ELLEN!!!

Last Sunday I got home from a little trip with my sisters (Jen, Jill, Amy) and a few cousins (Jordan, Megan, Bryn) to LA.  We all flew in Thursday morning, the 16th.  The major event of our trip was going to a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show - totally on my bucket list!! I think most of my readers know I'm a little obsessed with Ellen.  In fact, she gets her very own label on my sidebar ;)  If I am home and able to watch Ellen (99% of the time I am because Aiden is down for his nap when she airs at 3), you better believe I am watching her! And I've been watching her show pretty much since she first started!

When us girls decided on a trip to LA, I knew we had to try to get to a taping of Ellen, so I was put in charge of watching for tickets.  For anyone interested, you can request tickets at ellentv.com.  You have to request tickets a few months in advance.  For instance, if you go to the site right now, everything is already booked until the middle of March.  

Here's the whole story of getting our tickets.  I'm really not a dramatic person, but I'm sure you all will think I was super dramatic about this whole situation!  I was just SUPER passionate about getting tickets!!  I mean she was on my bucket list for goodness sake ;) Anyway, we knew we wanted to try for tickets for the taping on January 16th.  I started checking the site every. day. at the beginning of October, sometimes a few times a day!  I did not want to miss them opening up!  Early on October 22nd, I saw the request available and immediately texted all of the girls to put in a request.  Each of us could request up to 4 tickets so I had everyone put in different names so we'd all have the same chance of getting in.  Ellen's site is a little misleading b/c they say a representative will call to book you in the order in which the requests were received.  I was definitely first of us girls to request tickets, followed by Bryn, and then Megan I think, but Megan was the first to get a call back at like 10:30 that morning and granted tickets for her, Tiersha, Jen, and Jill.  I was FREAKING OUT. I could not believe I was the one that had been watching for tickets all along and I wasn't even guaranteed a ticket!!!  Seriously, for the whole rest of the day I felt like my blood pressure was so high.  I was grumpy, frustrated, and on the verge of tears - ask any of the girls - sorry girls :/  What's funny is, in my heart I knew we'd all get tickets (I mean we had like 9 people put in requests), I just couldn't believe I wasn't the first one to get a call like the site said.  Turns out Tiersha missed a call from them that day and totally went out of her way to get back to them to get the tickets, even though we later found out she'd be moving across the country and wouldn't even get to come with us!!  Thank you Tiersha!!  And the next day Amy got a call, and I missed a call from them (I didn't bother to call back), so now we had MORE than enough tickets!  Oh the drama!  So there's the story of getting our dang tickets, but looking back on it, it was really easy to get them!  Just check back every day and get your request in as SOON as you see your wish date open up!!

Whoo, sorry for that long rant.  So anyway, a few months later and we all flew into LAX Thursday morning and headed straight for Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank to get ready for our taping of ELLEN!!  It was so exciting!!

Driving up to the studio.

We all got checked in and were each given a number - this number was just the order in which we could enter the studio.  Then we all hung out in this outdoor pavilion thing for a while.

We had a staff member take this photo (above) of us and she was so amazed when she found out 4 of us were sisters and we were all cousins!  She told us to meet her in a corner of the pavilion like 15 minutes later.  4 other girls (2 sets of friends) joined us and we were taken outside to the back.  We had NO IDEA what was going on, but we knew it was something special!  They then explained to us that IF Ellen was going to have any audience participation, it would be people from this group of 11 to go down!!!  We couldn't believe it!! They then explained the games to us and got our names, ages, and a picture of each of us!  They asked a few questions such as "Who is Ellen's biggest fan?" - the girls all pointed to me - AHH!! and "Who of your group is the most competitive?" - we all pointed to Bryn and Amy.  Then they had us act out a scenario - imagine you have been called down by Ellen, how would you react.  They told us to try to make everyone in the pavilion wonder what the heck was going on outside!  We were all screaming, jumping up and down, hugging, you get it!  Then they thanked us and had us go back to the pavilion.

We got back and were more excited than before to be seeing a taping of Ellen!  We were so anxious to know if any of us would be called down!  I was in limbo - the thought of being called down by Ellen was super exciting, although I thought I may cry, but I'm also pretty shy and easily embarrassed so I also kind of wanted one of the other girls to be called down.  If you watched the show, you all know there was no audience participation that day (the staff in the pavilion never know if there will be or not - it is just their responsibility to find people in case there IS).  We were all a little disappointed.  I would have loved to have seen what that would've been like, even if it was one of the other 4 girls (not my sisters or cousins) who were called down.  Oh well!  It was such a fun experience nonetheless!!

Sisters - this was when we were pulled outside for possible audience participation :)

Waiting in the pavilion - I discovered one of Aiden's little cars in my purse.  I was missing the little guy already - it was hard to see him ride off with Tanis that morning, looking so confused.  I kept that car in my purse the entire trip :)

Once we left the pavilion we got to hang out in the Riff Raff room for a little bit before we were seated.  This is where you could purchase any of the Ellen paraphernalia :)  There was a maternity Ellen shirt that I was eyeing, but not one in my size.

Then we headed to the studio and were seated in the FRONT ROW!!  We were over by Twitch.  So fun!

All of us girls.  Two girls actually sat where Bryn and Meg were supposed to :( so they're in the row behind us.

A little more waiting.  Here was the hashtag for those on Insta and Twitter.

Then it all began!!  We were informed that the guests would be Meryl Streep and Vanessa Hudgens, to air on Monday!  Remember it was Thursday, so we had to pretend it was Monday!  We thought we may be seeing Kim Kardashian who aired on Friday, but we were happy with who we got to see!  We knew our moms would be jealous that we got to see Meryl :)  

During the taping they had us get up and dance and cheer during every commercial break, so we were pretty worn out by the end! But it was seriously so much fun!!! Before we knew it, it was all over. Ellen took a minute at the end to thank all of us for coming and supporting her, which was really neat :)  If you ever get the chance, DEFINITELY go to a taping!  HIGHLY recommended!!  Maybe I'll have to take Trent back sometime ;)

A few more photos before they forced us out ;)

Our taping aired on President's Day!  It was way fun to watch for us on t.v. :)  The staff told us they make a real effort to make sure everyone gets shown.  We knew we had a good chance since we were in the front row by Twitch ;)

Thank you to Amanda and Jessie for snapping a few shots.  We don't have Tivo or anything where we can pause, and I just wanted to be able to enjoy the show, not be distracted with trying to get shots of us.

After the taping we got to do a kind of little tour of the Warner Brothers lot and check out the little gift shop - Central Perk.  By now it was close to 5, so we decided to head to our hotel and start to wind down..haha.  We all had a good laugh about our hotel - it was a little sketchy - but it made it all part of the experience ;)

We all walked to pick up a little dinner.  Saw the Hollywood sign while we were walking.

Then we called it a night.  We felt like total dorks because it was like 7, but we felt okay about it because we had been going all day ;)  We just turned on "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" on t.v. and had girl talk.  Always a fun time :)