DisneyWeddingDisney

So we're back in Florida! And we did really do all those things I talked about in our last post .. plus more ..

We went to DisneyWorld's Magic Kingdom last week!

We only went for a few hours, but it was enough to get into the Disney spirit. I really think we're going to love living so close to Disney. We bought our annual local pass, so we can go to all the parks, waterparks, and a golf course whenever we want this year. It also includes lots of other discounts and free parking, so pretty much, we'll be at Disney every weekend haha. Also, for all you friends out there, we have hook-ups with people who work at Disney, so if you want to come visit, there's a good chance we'll be able to get you in for FREE!

Jasmine is my hero. I'd like to be her at DisneyWorld if I could pull of the outfit... Tyler went on Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Carribbean for the first time and we had a great time! The great thing about having the annual pass is that you don't feel rushed at the park! We just went on a few rides in Adventureland & FrontierLand, and then called it a day. The only bad side is ... there is no INDIANA JONES ride at DisneyWorld -- sad!

After we went to Disney, Tyler dropped me off at the airport and I headed to SLC. Tyler joined me a couple days later, then we went to Travis and Alise's wedding in St. George.

The wedding was great - nice weather, good company, and great times! Below are some of my pictures, I'm going to see the rest from http://ashleyswapp.blogpsot.com once she posts them later this month!

Coming out of the temple...

David Perry, the Jennings family's adopted son/videographer filmed an amazing video of the day. I'm pretty sure this dip was included. The video isn't online yet, but all three of the other married Jennings kids can be found here: http://davidperryfilms.squarespace.com/blog/2009/2/25/meet-the-jennings.html

The 6 Jennings kids, from youngest to oldest...

This little girl was the star of the show, Reese! Kristi and Phil's little girl is getting so big! Being the only grandchild, she had paparazzi around her all weekend!

The reception that night was at a golf course that overlooked St. George. It was really beautiful!

This year really is the year of Weddings for me and Tyler. We had Jamie's in January, now Travis' in May, I'm going to one of my best friends Jill Gillespie wedding in Mesa in 3 weeks, and we also learned of 2 additional weddings that we will most likely traveling for in the next few months...But I'll wait until the details are official to make a public announcement about those weddings!

Ty and I left Utah on Monday Morning, with a 3 hour layover in Phoenix. We used the time to hang out with my mom and sister, Paige. So we were able to be in Utah, Arizona and Florida all in one day!

(PS we went to Epcot Tuesday night just for a few hours -- we both finished up working around 5 and decided to head over) It really is crazy how close we live to Disney. We don't see or here any of the tourist traffic because we live on the opposite side of the park entrance. But luckily, we know about the empoyee entrance which is only about 5 minutes from our front door.

And did you know that there are manatees, sharks and dolphins at EPCOT??

Today...

Today Tyler and I are going here....

then I'm hopping on a plane tonight to go here... So I can spend a couple days of work here in Salt Lake...

Tyler's going to fly out on Wednesday night, so we can head down to St George, so we can go here...

and go to the wedding of these kids on Friday...

We're excited for the week!

Laundry!!

On Monday we finally got these delivered...

For the first time, we're living in a place that didn't come with a washer/dryer! Since we plan on buying a home soon, we figured that it would be a good time to invest in a good set that will last us through our time in FL and beyond (hopefully!)

So, now that we finally got our washer dryer, i was able to do this:
7 loads of laundry in one day

Then i did 3 the next day! I had NEVER been so excited to do laundry! I love our new "front loader" washer and our dryer is so quick! They're both very quiet - which is something I'm not used to. But it's nice to finally have a manageable dirty clothes hamper again.

Yesterday we went to Tampa. Tyler had been out there a few times already, but it was my first time out there! We stayed the night at the Hyatt in downtown Tampa and Tyler had a few appointments yesterday and this morning. Here we are in St. Petersburg, overlooking "Tampa Bay"

Hope you all have a fun weekend! We're spending our weekend at stake conference with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!

Southern Tour

After Tyler went to the Masters last week, he drove to Birmingham, Alabama for work last Monday. His new company, WattStopper, has an office there. They were training some of their clients on new products. Tuesday night I flew out to Birmingham and met him there. Then Wednesday we started our drive to Mississippi, where he had some more work to do. We stopped in Tuscaloosa, Alabama - home of the University of Alabama.

