#14 Sing with someone famous (preferably Josh Groban)

In high school, my A' Capella group sang backups for someone named Charles Langly. There were mostly old people at the concert and he was a total Josh Groban wannabe. Ever since that night, I wanted to sing with the real deal, Josh Groban himself. I knew the possibilities of doing this were slim, but I crossed it off! I found out Josh was coming to Red Rocks in July and bought 2 tickets as Birthday presents to myself. I bought them several months in advance and actually forgot about them. One day, Genevieve and I were driving home from the temple and listening to Pandora. A Josh Groban song came on and we were both talking about our love for him. Suddenly I remembered I had bought tickets and started freaking out thinking that the date had passed. I looked in my phone and it was like 2 weeks away. Since Gen was the person who reminded me, I said she deserved to have my second ticket.

Gen packed the best food ever and we had a picnic in the back of my car before going into the concert. We went in and it was the perfect weather, slightly breezy and beautiful! What was even more beautiful? Josh's voice, in person! He is so incredible!!! So, I made a sign that said it was on my bucket list to sing with him and he called me up to do it and it was magical, the end. Ha, I wish. I didn't make a sign, all I did was sing along, and technically, I was singing with someone famous, and it was Josh Groban, so I'm crossing it off. I do have this policy with my Bucket List that I can one-up items, like how I swam with a shark in a cage and then without a cage, so I'll still try to sing with him, but I'm gonna call this one good for now! :)

Finally have 100 items!

Bucket List

1. Go to Guam

2. Go to Egypt

3. Play a difficult song on the piano… blindfolded

4. Get married in the temple

5. Have kids

6. Drive a really fast car, preferably a Viper

***7. Go to a General Conference

***8. Go on some of the world’s best roller coasters

***9. Swim with a shark (maybe this should be the last one)

***10. Ride on a motorcycle

11. Do a 50 miler

12. Pet a tiger

***13. Sleep on a trampoline

***14. Sing with someone famous (preferably Josh Groban)

***15. Finish one of the songs I started writing

***16. Invent something useful

***17. Create an A’ Cappella group

18. Go hang gliding

19. Learn to play a song on the bagpipes

20. Ride in a small plane

***21. Be on a TV show

22. Learn to say something in the bushman language

***23. Play 100 hymns in the hymnbook

24. Be a Ma on the Pioneer trek

25. Donate money to a charity

26. See the musical Aida

27. Live in Colorado Springs

***28. Go to a drive in movie theatre

29. Save a life

30. Go on a cruise to Alaska

31. Go hard-core caving

32. Paint a picture of my favorite tree

33. Design a bright green room in my house

34. Play mud football

35. Write a really good story

36. Learn sign language

***37. Go to a really scary place

38. Paint a beautiful picture with my toes

***39. Ride on a 4-wheeler

***40. Ride a tandem bike

***41. Attempt to beat/ set a Guinness world record

***42. Learn how to play a song on the guitar

***43. Make a cool scarf

44. Go skydiving

45. Live next door to my best friend

46. Be the Ward Choir Director

47. Go on a mission

48. Wake up early and watch a sunrise from the top of a mountain

***49. Have a huge food fight

***50. Go snowboarding

***51. Go snowmobiling

52. Ride in a hot air balloon

***53. Stay up wakeboarding for more than 5sec.

54. Cross a really old scary rope bridge

55. Try out for the Amazing Race

***56. Go to the San Diego, California temple

57. Go on a long horseback ride/ camping trip

58. Knowingly eat a bug

59. Go fishing

***60. Have a flour fight

***61. Play Apples to Apples backwards

62. Visit Multnomah Falls, Washington

63. Visit Astoria, Oregon where the Goonies was filmed

***64. Ride in a limo

65. Go to a real NFL football game

***66. Eat at In-N-Out

67. Re-visit Goblin Valley

***68. Carve a watermelon

69. Watch the extended versions of Lord of the Rings

70. Fly in a helicopter

***71. Create an Improv Everywhere event

72. Use a Potter’s wheel

73. Go zip lining

74. Ride in the side car of a motorcycle

75. Play Pingis (ping pong in a tennis court)

76. Go exploring in a huge castle

77. See a firefly in real life

78. Go dog sledding

79. Write a song on the guitar

80. Have a secret passageway and/or a slide in my house

81. Make and sleep in a snow cave

***82. Have a shaving cream fight

83. Own a pair of chacos

84. Attend a Coldplay concert

85. Actually see 2 people run into each other and drop their books

86. Do a stand up comedy routine

87. Have something dedicated to me
88. Find my favorite spot on earth
89. Have a walk in closet that actually fits all my clothes and shoes
90. Own a pair of bright green high heels
91. Take a spontaneous flight/trip (less than a week's notice)
92. Take pictures of abstract things that look like letters and get the entire alphabet (things like benches that aren't supposed to be letters)
93. Learn to play Beethoven's 7th Symphony 2nd Movement on the piano
94. Make a Bellagio-like water showing using water guns in a pool
95. Visit/find a really unique cemetery
96. Jump into a pool or some body of water wearing formal clothes
97. Take a train ride
98. Send a message in a bottle
99. Find something valuable using metal detectors
100. Die on my Birthday (after the age of 88)

