"Shake It Up"

On Tuesday morning we took off to Los Angeles.  Our hotel was just outside the entrance to the airport, so traffic was extremely heavy.  I’ve never seen a checkpoint to drive into the airport, but there was one here.

Check point to enter into Los Angeles Airport

After checking into the hotel, we took off for downtown LA for one of the highlights of our trip… attending a live taping of the Disney show, “Shake It Up.”  One of Ashlee’s best friends, Allison, has an uncle (Bryan) who does the stage lighting for the show.  When Allison’s mom, Julianne, found out we were going to be in LA, she contacted Bryan, and the next thing you know, we are VIP Production Guests for the taping of “Shake It Up!”  So we headed towards downtown early since we knew traffic would be bad, and there was no way we were missing this!  We found the studios, parked the car, and walked down the street to Subway for an early dinner.

We arrived at the studios at 3:30, and there were already people lined up at the gate for the 5:00 taping.  We had been standing in line for about 10 minutes when a crew member asked for production guests to follow her.  She took us and a few others to a different line where we were then escorted inside to our seats, which I might add were in a perfect location… second row right in front of where most the taping for the night would take place.  The girls were so excited!

Waiting in line before the show

Having never been to a taping of a show, we didn’t quite know what to expect.  As the rest of the audience was being seated, I spotted Bryan down front, and he walked up so we could meet him, and he told us to hang out when the taping ended, and he would come back for us.  Then the entertainment started.  There was a guy who would “entertain” the audience, give out freebies, take questions, etc. between takes while a DJ would play music.  He also filled us in on what was happening on the set as well as making sure the audience was quiet when they needed to be quiet.  About halfway through the evening in between takes, here came the pizza delivery and the crew started passing out pizza and water bottles.  Didn’t expect that either.

When the taping ended, Bryan walked by and told us to just sit tight for a minute.  The next thing you know, he came back to get us and handed each of the girls their own 8X10 pictures of each of the three main actors.  Then he personally escorted us down to the set and introduced the girls to the actors so they could get autographs and I could get pictures.  Talk about feeling like big shots!  Bryan then walked us around the set before we headed out.  “Thank you” just doesn’t seem sufficient for such a fun treat, but a huge thanks anyway to Julianne for planning our evening and to Bryan for such a phenomenally fun event that we will never forget!  We truly felt like VIPs!

Posing with Zendaya Coleman (Rocky)

Posing with Roshon Fegan (Ty)

Getting Adam Irigoyen's (Deuce) autograph

Meeting Bella Thorne (CeCe)

Say Cheese!

 

This is Allison's Uncle Bryan who made it all possible!