Of course, the first thing we HAD to see was the Football Stadium.

The only real connection I had to Univ of Alabama was that UTAH beat them in the Sugar Bowl!! So I flashed my U of U sign! (and might have been singing the Utah Fight Song)

Then we kept driving west and entered Mississippi, singing Johnny Cash songs along the way!

We were there on April 15th, so we witnessed the good people of Jackson in a huge TEA party.

The next day Tyler went to a big conference in Jackson (when I saw the movie by myself - see post below) And then that night we drove to Vicksburg with Tyler's sales rep, Bobby. He showed us around the Civil War town and took us to a nice Southern Meal where I tried Grits for the first time, not bad! This picture is of us at the Mississippi River, with a cannon from the Civil War. On the other side of the river is Louisiana!

The next afternoon (Friday) Tyler was done with work for the week, so we headed down to Florida. We drove through Mobile, Alabama and saw the lovely Gulf of Mexico! Then we finally re-entered Florida.

We started out in Pensacola, and drove along this little strip of land (at points less than 100 yards wide) with the beach on both sides!

All the houses on this little strip of beach were on stilts. The hurricane threat is pretty huge here, but we thought this house looked the funniest. It looks like its a space ship that will just take off into space if a hurricane hits!

Friday night we stayed in Destin, Florida. I had never even heard of this beach, but its a huge tourist destination on Florida's Pan Handle.

Saturday Morning we went to the beach at Destin. It was pretty warm but SUPER windy, so we didn't end up staying too long.

Then after our long trip, we drove through Tallahassee (ate lunch at a Florida State University hang out) drove through Gainesville (home of University of Florida Gators!) then finally made it back to Orlando.

Tyler hit up 5 states and stayed in 4 different cities in one week. It was busy! But we had fun checking out the South, our new neck of the woods!

Greetings from Jackson

Tyler and I are currently in Jackson, Mississippi. Today while he was at a big conference in town I hung out at the hotel. Since there's not a pool here, and I'm not really busy with work anymore, and there is NO shopping nearby... I decided to go see a movie! For the first time I actually went to a movie by myself. It's something I never thought I'd do - but, there weren't many other options in Jackson!

So I decided on Monsters Vs Aliens, since I figure Tyler wouldn't want to see that one. I went to the theatre alone, then I walked in and there was no one else even in there. Nothing on the screen either. So after sitting in an empty theatre, staring at a blank screen for 5 minutes...they started the previews and movie. No one else ever came in, so I ended up watching the movie all alone! It was a little weird, a little freaky, I'm not going to lie. But I guess there's not alot of demand for Monsters vs Aliens at 1:40 pm on a weekday in Mississippi.

I really liked the movie though!! I recommend it!

An Easter to Remember (Ty on TV, Rach singing with Pros)

I've got to say, this year's Easter has been a memorable one. And No, I didn't go on any egg hunts, I didn't see the Bunny, or the Mesa Easter Pageant, or spend it with Tyler, my brothers, sister, parents, grandparents, or any member of my extended family for that matter! It was memorable because it was lacking these things, however, and for the reason that I was alone in Florida - making new memories... here's exactly why.

For those of you that don't know, Tyler is obsessed with golf. He played on his high school team, caddied for a "semi-pro" league, lived on a golf course in North Carolina, and loves to spend his free time at the driving range or playing a round if he can. Ever since we moved to Florida, the "Golf Capital of the World," the opportunities keep rolling in for him to get involved with golf. We went to the Bay Hill Invitational 2 weeks ago which was great, but it was nothing compared to what Tyler saw today -- the Presentation of the Green Jacket!

His boss offered him 2 extra tickets for Sunday @ the Masters. Even though it was on a Sunday, Tyler couldn't turn down this trip of a lifetime so he gladly accepted. But there were 2 tickets, and instead of taking me, we decided it would be more fun for him to have one of his buddies there. He immediately called up Tom Swapp and asked him if he was interested in going to the Masters for free ... and of course he accepted (see Tom's wife Ashley's blog about it here - http://tomandashley.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-left-my-husbandin-augusta.html)

We didn't realize until a couple weeks ago, that this day of golf, fell on Easter Sunday... for the past years I've been with my family

Exhibit A -- me with my sister and cousins last Easter, with the bunny himself!

