The start of something new!

I have officially been here a week. It is so crazy! I am going to be posting heaps of stuff in the next hour I think and don't  feel obligated to read it all...I am mostly doing it for selfish purposes so that I can have this all recorded. :) So I am living with Paul and Pamela Reid. They are the grandparents of all the kids in the polka dot group. They are amazing people. Pamela is one of my heroes already. She is so incredibly talented. Every meal I have is made from scratch and is pretty healthy, she sews like crazy, she is an author, a master at family history, sings and teaches the institute class I go to. Paul is awesome as well and treats Pamela like a Queen. They act like giddy teenagers when they are together sometimes and its adorable. I can already tell I am going to learn a lot from them. The house is great. The family room has all glass doors and its such a beautiful view its awesome.

This is Charlotte and when I arrived here the Reids all had a cake for me and I got to meet everyone. I left my cake on the floor where I was sitting and then all of the sudden we look over and she had the whole piece of cake in her hand and sucking it like a bottle. It was so funny and cute. We all got a good laugh. 

We had an engagement party for Jordan (Paul and Pamela's son) and this is only a fraction of the food that we had there. And nothing here is store bought. Even the carrots were peeled and sliced. No baby carrots here! I was pretty stunned.

Keri is the other nanny here and we get along so well. We will be talking late at night and then stop in mid conversation saying...it's weird we have only known each other for a week. Our ideas are never ending on what to do with the kids and our nanny plans. We are currently starting a project with the play room downstairs. We cleaned it out today and we decided that we are going to transform the play room into an underwater themed room. There is a little nook to the side of it and we are going to turn that into a pirate ship. Pamela of course jumped all over it and has been loading us up with fabrics and supplies.We are so excited. As we were cleaning things out we came across a lot of old dress ups. I of course jumped all over that. I got all dressed up and then pretty much forced Keri to do the same. We went and snuck up on Paul, Pamela and Carly and we thought we were pretty funny. Anyways, she is wonderful and we have been setting goals and helping each other out in reaching them. It's been great.

It is freezing cold here!! The houses don't have heating systems either so I am constantly wearing slippers and a sweatshirt/coat while inside. I've gotten used to it though and it has rained so much! I love the rain! It is  so nice and green here. I went on a run this morning and it was just beautiful. I do have to say that wherever you go you are either going up a hill or down a hill. Its a pretty good workout. haha

this is the little path I found while running today. So pretty. 

I just feel like this whole experience can't be real. I just hope I can make the most of it and learn all that I am supposed to learn. There is no doubt in my mind that I am supposed to be here and its kind of exciting to me to find out why. Life is just amazing and is definitely meant to be enjoyed. :)

Bula!

So I had two lay overs during my plane ride. One was in California for five hours and the other one was in Fiji for about nine hours. California...not that exciting. Fiji was just wonderful. The moment I got off the plane I new I was going to love it because we were welcomed by these great people...

I didn't want to sit around in the airport for nine hours so I decided I wanted to do some exploring. This is the part where I am pretty sure if my parents knew what I was doing they would have been freaking out...but lucky for me and them I had no way of contacting them. I went and talked to some lady on suggestions on what I should do and she lined up this whole trip around the island for me for 150 Fijian dollars. This is about 70 bucks American money. Then she says this will be your driver. This guy gets up from a small table and he is this HUGE Fijian. I was thinking we were taking a few other people with us on this trip but I was wrong. It was just me and this huge guy twice my size in this taxi. I was slightly nervous to get in the car but then I just thought to myself...YOLO! haha It turned out being the best experience though. Walker and I became best friends pretty much. When I told him that my brother was named Walker he said, "this makes you and me brother and sister as well. We are like family!" Everyone in Fiji loved him and knew him and kept telling me "this guy really good taxi driver he is such a nice person. You really lucky." He has the best laugh in the world and everything was so funny to him. I had a hard time understanding him sometimes but I learned that if I just laughed I was giving him the response he wanted. Here is our wonderful video...I promise Mom I was very safe!

Fijian Money!

This was the only part of Fiji that I didn't love. And I hate to put this as one of  the
first photos but I cant figure out how to move it. haha Anyways Walker
dropped me off on their "main street" to do some shopping.
These people will just follow you around until you buy something
it got very creepy and I hated it. So I had the taxi people call Walker
to come and get me early. The positive thing about the experience was while I
was waiting I sat and talked to one of the store workers and ended up
giving him a Book of Mormon. He was pretty excited about it. Yay for missionary work!

