Our Whirlwind trip to Oprah!!

What a trip it was....we left early wednesday morning for the Salt Lake Airport, met up with the entire family that would be going to Chicago and about noon we boarded the plane, our very own Osmond plane, and headed out of town. The plane ride was so much fun. I don't think anyone could ever imagine being on a plane knowing everyone in tow!! It was crazy, and a once in a lifetime opportunity I think...as was this entire trip. With film crew from the very second we walked into the airport, onto the plane ride to chicago, in the chartered buses, and everywhere in between, it was a new experience for us, well at least for some of us!! Paityn did so well on the plane, which I was nervous about at first. I think the infant tylenol must have kicked in at the perfect time!! She slept through a lot of loud noise. Both Donny and Marie got on the intercom a few times, as did the 2nd Generation Osmond boys, and Matt (geoff's brother) even had a little solo...none of this planned of course. It was all so fun and I can't even begin to write about every little thing that took place on this trip. Arriving in Chicago, more papperazi (how do you spell it?), and people with their camera phones all around. We loaded into the buses, and a few in limos (you would think they would be for the BIG stars, but no...one for Tom and some of his family, though we opted for the bus, and one for Virl and his family). I think they were trying to be nice since Tom and Virl were the ones always left out from the fame.

From the buses to Harpo studio we went, and so much traffic on the roads, more than in Southern California. We got to the studio, did a little run through of what we would be doing, and then we left for the hotel. Once arriving at the Rennaisance Marriott Suites we took our luggage up to our rooms and quickly came back down to a wonderful dinner in the ballroom, though it was very informal, as all of us were very tired by this point and had to be up for a 5 am bus ride back to the studio. During dinner, one of Geoff's best friends and his wife, Jeremy and Jamie Joyal came to visit us. They are living in Milwaukee while he goes to med school, so they drove about 2 hours down to see us and meet Paityn. That was fun, but with such a long day ahead of us we tried to get to bed somewhat early, about 11 pm before having to wake up around 3:45. We arrived at HARPO around 6 am, they had a breakfast buffet for us there, and then time for hair and make-up for the ENTIRE family, well at least the adults, and some children. That was Chaos if I have ever seen it, but all went well, and about 9:15 am we headed for the sides of the stage in preparation to walk on. If you saw the show you know what happened from that point on, we stayed on stage the entire show, the children were taken off by nannies, and then brought back at the very end.

After the show, we took a huge family picture, and then we met Oprah. YES, that is true. Geoff and I walked up to her, Geoff introduced us, and she said "Paityn, you won't remember this, but one day your parents will tell you that you were on the oprah show". We gave her hugs and off we went. We pretty much immediately left the studio, got on the bus, headed for the airport, and a couple hours later we were boarding the plane home. Last thing I will say is that the plane ride home was almost the most fun. Everyone was so extremely exhausted (I dont think I have ever been that tired in my life), Geoff took pictures of everyone sleeping, and a huge pillow fight broke out (what normal flight crew would allow that?...I guess it pays to be in this family), probably 100 pillows flying all over the place, Donny taped the whole thing!

So, I have to say that was probably the shortest, and best trip I have ever been on, and Paityn will always know that her first vacation was to fly to Chicago to be on the Oprah show, what a memory this will be!!!

P.S. No pictures of any kind were allowed inside the studio, needless to say, that means no pictures with Oprah

I just have to add, so we remember in the future, we were on Access Hollywood, The Insider, Inside Edition, the local news stations, AND the Oprah show. What a week of fame we had, that will never happen again!