Anyways, it was already going to be sad that Tyler and I would miss out on Easter traditions, but now Tyler and I weren't even going to be together...sad... But he was going to the MASTERS! So I guess it was ok!

Well, part two of the story came last week when I got a call from one of the few people I have met in Orlando thus far, Andrea, who I met at church. Andrea and her husband went to BYU and were musical theatre majors. Now they are in Orlando working at Disney World's Finding Nemo Musical. Yep, now even Nemo has been made into a musical! I haven't seen this one yet, but it's a new show they just opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Andrea plays Dorie and her husband plays Bruce the shark!

So, Dorie (I mean Andrea) calls me up and asks me if I could do her a huge favor... I never know what to say when some one asks me that, but I reluctantly said yes... Well it turns out she and her husband were putting on the Easter Program in Church and needed to replace an alto who had cancelled. Since she heard me sing the alto line at church for a 2 minute opening hymn, she figured I would be great. I didn't think it could be too bad, I had sung in several school and ward choirs before, so I agreed. She was very appreciative and told me she'd drop the music off at our house the next day.

Well, the next day Dorie came to drop by the music when Tyler and I were home one night. It was then, when I realized that this wasn't going to be a "ward choir" Easter song. First of all, this powerful musical couple had put together a program that would take the length of the entire meeting. And they were very difficult songs, seriously, as difficult music as I've seen in advanced high school choir. Second, I learn that it's not even really a "choir." There are only 8 people singing with us in this "ensemble" as it's better called. There will be some solos, duets, quartets, and one group number. Third, I learn that I will be singing one of these aforementioned solos. And lastly, the real shocker - everyone else singing with me was from their Finding Nemo Musical. They were all non-LDS professionals, coming to volunteer at the Mormon friends' church for Easter Sunday. Some of these performers are gay, and they have every reason to not want to be helping at a Mormon Church, but they're being nice and helping out their friends for Easter. Oh yeah, and there's one other random Mormon girl who will be singing along with them, me.

At this point I couldn't say no. She had thanked me dozens of times and explained how hard it had been to get someone to agree to sing.... well if I had been in the ward for more than 2 weeks, I probably would have known why! After she left, Tyler was speechless. He was dying, just getting excited to see me up on stage with these Disney Characters, until he realized ... oh YEAH, he'll be out of town! So sadly, was going to miss the performance...

Well, I guess this is going to be my first "you're not in Utah anymore" experience. Who knew it would even be in a Mormon Church!

To make a long stort short, I met with my "fellow singers" a couple times this week and practiced our songs. Then we sang today in church, and luckily it went by without incident! My solo was short, I sang quietly in the group numbers, and sat back and relaxed when the other singers sang solos. The other kids' voices were AMAZING! I'm not being modest when I say I didn't compare at all to their talent. But, for a couple reasons, after the meeting ended everyone came up and said "good job" but they thought I was a Disney Singer too!

First, since I'm so new in the ward, not that many people know me. I'm singing up there today with all these other unfamiliar kids in their 20's - so the natural thought would be that I was a non-LDS Disney kid too.

Second, there are some people who are aware that there is a new couple in the ward, Tyler and Rachel JENNINGS ... and this is how my name appeared in the programIt said "Rachel Christensen" - not "Rachel Jennings" - now some of you may know that my maiden name is Christensen, so that name actually didn't look too weird to me at first! But, the person who was typing up the program never got my last name, and actually just typed it wrong. It was totally unrelated that they put my old last name on there!

But even if they had heard about the new girl "Rachel Jennings" it sure didn't look like that was her, sitting with the other Disney kids on the front row, and there was not any husband "Tyler Jennings" in sight. Haha, well hopefully they'll learn who I am eventually, or they'll think I was converted by the beautiful Easter Songs!