#9 Swim with a shark

Part 1:

I received a phone call about a year ago from my older brother Jeff. Our parents had always wanted to go to Hawaii but had never made it. Jeff explained how he wanted to send our parents there as a Christmas present and wanted to know what I thought, and I was all game! He called back a couple days later saying that his mother-in-law was going to let him use points for a penthouse there and that we all might end up going as a family. Of course I was even more excited to hear that! I went home after that phone call and googled “swimming with Sharks in Hawaii.”

Once we told our parents, I sent out an email with a link on it to the shark website I had found asking if anyone would like to do it with me. I got no response, as expected. It took about 4 months until my brother and sister-in-law decided to do it with me. We reserved our tickets for an 8:30 AM shark dive and I was filled with excitement!

April 22, 2013 was a cloudy Monday morning. We woke up very early to drive an hour to North Shore where the tour was. The drive there was so much fun. We sang and quoted funny things and it was just great! When we arrived, we had a hard time finding the boat but eventually did. Some people were walking away from the boat so we asked them how it was. They said it was awesome and they saw a few sharks. This was disappointing to me as the website said they had about 30 sharks show up on average.

We got on the boat and it was so small and I instantly wondered if this was some sketchy operation. They collected payment and we were off. There were 2 guys and the one who wasn’t driving the boat gave us some shark facts on the drive out. We saw spinner dolphins and they were so cool! Then we saw a whale which is rare at the time in the season that we went. Its tail flipped up out of the water and it was soooo neat! Already, the boat ride had been great.

Our guide told us it was a perfect day to go which surprised me because of the cloudy sky. He said the visibility would be awesome and the water was still pretty warm. We arrived and the guy driving the boat pulled up to the shark cage and we tied our boat to it. While he was explaining how to get into the cage safely, Jeff told me to look around the boat and there were tons of sharks swimming around us. It was SOOOO cool and became real to me what I was about to do. The guide knew it was on my Bucket List and that I was incredibly excited, so told us to go first. We went in groups of about 6 people and we each had 20 minutes which I thought would be a jip, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time!

Ammon let me take his underwater camera and I am so grateful he did. I hooked it onto my goggles and turned it on. I went into the water and it was the perfect color blue. It was absolutely gorgeous! And what was more gorgeous than the water color? The Galapagos sharks that were swimming around me. There were probably 12-15 of them and they came so close to the cage it was incredible! I was so happy and felt completely at peace, never like I was in any danger. They are beautiful creatures and I was in complete awe to be in their presence. They are so strong and powerful but calm and peaceful at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chgqyUKRXZk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUEf-LzTQd-lykJNdH58Iw1Q

Our guide told us to dive down to the bottom of the cage to hear the whales and we did. It was awesome. I put my hands and legs out of the cage hoping to touch one of them but was never able to. I started to get cold and right about then, our time was up. We got out and had a nice warm solar shower which was perfect! I asked the guide if I could touch a shark since he was doing it, and he said no. L The other group went into the water and it started to rain and they only stayed in about 7-10 minutes so I was grateful we went first.

Part 2:

Ammon called me one day and said he had just bought a Denver Daily Deal to get scuba certified and asked if I would like to get certified with him. After some thought and convincing words from Ammon, I decided it was a good investment. Getting certified was a blast! If you ever decide to do it, I recommend doing it with a friend, so much fun.

After we got certified, Ammon got his mission call and was leaving in September. We decided we should do something epic before he left, and of course, I wanted it to involve sharks! We decided to dive with the sharks in the shark tank at the Denver Aquarium. I wanted to one-up my Hawaii shark experience because this time, I would not be in a cage. Our CEO John Horan and a funeral director Marcus decided to do it with us as a last hoorah with Ammon.

We got there and had a tour with our guides. The scariest part, once again, was seeing the sharks swim around before we got in the water. This was a very strict and organized dive. We didn’t really do much swimming, we got to kneel in about 5 places and observe the sharks around us. It was INCREDIBLE though! They are used to humans and got so close to us but were never aggressive or anything. It was such a neat experience and I loved not being in a cage.

Me scuba diving

3 sharks that were over Marcus and I

I love this picture because it looks like the shark is going to bite our heads off in the background. This gives you an idea of how massive they are though.

