In 2009 Erick and I found out Extreme Makeover Home Edition was coming to Tallahassee. We were so excited because we love the show. I immediately got on the website to volunteer, but all of the spots were already full.
Well, Erick calls me from a women's basketball game one day and says that the location manager (Dustin) from the show is at the game and should he say something to him. I told him yes! He should ask him if we can still volunteer. So, Erick struck up a conversation with him and the guy told him to come on out there for the filming of the march up to the house. You know the scene, where everyone in their blue t-shirts marches up to the house before the demolition. (Yeah, turns out that scene takes about 4 hours to film and lasts about 20 seconds on the show) Anyways, Erick and I get out there and there is a sign-in about a mile from the site where volunteers park and are shuttled to the site. And you have to be on a list. Well, Erick and I weren't on the list because, as I mentioned, the list was full. We started to get nervous so Erick texted Dustin. Dustin made a phone call and someone came up to us and said "Are you Dustin's friends?" and handed us blue t-shirts and hard hats. After filming was complete that night we met up with Dustin and he gave us a tour and told us to come out anytime.
The next day we went out there he told us to just park on site. It was pretty cool getting to go up there anytime we wanted and Dustin was such a gracious host. We got to know a lot of the behind-the-scenes people like security, directors, etc...and Erick even let them all go up to the basketball training facility to play one night. It was a lot of fun. I wanted to help out, but it turns out that a great majority of the volunteer positions were for people with real skills, professionals. But Dustin got me into "Art World" where they do the custom projects and I was able to help sand some of the beds and stuff. Then we both were able to help with the move-in.
The experience was amazing, and it was even more amazing to have a front row seat to see this really deserving family see their new home for the first time.
So, Erick and Dustin kept in touch and Dustin texts Erick anytime he is near here. We were unable to make it to Gainesville or Pensacola, but when he told us he would be in Jacksonville a weekend we were both off in January we jumped at the opportunity! In addition, we were able to get a room at their hotel.
So, the morning after we arrived we were leaving to head to the site and none other than Ty Pennington and the designer Tracey were eating breakfast in the lobby! Erick and I continued to walk to the car because I didn't want to interrupt them. However, I couldn't help but debate this because I really wanted a picture of them with Caden. So Erick suggested we head back through and if they were done we would stop. So, as we started back they were standing outside waiting for their ride and the designer Michael was with them now. So, I asked them to take a picture with Caden and they did. While I was taking the picture I couldn't tell what Ty was doing and I was thinking to myself- " Is he really picking his teeth right now?" When I later looked at the picture I just had to laugh.
My sister Stacey and her husband Tony were able to meet up with us to go to the site because Stacey was in Jacksonville for tests at the Mayo clinic.
Later, we saw some people standing around a young girl that was near us. I wandered to Stacey and Tony if she was the other designer because she was kind of dressed up. That's when Dustin walked up to her and asked Erick if Caden had had a picture with Jillian yet, he said no, so Dustin asked her to take a picture with Caden. She had just watched Caden spit up all over me and as she grabbed him from me said to him "did you just spit up all over your mom?" I was shocked because a lot of people would be grossed out by another kid's spit up but she started hugging and kissing on him in her nice clothes. So I snapped a couple pictures and she continued to talk to him. After I took him back I asked her did she have kids. She said no, she hadn't found the right man yet. Stacey and I agreed that that was an important component. She then said she might "go ahead and pull the trigger herself." We joked with her about tricking a man into having kids. She laughed and asked me to email her the pictures, then changed her mind and asked me to post them on her facebook. I later did and she commented on the picture "OMG, I love this picture." She was really sweet and when I looked up who she was, it turned out she was on the Bachelor and the Bachelorette. This made our whole conversation pretty funny. Erick said, nothing like telling her "I have no idea who you are." But she was really sweet and talked to us for a few minutes. 
We had a lot of fun being able to go out to another site. There are 2 production teams (alpha and bravo) and this was the opposite team than was in Tallahassee, so Dustin was the only person we knew. It was nice getting to see him again and getting to take Caden out there. The house is going to be really pretty and this episode, we think, will air on Mother's Day. The trip was also a great learning opportunity for us because it was our first trip with Caden in a hotel room. It was interesting but I think we were pretty well prepared.
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