Hindu temple in Fiji. Very colorful. I had to take my shoes off before I entered the temple grounds. 

I will post more pictures on facebook but these villages were so poor.
But these people took so much pride in their villages and houses.
Walker told me how there was a huge flood here in March and so many people
lost everything. He even lost so much. But he also told me that its ok because they
all just pull together to rebuild houses and help each other out because they are all like family.
He said  "we lost things we could replace...its no big deal!" Then just laughed. Haha I loved him. 

I got to see the sunrise in Fiji. So Beautiful and green!

One of the temple workers who was about to offer a prayer to a God.

Hindu Temple

Inside the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. This is the most peaceful , quiet and beautiful place.
I could have stayed in there for hours. 

Garden of the Sleeping Giant! So, I guess if you fly over this Garden
the mountain looks like a man sleeping. Walker told me how he dropped out of school
and he helped build the visitor center (thats not what its called but I can't think of what
it would be) when he was 15. 

This is Walker and I on the dock. He took me to this  shopping area and  I bought him
breakfast. That smoothie I am holding was DIVINE! It was a Papaya smoothie.

Bryce this picture is for you! This is the Fijian golf course. They are holding
a world wide tournament here in a few weeks. Did I mention it was super nice and
hot in Fiji? So beautiful. 

This is on our way to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. 

I honestly got a little teary-eyed saying goodbye to Walker and he gave me a huge hug and said when you come back to Fiji I will sing to you like Kenny Rogers. haha These people were just the nicest ever and had so much love for everyone they met. Wherever you went people were waving, smiling and saying "Bula!" (hello). I loved Fiji!! :)

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Ladies and gentleman it's real! I am finally in New Zealand. I feel like I have been waiting for so long that it really wasn't going to happen. Maybe just to preface for those of you who are wondering why the heck I am going to new Zealand...I am here to be a polka dot nanny! The polka dots is a singing group a lot like the wiggles in America. One of the polka dots is pregnant and they are doing a few concerts and tours in the next few months. They needed a temporary replacement for some of these shows so I will also get to be a polka dot! Woo hoo! I really am so excited to be doing everything I love while I am here.

Ok now that is all explained I will tell you about my journey so far! First you have got to know how much I dreaded two things about this trip, packing and saying goodbye to my family. So when I was packing I just stuffed as much as I could in my suitcases. I was feeling pretty accomplished because I stuffed SO much in there. Little did I know there is a weight limit...we ended up having to throw out 35lbs worth of crap out of my suitcase into this plastic bag for my parents to take home. It was pretty comical seeing us there with suitcases open and throwing stuff everywhere and me slightly crying because I didn't want to give up some things. It was so funny though but we got my luggage through and all was well.



my Dad being the champ that he is carrying around my 35lbs worth of stuff!

 You know you are going to a pretty great place though when this is your flight safetly video: New Zealand Safety Video no joke they really do play this on the plane! I was thourghly enjoying it. It reminded me of Shad Johnson...I think you should do this for a career Shad.

Now I won't bore you with every detail of the plane flight because ya, that would be boring. But I have to just share what was going through my head during this first flight. I get into the first plane and try to lift my carry on in the compartment...well I can't it's to heavy. So this nice man helped me...I felt slightly ridiculous. He didn't know that I tried to stuff the 35lbs out of my suitcase into my carry on as much as I could. Haha but anyways take off was just hilarious to me. I felt like I was living in an snl skit. I had the lady right next to me who didn't speak much English and she was just out before we even took off not caring one bit she was on an airplane right now. Two ladies down from me there was a lady who was sitting by the window just staring out there and would make flinch and clench her fists anytime the airplane made a noise or would go a little higher. She was tense the whole trip and wouldn't make much eye contact at all. The guy in front of me didn't speak much English either. And I am not trying to be rude but it helps paint the picture. He took up probably one and 3/4 of a seat. So the lady next to him is just trying to find a comfortable position on the 1/4 part of the seat that she paid a full price ticket for. Then there was me. I felt like the lady who plays the target lady or the surprise birthday party lady.As were taking off I just wanted to stand up and scream "I LOVE AIRPLAINES! I AM SO FREAKIN' EXCITED!" I could barely contain myself. . I was as giddy as a little kid on Christmas. The adrenaline was to much to handle. I was holding back any squealing or laughter. So I just sat there and smiled the whole time giggling to myself picturing how this snl skit would turn out.

