Kansas City, MO....

The Beautiful Starlight Theatre

Our first outdoor venue!

You're looking at 8,000 seats!

Me and Jeremiah playing tag on the lawn at the theatre

A gift from Starlight

Opening night party

Party food!

Ballet Class at Kansas City Ballet

Backstage Bananagrams.....as usual!

Jen (Madame de la Grande Bouche) and a gift to her nieces!

Me and Jeremiah having fun at Coco Keys Indoor Water park

Chips off the old block

Oceans of Fun water slide

My dad sent me some homemade banana bread! Yum!

Oklahoma Joe's famous BBQ

Oklahoma Joe's is SUPER FAMOUS for it's BBQ

We waited in line for an hour....just to ORDER!

One SATISFIED customer!

The Best Orchestra Ever

Our week in Kansas City, MO was full of 'firsts'!  For the first time, we played at an outdoor venue, the Starlight Theatre.  It had 8,000 seats, which were all filled or close to filled every night!  One night, there was a horrible storm with thunder and lightening and for the first time ever, we had to cancel the show during the second act.  Before every show, the theatre hosted a parade that any boys and girls seeing the show could be a part of.  The concession stands at the theatre had all kinds of great food like hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, funnel cakes, soft pretzels, snow cones, kettle corn, and candy. It reminded me of a fair! The theatre hosted two parties for us while we were there. One was an awesome opening night party after the first show and another was a BBQ before a show where we got to meet the cast of 'The Producers' which will be playing at the theatre after we leave.

I went to two water parks while we were in Kansas City. One was actually in our hotel!  It's called Coco Keys and it was a lot of fun. Jeremiah and I spent all day there playing in the pools and water slides.  I also went to Oceans of Fun water park one day which was a really cool outdoor water park.

We were invited by Kansas City Ballet to participate in a few dance classes.  I've never taken ballet, so I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't think I'd like it or be too good at it, but I was surprised.  I've heard that some football players take ballet to help with their balance and I can see why!

Kansas City is known for it's BBQ and we had to test it out.  After several local recommendations, we tried Oklahoma Joe's.  Their BBQ has won many awards.  It's in a gas station and can have lines out the door at times!  We waited for about an hour, but it was worth it. I loved the ribs, pulled pork, and onion rings.  I also bought some sauces and rubs to take back home to my dad because I knew he'd love it too!

Stay tuned...next up is 2 weeks in SAN FRANCISCO, CA!

Fayetteville, Arkansas...

The Walton Arts Center

Streets of Fayetteville

Nate and me with some advertisements for the show

Helping out Brad and Ryan backstage

Helping Britt and Laci with some costume repairs

I'm not too bad at sewing!

Posing with some statues in a garden at the theatre

Zzzzzzz.....

Relaxing in the hotel pool

Acrobatics with Ellen            Orange Mango FroYo!

Orange Mango = Best Frozen Yogurt!

Golden Day Picnic

A muddy mess!            So much food!

Watermelon seed spitting contest

The Beautiful Beaver Lake

Relaxing in the water on this 103 degree day!

Ellen and Me

David and Nate are manning the grill!

Making a cake for Tommy's birthday!

Tommy loved his cake!  Red velvet cake, cream cheese icing,

and rice crispy treats on top!

Backstage BANANAGRAMS!

Signing our poster for Corey

We spent two VERY HOT weeks in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We performed at the Walton Arts Center near the campus of The University of Arkansas. We were able to stay at a hotel with a kitchen, which was really nice! We made breakfast, lunch, and dinner almost everyday!  I also made Tommy a cake for his birthday and he loved it.  I like to watch Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes on TV and I got some ideas from them.

Almost every night after the shows, we went to Orange Mango and got frozen yogurt. They have about 14 flavors of self serve FroYo and TONS of toppings that you put on yourself!  I loved trying different flavors with different toppings but my favorite was definitely Peanut Butter FroYo with peanut butter Capt'n Crunch and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

During our time in Fayetteville, I got the idea to shadow all of our crew members during the days I was not on stage.  Each show, I followed and helped someone else.  I sewed buttons with Brit and Laci in the wardrobe department, helped GM with props, worked with Mikey in spotlights, helped Brad and Ryan backstage, and even sat in the orchestra pit!  It was a lot of fun, but I also realized how hard all of them work.

Since we were in Fayetteville for two weeks, we had a day off (GOLDEN DAY) on a day that would normally be a travel day.  A few of us drove to nearby Beaver Lake for the day.  We swam, rode on jet skiis, went tubing off the back of a boat, played games, and ATE A WHOLE LOT OF FOOD! I was so tired at the end of the day, it was the first time I've been asleep before 11 pm in many months!

