About Us

We were married on April 2, 2006 in Huntington Beach, CA. On April 16, 2006 (exactly two weeks later) we found ourselves living in the Middle East. Mark was offered a job to work in Doha, Qatar working for the 2006 Asian Games (basically Olympic Games for the Asian nations, instead of all nations). As a result we found ourselves living together for the first time, living abroad for the first time and living in a Muslim nation, all while trying to get through our first year of marriage. Needless to say, our first year of marriage was anything but “normal”. Mark was a venue logistics manager and Danielle worked for broadcast & media and ceremonies. This whirlwind adventure would set the standard for us staying open to new and unexpected opportunities.

To help this all make sense, we’ll have to go back a number of years to understand how this came to be. Mark worked at Disneyland for 11 years in the Entertainment Division. During this time, he had the privilege of working a number of special events in the Southern California area. Mark worked concerts, sporting events, movie premieres and food and music festivals of varying sizes and durations. All of these opportunities stemmed from contacts he made while doing similar events for Disney. Danielle also worked at Disneyland for 8 years in the Entertainment Division. She started as a performer, dancing in the parades and also doing various special events. At the end of the summer of 2000, we met at a Disney banquet. We dated for a while and then our lives led us down separate paths. But, that’s another story for another time : )

In 2001, Mark began pursuing a position with the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. In late summer 2001, Mark took a leave of absence from Disney and moved to Salt Lake. September 10, 2001, Mark found himself living outside of California for the first time and starting one of the biggest adventures he had ever faced to that point. Mark’s second day of work would end up being one nobody would ever forget. September 11, 2001 was the first time Mark saw his first Olympic venue, the venue where he would be Assistant Venue Logistics Manager for the next 8 months. While driving to the venue, Mark and his manager got the news of the planes hitting the World Trade Center in New York. Mark’s second day of work ended abruptly, as the Organizing Committee closed down while they waited to find out if and/or how the terrorist attacks would affect the Olympics. As everything else in the world did, the Games went off without a hitch. But, Mark soon realized, Games were something that was in his blood. There is something about being there in person, while an American breaks a world record and wins a gold medal at the Olympics…all on American soil!

Mark returned to California after the Games. It turned out that 2002 would be a good sports year for Mark. During another special event through Disney, Mark was tasked with “working” all four Angels’ home games during the 2002 World Series. Mark continued to do well and advance at Disney, and even though he watched his favorite team win the World Series for “work”, he constantly felt something was missing. It was around this time that Mark was first introduced to the idea of a career in Law Enforcement.

Meanwhile, Danielle was working hard setting herself up for a successful future. Danielle also worked in the Entertainment Division at Disneyland. She participated in a number of her own special events. She was a dancer/performer at Disneyland and also did her fair share of driving floats/barges and back stage support. Danielle has always been extremely talented and this opportunity led her to become a licensed cosmetologist. In addition to her roles at Disney, Danielle worked as a freelance make-up artist and hair stylist among many other random jobs. Danielle did (and still does) hair and make-up for weddings, wedding planning and has had her fair share of experience in event planning.

Sometime in 2003, we began working together again and our relationship began to grow. Before Mark knew it, he was ready to marry Danielle. It took time, but eventually Mark convinced Danielle of the same thing : ) We had been looking for a change of scenery and after a lot of research and soul searching, we decided we would move to the Boise area after getting married in 2006. However, shortly after getting engaged, Mark received inquiries and invites about working the Doha Asian Games. At one point, Mark forwarded an email with a link to the Games’ website to Danielle and asked, “What do you think about living in the Middle East?” Danielle responded with a simple, yet profound, “I’m down!” As it turns out, we are “down” for almost anything when it comes to life’s opportunities. We do our best to never close doors to opportunities and never count anything out.

So, you may ask, how does all this lead to Mark working as a Law Enforcement Deputy and to Danielle working as the Director of a pre-school. Well, remember back in 2002 when Mark was exposed to the possibility of a career in law enforcement, and that little thing about not counting anything out and not closing doors. Well, after laughing when asked, “Have you ever thought about being a cop?” Mark did think about it. It had never been a desire of Mark’s to work in law enforcement. It had never occurred to him that it may be something he would enjoy doing. However, someone very close to him was nearing retirement from a career in law enforcement and the exposure was always there. There were tours of the jail and ride-alongs. There were K-9 demonstrations and countless hours of discussions about the “job”. Slowly but surely, a fire began to burn inside of Mark. He couldn’t explain it, or even understand it, but the more Mark learned about and was exposed to law enforcement, the more sure of what he wanted. Mark applied at a number of agencies in Southern California, none of which worked out. Life continued and Mark continued working towards that goal.

Since moving to Boise, Danielle has done of number of things. She has dabbled in marketing, graphic design, production companies and other avenues while finding her niche. But, first the job market, then lack of fulfillment led Danielle to exploring other paths for her life. Danielle found herself working at a pre-school and quickly achieved the level of Director. If you ask anyone close to Danielle, you would know that working with kids is probably the last thing she would have ever thought she would be doing...some would say that fact is even laughable. However, Danielle found an opportunity slightly outside of the proverbial box. Her current role of Director allows her a creative outlet while also allowing her to plan and coordinate…her true passion. Being the “school boss” (as some of her kids call her) of nearly one hundred kids, is just a crazy and unexpected side effect and she loves it!

All of this brings us to our current situation. If you’ve read this far, and are still interested, you can get the rest of the story as it unfolds through our blog.