But anyways I made it safely and it was quite the adventurous 32 hours worth of flying. I made a lot of friends a long the way from all over the world. I just love talking to people. The plane ride was what I was most worried about coming here because I would be traveling alone. But I can honestly say that I have never felt so not alone while being alone in my life. I was so grateful for that and just felt confident and safe the whole trip. It was wonderful. So happy to start this amazing adventure!

Pamela is the Grandmother of the Polka dots and her and Paul are who I am staying with. Keri is the other Polka dot nanny and I just love her to pieces. We get along a litle to well its crazy!

Little Shop of Horrors at the Bumbleberry!

Woo hoo!! It is so fun to be performing again!! The last show I was in was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Hurricane High School. So, it is so fun to get back into the swing of things and do what I love. The show is Little Shop of Horrors. It is quite an interesting story about a guy named Seymour who works at Mushnik's Skid Row Florist and discovers this plant during a solar eclipse. They put the plant in the store window to attract business and it works. Seymour becomes famous and gets rid of the girl he is madly in love with's boyfriend. The only problem is the plant survives off of human blood...ya a little strange you could say. It is a very funny show with a lot of fun music. I play Ronette (who is dating Ronnie) who is one of the trio doo wop girls. It is such a fun part with a lot of fun dancing. Well without further ado let me introduce the cast!...

So, I didn't snap a picture of Kyle by himself but he definitely stands out in this great cast picture. Kyle is so talented. He is directing and starring in the show. He plays Seymour. He has such a gorgeous voice that will pretty much melt any heart. He has put a lot of hard work into the show!

 Alright so this girl is incredible...seriously! This is Janae Klump. She is a doo wop girl with me (Chiffon, who is dating Stephon) ;) She also plays the voice of the plant and man can this girl sing and belt. Her range is unreal. Blows my mind! And not to mention she pulls off her wig better than anyone out of the three doo wop girls.

Here she is...the amazing Krysta Klump! Not only is she very talented but is constantly keeping us entertained with her interpretive dancing backstage. She is the lovely soprano in the doo wop trio named Crystal, who is dating Chris. She can hit those high notes like nobody's business! Love the Klump sisters!!

 Ok so these two are the cutest brother and sister ever. They are like best friends and it has been so fun being in a show with them. Sammy plays the other lead, Audrey (Seymour's lover). She has the cutest accent during the show and does a fabulous job. She also choreographed the show and did a fantastic job. We could not have done the show without her. Nate is the infamous dentist, Orin Scrivello D.D.S... and every other part in the show. This kid has the best stage presence ever!! My dad's first comment about the show was "that kid is a really good drunk person." haha. His voice is pretty amazing as well. I have never met someone his age who can sing so amazingly. He is definitely the comic relief of the show, and is getting his mission call soon! Woo hoo!

Last but certainly not least the one and only Shad Johnson. It has been more than a blast being in this show with one of my best friends since high school. Love him! This is Shad's first show and by watching it you would have never guessed that this was the case. He does such a great job and is so funny. His solo "Mushnik and Sons" pretty much steals the show in my opinion. Very talented!! And I am very proud of him because now he can apply his own stage makeup without me standing by him the whole time. :)

 Little Shop of Horrors is playing at the Bumbleberry Theater in Springdale every Monday, Friday and Saturday in June at 7pm. It is a great show with SO much talent. I have learned so much from these talented people!! You won't want to miss this folks!! :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!



So, today May 21, 2012 is my Grandpa Larson's birthday. My grandpa died when I was 7 years old and I loved him very much. I only had seven years with him (which is more than any other one of his grandkids) but I still remember a lot about him. Not only that but I constantly hear story after story of how "Leo Larson made such an impact and changed people's lives." When I took a college Psychology class at Dixie my professor was really good friends with my Grandpa and loved him to pieces. I am pretty sure that is the only way I got a good grade in that class (thank you Grandpa! haha).  I know I haven't been very good at blogging but I was listening to a song that my friend Rachel and I arranged of "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and "O My Father" (video below)and my grandpa just kept coming to mind. I sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" when I was 7 years old at his funeral and now everytime I hear the song I think of him and how "he is always near me though I do not see him there, and because he loves me dearly I am in his watchful care." There have been many times when I have felt my grandpa close to me, especially when I sing. I am so grateful for that.