Marcus, Lisa, Ammon, and John

I think they were both neat experiences and I’m glad I was able to do both. The great thing about Hawaii was that it was in Hawaii and you got to see the sharks in their natural environment and go on a boat and overall the experience was incredible. I loved the shark tank because there were several different species of sharks and I loved not being in a cage. The next thing I want to do is go scuba diving with sharks without a cage. I think that would be the best of both worlds. Basically I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of swimming with sharks. They are soooo incredible and beautiful and I wish people could see them like I did because I think it would clear up a lot of misconceptions people have about sharks. They are magnificent creatures!

#21 Be on a TV show

Joe, Presley, Craig, Glen and I decided to go on the Price Is Right while in Los Angeles last summer. We got there at 9 in the morning and didn’t get done until 5. They were doing 2 tapings that day and we were the second one. When we showed up, there were maybe 3 people in line ahead of us so we felt good about that. The line is outside along a sidewalk outside of the studio. It got really hot and we waited there for a long time. Luckily there was a gas station across the street so we were able to get snacks and cool down a bit. The guy finally came out to say that we were going in. There was something called priority tickets which means if you didn’t get to go to the last show, you get a priority ticket and if you have a large group, you get one as well. There were so many people going in front of us that we thought we were never going to get in, even though we were at the front of the non-priority line. They let in 300 people per show and only 9 get called up and only 6 of those 9 get on stage so we knew our chances weren’t good. We were finally able to go in and we were given a number.

I was excited to get to go inside the studio but no, that wasn’t the case… We still outside and in line but we had benches and were in the shade so it was definitely an upgrade but I still felt like a branded animal. In this line, we were handed waivers we had to fill out and sign. Some of these questions asked if we had been on other TV shows and if we knew anyone working for CBS or anything like that. Once we handed those in, we got to watch a lady write our nametags and that was pretty cool! We then got our group of 6 and took a group photo. Ours was pretty lame so we didn’t buy it. Joe, Presley and I were the only ones who made shirts.

The next phase of the line were the interviews. I had been warned about this part by a friend who won a game on the Price is Right quite some time ago. His advice to me that day was to “stick out” and be “memorable.” He also said they usually just asked what you did for a living so I felt I already had a 1-up working in a funeral home. We could see all the people getting interviewed but they were far away so we couldn’t hear anything. We met some Mormons in line which was funny. They said they just knew we were LDS. Finally it came time for the group interviews and just like we expected, he asked us what we did to which I replied, “I am a disposition specialist.” Confused, he asked me to expound and I told him I worked in a funeral home and everyone laughed. Pretty much everyone else in our group answered that they were students. He asked a couple of them what their favorite games were on the Price Is Right to which Craig answered, “Hole in One… or TWO!”

The next line section is when we had to turn in all our personal belongings such as cell phones and everything we had on us. Then we sat down on benches again but this time there was a TV and we watched about half an episode of the Price Is Right. Finally it was time to go in!!! We were so excited! The first thing I remember about the studio is that it was freezing cold. We were seated in the back row to the left of the big $ sign in the audience. I was in-between Craig and Joe. The studio was incredibly small and you couldn’t even see the ceiling because it was covered in hundreds of lights!

The announcer guy who reads all the info about the product gave us some FYI’s and “please do not’s.” Some of them were like, “Don’t be that person that turns around to all their friends when trying to make a decision, just make it and go with it.” He also introduced the applause/cue the audience guy. He was pretty energetic! He then explained how everything would work. The guy who interviewed us would write the names of those he chose onto big poster board type paper and hold them up while the announcer read the names. While he was going through this, I suddenly felt incredibly sick and was just trying not to throw up. I don’t know if it was the drastic change in temperature or what but I had finally made it into the room and felt miserable. I was sad about this and said a prayer that I would feel better and soon I did.

Drew Carey finally came out and the show started like that. We were cued to cheer and be excited as they called the first few named. By this time, I had already forgotten about the cards with the names written on them and couldn’t hear who was getting called down because it was so loud! All of the sudden, I look up and see Craig Hammond written on the poster board. I look to my left where Craig was seated and he was GONE! He was already half way down the aisle and I had missed it. He didn’t even hug us or celebrate with us, he just left and we were in shock! His name was the second to be called. Joe said, “I KNEW SOMEONE IN OUR GROUP WOULD GET CALLED!!!”

After the first 4 people were called down, the show started. The models came out with 3 pairs of designer sunglasses. Craig bid the highest, like $800, and the actual retail price was over $1,000 so Craig got called up. Joe and I flipped out and were jumping up and down (pictured at the end.) It had literally been 3 minutes and Craig had been called down and was on stage already! I was completely in shock, it was going so fast!!! I kept telling Joe, “He was sitting here a minute ago. Craig’s chair is empty, Craig is ON STAGE!!!”

