Go Jasmine and Aaron!

My favorite guy and favorite girl are in the finals!!!!

I do love Fik Shun and Amy but I've loved Aaron and Jasmine from the beginning.

Let's hear it for the tall dancers :) 

Mom surprised Paige and I with tickets to see SYTYCD here in AZ. We can't wait!

SYTYCD time!

Summer is here and guess what time it is?

I'm so excited that the top 20 have been chosen and we can get on with the competition. There are 4 dancers that are my favorites:

Malece! We have to cheer for the Utah girl!

Mariah! I love Hip Hop and she's from Chandler!

Aaron! Love the name and love that he's a tap dancer!

If I had to chose my favorite, it would be...

Jasmine Harper! She's a powerful dancer and I love that she's tall :)
My favorite dance tonight was the jazz dance by Aaron and Jasmine. So excited for this season!

My all-time favorite movie

Everyone has movies that they love, right? My top ten favorites have been the same for many years. But my all-time favorite that inspires me and makes me so very happy is...

"Moses Supposes"...I swear I have watched this dance a hundred times. Did you know that Gene Kelly was 40 years old when he made this movie?
40 years old and he can dance like that...inspiring! I've got to give props to Donald O'Connor for keeping up with Gene.

Debbie Reynolds had no dance training when she got this role. She learned how to dance in 3 months for this movie! She says that the 2 hardest things that she's done in her life were childbirth and Singin' in the Rain :)

Paige's ballet recital

 I forgot to post some pictures from Paige's dance recital in June. Paige was happy Papa and Gaga could make it down.

I'm so glad we found a great dance studio, Paige is really happy there. She started ballet again 3 weeks ago and she's added jazz as well. She loves it :)

When I saw these pictures, I melted into a puddle on the floor :)

2012 Summer Vacation part 5 NYC!!

Are you sick of my NYC pictures yet? :)

This is the last of my NY pictures

 We went to Chinatown to get some screaming deals. Aaron is good at getting deals. (He has scored some awesome stuff on his trips to Korea and China) The people in New York weren't having any of it. One woman was so tired of him and shooed him away...

 the art, the architecture, the people...there's something new everywhere you look there.

 I have to make a comment about the smells of NY.

One second I'm walking and I smell delicious Churros that remind me of Disneyland. The next second, someone with nice cologne or perfume walks by and they smell really good. And then a few steps later it smells like someone is cooking poop stew on a stove. yuck!

 Little Italy. I ate a delicious pizza for lunch here...I still dream about it...

 I bought a cute cupcake necklace in this adorable store for P. This is at the South Street Sea Port

 Aaron is a diehard Yankees fan. He's hardcore. So when Steve came to our family, they were instantly friends because they're both Yankees fans. This store was located over by the South Street Sea Port, I can't remember where though

 Grand Central Station. What a breathtaking building. One of my hands-down favorites! We came here to get on the subway to go to...

 Yankee Stadium! They tore the old Yankee Stadium down :(

 The Yankees played the Angels

 The Yankees won in the 9th inning. People went crazy! 

I think my favorite part of the whole game was booing A-Rod with the rest of the stadium. Awesome!

 New Yorkers love Derek Jeter

 

Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn. See the Chrysler building?

We walked through Brooklyn

more artwork...I couldn't get enough of the artwork

Brooklyn Heights. Way cool place

a view from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

the subway! I hadn't been on a subway before this trip.

The G train

 American Museum of Natural History

We walked across the street to Central Park to eat lunch. I had to take a picture of Aaron's trusty backpack. This thing has been on all of our hiking adventures. From the Grand Canyon to Central Park :)

People watching. Another awesome pastime in New York. This woman was pushing her little dog around in this stroller. A dog...in a stroller...

things that make you go hmmmmm...

Our last day in New York happened to be on my birthday. My cousin Chassie told me about this place and told me I HAD to go take a dance class here. I was going to chicken out but Aaron told me I had to go and Heidi said she'd go too. We took a lyrical jazz class and had so much FUN! I'm so glad we went, wish I could go back. The only regret I have is not packing my tap shoes. Next time...

I had so much fun spending the day with Heidi...I really lucked out in the sis-in-law department, no joke :)

From NYC, Aaron and I took a train to Philadelphia to see my aunt, uncle and cousins...

to be continued...

every picture has a story

I can't believe I'm going to post these pictures let alone tell you the story behind them. There's always a story behind a picture...

The year was 1987. We were doing a dance production of "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs" and we're getting individual and group pictures taken. I was in ballet and clogging at the time so I showed up wearing my ballet outfit and then I was going to change into my clogging costume. The photographer took the picture and then I went to change into my clogging costume. While I was changing, this wave of terror came over me. I realized that I forgot to bring my underwear. If you've ever been in ballet, you know that you can't wear underwear with a leotard. My mind was racing with ways to fix this problem. 'I'll just wear my tights, that'll work.' But then I realized that my tights are white and my clogging shoes are bright red and that would look really bad. 'I'll just wear the leotard underneath'. I tried that but the lace was hanging out around the neck of my costume. So what do I do now?!

Stick my head out of the dressing room and yell for Mom.

So Mom comes in and I explain the situation. I'm at ease because Mom knows what to do, Mom will fix this problem and save the day.

She says, "Well, you're just going to have to go without underwear."

WHAT?!

In my mom's defense, we lived on the outskirts of town and there was no time to go to the store. Kids were lined up and she didn't want to make other people wait on us. I understand that. She said, "Just go stand there and smile, it's no big deal."

Okay, I can do that.

I step out of the dressing room and walk over to take my place and the photographer says, "Great! Okay, I want you to turn to the side and pull up the edges on that skirt so we can see all those ruffles!"

35 year old Kris would tell this guy, 'Look, that ain't happenin'

12 year old Kris just stands there in horror saying nothing while my Mom is in the corner feeling sorry for me and trying really hard not to laugh. It was just my luck that this guy wanted me to strike this "happy hoedown" pose when I stepped up to the plate.

So, you want me to lift up the sides of my skirt? Sorry dude...this is all your gettin'...

When we finished this picture, Mom and I both laughed for days. Laughing is good!
I just realized how much I look like Braden in this picture!

I also forgot about my she-mullet hairstyle :)

Our day trip to Utah!!

When we lived in Utah, going to see the Cougarettes perform was something that me, my sis-in-law Alisha and my mom-in-law looked forward to each year. After we moved, Alisha would call me and say, 'One of these days, I'm going to fly you up so you can go see the Cougarettes with us.'

She called Thursday night and on Saturday morning, Paige and I were on a plane to Utah!

One thing about the Cougarettes, they never disappoint! They are all so talented and it was awesome!

We started out the morning by having brunch with my other sis-in-law Rebecca at Kneaders. I forgot how good the food is there...

Us on the plane.


I got to stop by and see Amanda and her family. It was so much fun seeing them and visiting for a little bit. This is Paige with Cole and Jaden

me and Amanda...we've been friends for 22 years. I couldn't have survived junior high without her :)

The mountains in Provo...I miss the mountains. However, I don't miss the cold weather.

Paige, me Alisha and Grandma

I was feeling nostalgic as we were driving through Provo. These are the Glenwood apartments on University Ave. This is where I lived and where Aaron and I met. They didn't look this nice when we lived there...

The NuSkin building where I used to work. It was great place to work and I met so many awesome people there. Good times!

Paige

Thanks again to Alisha for a really fun Saturday in Utah!

And to my former roommate Em a.k.a. "The Coug"...I wish I could have brought you with me! :)