Some memories I have of my Grandpa are first his disgusting saltine crackers he would ALWAYS eat. The actual cracker wasn't the gross thing it was the pound of butter that he would stack on top of the cracker before he ate it. He loved them though. I remember sitting on his bed a lot and drinking my juice while he drank his diet coke as we watched a Yankees game. To this day if you ask me what my favorite baseball team is I will say the Yankees, even though I don't remember the last time I have watched them play. I love them because my grandpa loved them. He would always have me draw pictures on his back too and that was like the greatest activity as a little five and six year old. My grandpa loved to hear me sing and perform. He would drive from Page to Kanab all the time to watch me perform. I always knew he was always so proud of me and loved me so much. He always pretended that the name McKenzie was to hard for him to say so he would always call me "Mac".  I thought it was THE FUNNIEST thing when he would say that.

Not only was he the greatest Grandpa in the world he had the best testimony. We have a video of him baring his testimony to the youth of the ward when he was bishop and I love listening to it. He also served as a Stake President and was loved by so many people in Page. He had the attitude of "forget yourself and go to work". He knew life wasn't easy and how valuable hard work is. I am grateful for that because he has taught that to all of his kids including my Mom who has also taught it to me. All of my aunts and uncles are great workers as well and are all strong in the gospel. I know he is so happy about that. Him and my Grandma, Kathy Larson are two of the most amazing examples I have in my life. Even though my grandpa has been gone for 14 years my Grandma has continued to dedicate her life to serving her family, and that is an understatement. Its amazing everything that she does for all of us! I consider her one of my very best friends and am so grateful to have such an amazing family and examples surrounding me wherever I go! So, Happy Birthday Grandpa. I am so happy to know that we can all be together again. I love you!!

Dreams DO come true! :)

Ok, so since I have graduated, well maybe even before then I have always had a dream to sing for the church. I love to sing, I especially love singing church music. I relate to more than any other type of music and always feel strongly about the words I am singing. And in my opinion it matters more when listening to someone sing how they are making you feel other than how they sound. Don't get me wrong...they have to at least hold a tune. haha Anyways, I am getting off on a tangent. SO, last semester I decided I am going to start doing something about this dream I have been having and to start small. I got together with one of my friends, Rachel Mitsvotai and we started arranging primary songs together. Then, I wrote out this whole entire fireside that involved a children's choir. The theme of the fireside is "Walk in the Light" inspired by a song that we are doing a rendition of in the fireside that is on the "Reflections of Christ: Another testament" CD by Clyde Bawden. It is an arrangement of Teach Me to Walk in the Light and Love One Another. It's beautiful, hopefully we do it justice at least a little bit.

The whole experience has been amazing. We had auditions and got sponsored by the Hurricane Stake and have about 30 kids. I wanted to make the choir not just a singing experience but a learning experience as well. We talk about ways we can and have "let our light shine" in practices and why the songs we sing make us happy. When last practice I asked, "Why does it make you happy to know you are children of God?" The answers were so sincere and priceless. One girl said, "because he loves me." another, "I know I can repent and be with him." They have ended up teaching me more than I could teach them. We also wrote the  missionaries in our stake! The kids loved it! Each was assigned a missionary and wrote their own little note then we included this picture with the letter.(above) You could tell they knew they were doing a good thing. There was one little boy who just talked about transformers his whole letter, but you know what? I am pretty sure that Elder Braden Barker will love it. :) I even felt good while doing it. Service is definitely something that can bring instant happiness. Last Saturday we also sang at the beehive home. Before we went in I huddled them all up and challenged them all to shake the resident's hands and tell them thank you for having us. They were really nervous to do it. But, they did it! After we were done singing a whole line formed to shake their hands. We gave them a card when we left and I am not sure whose smiles were bigger the residents, the kids or mine!