The curtain opened and there was a Harley motorcycle. Craig played the game Push Over and had to get the right price into the red zone. He was looking at us and I was just sitting there with my hands over my mouth, I had NO idea! Craig guessed the price was $1749 but the actual price was $1170. Craig lost a Harley! L

It came time for him to spin the wheel and the girl before Craig spun $1.00. Craig spun twice and got a 15 and 20 so his Price is Right experience was over, and he had 3 pairs of designer women’s sunglasses to show for it.

The girl who spun $1.00 won the show and left with like $80,000 worth of prizes and money… so crazy! As we were walking out this lady said, “Oh I am pissed. I waited in line all day long. I spent so much time and that was such a waste of time. I have nothing. Oh I am so pissed.” I feel like if Craig hadn’t gotten called up, I might have had those same feelings, haha.

We retrieved our items and were calling people like crazy while waiting for Craig. He finally came out and we were cheering for him. He then said, “I’m not supposed to tell anyone about this until the show airs in November or I will lose my prizes.” We all looked at each other awkwardly since we had already called so many people. We got in the car and Craig said, “Oh what the heck?” and called a ton of people telling them every detail. He still got his prizes by the way and was planning on selling them but still has them right now.

It was fun and I think everyone should do something like this, but once was enough for me!

 

Presley and I early in the morning eating goldfish in some random store!

After we realized Craig got called up.

Craig coming out of the studio!

# 56 Go to the San Diego, California temple

This has always been my favorite temple, along with every other Mormon girl. I've always wanted to see it in real life though. We were driving and boom, there it was right off the highway. It is BEAUTIFUL! We stopped by to see it the next day on the way to some beaches. It is incredible and so majestic. I just walked around for a while taking pictures. Then I stopped and talked with a senior missionary couple. They were so great and showed me a lot of pictures of the interior, including a garden that is open to the air on top of the temple but is surrounded by glass inside. He was also telling me about the architecture and the entire temple is fashioned in 2 squares. It also happens to be the seal of Melchizedek (see website http://www.templestudy.com/2008/09/11/the-seal-of-melchizedek-part-4/). Anyway, it is the most beautiful temple I've ever seen and I hope to go inside someday when I’m endowed!

All of us in front of the temple

This is from the website

Another view of the top, the flower looking thing is the garden open to the top

You can also see the pattern in the glass, so beautiful!

#8 Go on some of the world's best roller coasters

So, Joe, Presley, Glen, Craig and I went to Magic Mountain. By far the BEST theme park I’ve ever been to. That place is covered in coasters. We didn’t even get to go on them all which was sad but it was still a blast! I think the best one I went on was X2. The coaster shifts while you’re going to give you the greatest amount of G-force possible. It was incredible and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. The second craziest was the Green Lantern. It was kind of like the X2 but worse, you actually turned upside down. It looked kind of wimpy but it was not. Joe was screaming the entire time and I was laughing so hard I was drooling by the end. Goliath was super fast and had a huge drop. We went on Lex Luthor’s drop and it’s the world’s tallest. The “coaster” actually pushes you down so you fall faster than gravity. INSAINE! Tatsu was not my favorite but was still kind of fast and fun. I would LOVE to go back someday and finish all the coasters. I also want to go to Cedar Point but we’ll call this item crossed off and if I go, I’ll just add to this post! 

Me in front of the sign

In front of Lex Luthor's drop aka tallest in the world

On a coaster, apparently this one was painful but I can't remember

#28 Go to a Drive In Theater

Ashley Steiber created a Drive In Facebook Event to celebrate her Birthday. Friday the 13^th of July was the date, but we didn’t see a scary movie. We went and saw Snow White and the Huntsman. (So as a side note, it might have been the third time I’d seen that movie. The first time I saw it, I missed the first 15min and was super confused. The second time, I saw it all and like the movie better because I saw the beginning. The third time was probably a little much but it was a drive in so still exciting.)

Before we left, Jesse and I went to Joe’s house and stole 2 mattresses from him. Jesse has 2 trucks so it was perfect. We threw the mattresses into the back and left. It was Jesse, Ashley, Shley, Jenn, and me. Jesse let me drive his 2012 Tacoma and he drove his work truck. We finally found 2 spots together and got all set up with pillows and blankets. Jesse brough his puppy Reba so I got to snuggle with her the whole time which made life better! It was a perfect night and I decided I really like drive ins. They’re just different and fun. You get awesome, comfortable, lay down seating. You can bring dogs. You can look at the stars if the movie gets boring. And you can talk without people shushing you. It’s pretty great and I give it 4.5 stars. The only bad thing? A fed-ex truck drove by about 13 times during the movie and yes I was counting. I didn’t like the subliminal advertising but what can you do? Haha, just kidding. Great time!

 The sign for the drive in

 Jesse's sweet truck

Cute little Reba, I love her!