OK, so back to Tyler and the Masters. He and Tom drove up to Augusta, Georgia yesterday. They went EARLY this morning, like 6 am early, so they could set up their chairs at the 18th hole and have good seats at the end of the day. Tyler told me he'd be wearing orange and Tom would be wearing pink and I was supposed to look for them! Well I didn't watch golf all day, but for the last hour I looked and I looked and I never saw them ... until the last putt of regulation, Angel Cabrera was going for a putt that if he made it, he would go to sudden death with Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell. It's pretty intense right, well I watch - he makes it and then the TV shows this --

,There's the orange and pink shirts! Tyler was there on TV at one of the most exciting moments of the tournament - classic Tyler. And an Easter to remember for sure!

Here's a video I took right after I saw them on TV (thank heaven for Tivo!) If you pause video after he makes the putt you can see them pretty good quality, front and center with Angel Cabrera, who ends up coming back and winning the tournament!

Happy Easter to you all, and I'm hoping Tyler will post in the next couple days and share his story at Augusta with you all!!

Our week in FL

It seems like every day is a new adventure as we’re getting settled in Florida. There is a lot to report, but I’ll sum up what’s happened this week.

While we were down in the Miami area, we drove along the “A1A” which is a road similar to the PCH in Cali. We drove from our hotel in Boca Raton up to Palm Beach. There were SO many HUGE houses along the coast – right on the beach. It was fun to drive and see the Ocean on our East instead of the West – something I wasn’t really used to! Here are some pics from our first experience on the Florida beach together.

We ate at the Whale’s Rib – we had heard from locals and some online reviews that it was a great local seafood place in Deerfield Beach, FL. When we pulled up it didn’t look like anything special, just a little hole-in-the-wall joint. Tyler and I aren’t huge seafood people, so at this point I was getting a little scared. But when we walked in I was reassured because we saw this autographed show poster on the wall!
Ty and I are fans of the show “Diners Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network, and this restaurant had just been featured in the show! They filmed for it just last month, so we’ll be excited to see it on TV sometime! We asked our waiter what meals were featured in the show, and chose all of those. We started out with Rock Shrimp for an appetizer. I was a little hesitant since they came with all the shells on them, we had to get dirty, but they were amazing!!

They taste a lot like lobster. Then for our main dish Tyler ordered the restaurant’s specialty “Fried Dolphin.” OK this entrée also scared me a LOT. When I was younger I was OBSESSED with dolphins, and by obsessed I mean I wanted to work at Sea World, I had Dolphin Bed-sheets, a Dolphin Phone, Dolphin Stuffed Animals, and I went to Sea World for my birthday. So eating Fried Dolphin, are you joking me?? But then the waiter noticed my horror and let me know, Fried Dophin was actually Mahi Mahi, which is a “dolphin fish.” OK, well it still felt weird to order Dolphin at a restaurant. Regardless, the “dolphin fish” was great – and it was the best fish Tyler had ever eaten, which is saying a lot!

And other items to report….so far in Orlando ...

We saw Tiger Woods and company at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational. Tiger came from behind and won this tournament, his first win since his comeback this year! This tournament takes place about 1o minutes away from our new house, and is actually in our church's "ward boundries". The suburb we live in, Windermere, is Tiger Woods' hometown. In other words, Tyler is in Golf Paradise, in fact he is going to the MASTERS next week!!

(Tiger is in the purple below)
We see fireworks every night. At 9 pm each night Disney’s Magic Kingdom lights off their firework show. Since we live just a few miles north of the park, we get to see them every night.(I’m actually hearing them right now!)

We now have our house setup with TV, Internet, and for the first time… TIVO! Needless to say, Tyler is loving life – we’ve had it for 2 days and he’s already recorded like 10 different things. As for me, I’m now realizing this is an issue. I’m home alone right now and Tyler is recording 2 things, the Final Four NCAA Games, and the movie “Braveheart.” I just saw that I can’t watch anything else while he’s recording those shows –messed up! Ay yi yi, I guess I’ll be watching basketball tonight.

We went to the Orlando, Florida LDS Temple and it is beautiful! The temple is also in Windermere and it's great to drive past it during the day, and see it lit up at night. It's the only LDS temple in Florida, and we're blessed to live so close.

We’re really loving our townhome, and we’re getting closer and closer to getting all unpacked. Hopefully next week I’ll have all the décor and pictures up so we can post pictures of the new place!