkey, vegetables and potatoes. I liked the catfish the most. That either says that Disney really needs to add some flavor to their food or I guess I can like some fish. The food was okay but it was really all about the characters!
Pluto stopped by a couple of times. With Emily and me sitting at the edges of the booth we got our faces licked a lot. At one point my entire head was inside his mouth. I guess my shampoo smelled good, or tasted good actually.
The first time Mickey walked by he couldn't stop at our table and I was so sad. Luckily he came back and I was the first to jump up and get a picture. Doesn't he look so cute in his overalls? He kept tipping his straw hat to us. Such a cute little gentlemouse.
Chip and Dale are so much fun! That's Dale doing bunny ears over Jon's head. My sentiments exactly Dale! Bryan sure looks amused.
Chip was actually the first one to come to our table. I was so excited to see my first character. He stayed for a little while and commented on Bryan's shirt that said "Last clean shirt". He held his nose as he walked away. He came back a few seconds later to show a girl from another table what Bryan's shirt said. The girl was pretty amused and I think Bryan was excited about all the attention (whether or not it was because he smelled bad).
Dessert pretty much rocked. The plates were meant to be for two but since there was five of us, I got my own plate. Not just because I'm a pig but because of the way we were sitting, I promise! It was so yummy that even though we were stuffed, we could have all probably eaten more. Had our waitress known that we were starving CP's, she wouldn't have even asked if we had wanted seconds on our main meal. I think she was very surprised when we finished all of it!And here we are at the end of our meal. Stuffed but happy. All in a good day's work.

In honor of National Ice Cream day, J-Dawg and I went to the park early to get some our fill at Hollywood Scoops. For those of you who are familiar with Hollywood Scoops, you'll know that you can't get this kind of ice cream there. We forgot to take pictures the first time so we simply had to get more to prove that we celebrated! J-Dawg is sporting a Mickey Supreme bar, celebrating an amazing holiday, in true Disney Fashion.

This is one of the cats that hangs out by the bus stop. Occassionally I see some open cans of Friskies for them. The other night, J-Dawg and I decided to go feed some that were wandering around our backyard area. We just put some tuna on a plate and walked away so they could eat it. The "security" guards (who I will just refer to as lame-o's) told us that we shouldn't feed them becuase they are wild and they'll bite us. Way to go lame-o's. You missed the wild party going on across the street at 3 a.m. to tell some girls to stop being nice to animals. I understand their point but we weren't even by the cats, they wouldn't have come near us if we wanted them to. Oh, by the way, I'm not kidding about the party, or the fact that it was 3 a.m.

Just an example of the fashion tips that I've picked up here in sunny Florida.

Would you like fries with that?

With intentions to go see the new Pirates, I went to get my tickets and all of the shows were sold out before 6:00. I guess it's my fault but I thought the fact that there were at least 5 screens playing it at about 4 different times each, would give me a chance. Instead, we went to see The Devil Wears Prada. It was pretty good but not nearly as funny as I thought it would be. I'm still working on Pirates, I'll see it soon.

Here you go Mike! This is all dedicated to you. Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest opened in theaters with a grand opening of the newly refurbished ride to boot. I waited for only about 40 minutes to go on the ride that is based on the movie that was based on the ride. The new special effects are cool, the fact that there are three animatronic Johnny Depps is even better. For the most part, the "classicness" of the ride is still there. You'll have to experience for yourself. (If you want to experience it in Florida, let me know and I'll get you in for free!)
Captain Jack Sparrow teaching the crowd his duties as a Pirate.
The cue for the ride was so long, I could not find where it started. I eventually found it tangled in the mass of people watching Jack Sparrow right outside. It all looked really awesome and definitely got you excited for the ride, in perfect Disney style.