Now, Sunday is the day! I am so nervous. I feel like how I feel the week of an opening night of a show I am in. It doesn't seem like it's going to come together. But, I know it will, it always does. :) It may not seem like such a big deal to a lot of people, but this is something I have put a lot of hard work and effort into. This combines three things that I am very very passionate about; music, the spirit of little children and this gospel.And I know this is something that I was supposed to be doing this summer at this time. How do I know this? Because there has been trial after trial on trying to make this happen. Thankfully because of many amazing people to help overcome and make everything work. Laura LeBaron has been an amazing help in this whole entire thing. She is definitely one I know I can count on and is so willing to help me out and is so amazingly talented. I don't know what I would do without her by my side in this! Sharlee Jepson did so much for the service project and making that happen. She is just a gem in more ways than one. These two girls I owe a lot of credit to for this whole thing. I am so thankful for them!! Michael Morrise and Kyle Turman have also helped out with their great musical abilities. And last but not least the amazing Andrea Stackhouse. The girl that originally arranged all the music with me had a conflict with the fireside and had to quit. Andrea willingly and happily accepted to take on the huge project of learning all of the arrangements and writing out music to a song we only had on cd. They music sounds amazing because of her. She is a superstar that is for sure!! I know that all of us were given these talents for a reason. Every talent we have is a blessing that can help us help others learn more about this gospel. I am a strong believer in that! Hopefully, we can do that this Sunday and have done it just a little with the kids in the choir. I have learned so so much through the experience and I just hope to perfect and refine it even more and hopefully do more of this in the future. I am just so grateful right now for everyone in my life, most of all my parents, who have helped me out so much in all of my crazy dreams and plans for life. I would be nothing without them. :)  I am so happy an grateful that I had to blog about it ;) haha.  The church is true!!! And life is amazing because of it!

P.S if you are reading this and wanting to come to the fireside it is this Sunday ( August 14th) at 7pm at the Hurricane Stake Center!

Ok so far I am really bad at this blog thing....

There is so much that has gone on this summer!! It is flying by WAY to quickly. I have loved every minute of it though being involved with my 3-letter programs, EFY, GHA and LCA! It has definitely kept me busy. I don't even know where to start. I will probably just have random posts about each every once in a blue moon. 

I did a "Lights! Camera! Action!" camp (LCA) in Salt Lake. It turned into more of a family thing because the majority of the kids in it were my cousins. But that just made it so much fun.I am pretty sure I have the cutest family on the face of the earth, every single one of my cousins just melt me to pieces!! My brothers did it to and they were just the cutest and go around the house singing all of the songs still. It was so fun to live with my Grandma again for a week. She is just one of the most amazing people along with my Aunt Sarah. They are like  my best friends! I love them! The program was Disney themed and I figured out how to mesh songs together and make my own little ten minute medley, I was so impressed that they learned the whole thing in four days, choreography and everything! They did such a good job though! I am pretty certain I have THE best jobs this summer! And it is basically something different every week!! At the end of the program I sang Tangled's "At Last I See the Light" song with the kids while I played the guitar. Um...little scary, I am still not very good at the guitar. But good practice eh? 


I just love kids way to much. I am serious, I get a long much better with them and would sometimes choose to hang out with them than kids my own age. Is that bad? I don't know! But I am fine with it. :) When we had our GHA counselor meeting/dinner one of the directors, Melinda (one of the greatest ladies ever by the way) brought her twin baby girls and her little girl Addie who is 3. First off, I LOVE the name Addison and if my future husband is reading this right now we are naming our little girl Addison. Anyways, she loves Tangled and princesses, so immediately we got along. But she was so adorable we reenacted all of the Tangled songs and dances. And she would run around and sing:

"I'm running, and skipping, and dancing, and jumping....that's where my LIFE. BEGIIIIIIIIIIIIINS." 

And she would belt it out at the top of her lungs. Then we would pretend we were in a boat and sing "And at Last I See the Light". She had the cutest little voice too. Her Mom and Dad are excellent singers and performers so naturally her daughter was just a little ball of talent. I just loved her! Moments like that make life worth living to me. Just the simple, innocent and carefree moments! :) I love it.

The other day Kyle, Shad, Taylor and I got to light TANGLED LANTERNS!!!! I sang the song the whole entire time and it was a very magical experience. I decided that I am for sure having lanterns at my wedding and we are playing that song. I can't wait!! haha Well, actually I can wait to get married but can't wait to see all the lanterns. ;) But anyways, for those who do doubt (mom) that those lanterns work, THEY DO!!!