Stay tuned! Next up....Kansas City, Missouri!

Dallas, Texas....

Dallas, Texas from the rooftops!

Rooftop pool party with the city behind us!

Fun with Jeff and Merritt

Scooting/Walking on water outside of the Winspear Opera House

The lobby of our awesome hotel

Playing Pool with Carolyn

Taking in some shows while we're in town!

DREAMGIRLS and ...SUPERMAN

The Cupcakery = AMAZING!!!

Check out all these yummy treats!

Enjoying some cupcakes with the orchestra

A couple princesses at the stage door

Frisco Rough Riders Baseball Game with Steve and Deb

It's a full house on a HOT DAY!

Thanks NETworks for our custom made baseball jerseys!

Me, Steve, and Deb watching the game!

Me and Steve doing a t-shirt giveaway...who wants one?

...Here it comes!

My big moment....singing at the baseball game!

On the jumbo-tron!

Spending a morning at the salon....I'm thrilled!

Dallas World Aquarium

Jeremiah and Me checking out the penguins

Look at this catfish!

Penguin                            Unique plant

Beautiful Coral

Changing Chameleon!

Turtles!

This bird loved me!  He followed me when I moved.

His nose looks like a chainsaw!

SHARK!!

Pink Flamingos                           Seahorse

I had a great time at the aquarium!

MY TEXAS FAMILY CAME TO VISIT!

Olivia, Santino, Greg, Hannah, Me, Alex, Abbey, & Tony

They loved the show!

Dinner....of course we ate Italian!

The Boys-

Tony, Alex, Santino, Me, Greg, and Grandpa Greg!

The Girls-

Mom, Abbey, half of Hannah, Olivia, and Esmeralda!

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor

Playing our own games while we wait!

Hannah, Olivia, and Me at Six Flags Over Texas

            Me and Tino          Me, Greg, Tony, and Hannah

We packed a lot of fun in the two weeks we were in Dallas.  It was VERY hot everyday...welcome to Texas! We stayed at the Aloft hotel, which was so awesome!  It had a lot of modern art and big lobby where a bunch of us played games and pool after the shows.  Merritt and Matt rented an apartment nearby that had a rooftop pool.  They invited us over a couple times and it was so cool to swim in the middle of skyscrapers! 

We got to see two shows while we were in Dallas.  One was "Dreamgirls" which I didn't think I'd like as much as I did!  The other was "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman", which I also liked! The super talented, super funny, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, who plays "Torchy" in Superman, played "Chip" in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway about 10 years ago!

If you ever get to Dallas (or Las Vegas), you have to go to "The Cupcakery".  It's an amazing cupcake bakery that specializes in HUGE, UNIQUE flavored cupcakes.  My favorites were The Julius, Kir Royale, and Strawberry Lemonade. Other BATB favorites were Southern Belle, Strawberry Shortcake, Carrot cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, and Coconut Bliss! Yummmm!

I also had the privilege of being invited to sing at the nearby Frisco Roughriders Baseball game!  Our company manager, Deb, let Steve and I take the night off from the show and took us to the game.  We had a great time!  Steve and I got to throw some t-shirts into the crowd in between innings and Steve got to participate in an imitation contest. We also signed some autographs and gave out tickets to the show. After  a slight delay due to a power outage, it was my turn to sing!  I was more nervous than I thought I'd be but everyone said I did a great job. It was a great night and it made me miss going to Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs baseball games back home!

NETworks treated Jeremiah and I to an afternoon field trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. We checked out all kinds of sea life!  We both love penguins and there were plenty of them there.  We also saw alligators, sharks, turtles, and more!  They had HUGE aquariums that were specific to particular regions of the world. It was interesting to see what marine life is like in Indonesia, Sri Lanka , New Guinea, Fiji, Japan, etc.

The BEST part about Dallas, was being able to see my family who lives in San Antonio!  Nine of them drove the 4 hour drive to spend a few days with us in Dallas and to see the show.  We had a Golden Day (day off with no show or travel) and spent the whole day at Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor.  We also spent some time playing Wii and other games at the hotel.  I only get to see them once or twice a year so I'm really glad we got to spend some time together!  Thank you to Grandpa Greg, Esmeralda, Alex, Hannah, Abbey, Olivia, Tony, Greg, and Santino for a great couple of days! We miss you guys already!

So long Dallas....it was fun!  Next up is two weeks in Fayetteville, Arkansas!