Wacky Wednesday~Honk Honkers!

After a few days of me pouring my heart out to anyone who cared to read my emotion filled blog posts, we have made the family decision that today would be the perfect time for some laughter here at Making Memories.

In the past, in order to give myself a purpose for posting (as if I really needed that!), I have tried the whole 'day of the week theming' which many bloggers use. I truly love the idea, but then I feel terrible when I can't follow through. I believe I have even mentioned this before, and here I am, doing it again!

I have a feeling that until we find our new 'normal' around here, postings will ebb and flow as with the tide...or emotions, in my case! I hope you'll hang with us as we attempt to share our memories with you, no matter how sad or funny.

As for a 'Wacky Wednesday' theme, I doubt that we will have an issue with finding photos to share with you. Everyone knows we're kind of crazy like that!

*Disclaimer~If you have a problem with staged displays of, ummm, affection, please stop reading now! We would never want to offend anyone.*

To all of those who are still with us, we like you! Not that we don't like the other people who stopped reading, but life is all about being silly, don't you think? Of course, in those moments of silliness, we need to be aware of 'little eyes and ears'. Seeing that we were pretty much the last people out of the park, it was not, as Renee would say, an inappropriate moment!

Anyway, our friend, Nick, is all about the perfect family photo. His creative mind couldn't help noticing that a certain store in Seuss Landing at Islands of Adventure provided the best backdrop ever for a possible 2011 Christmas card.



I still wonder what they sold in that store!

Friday...the day before the birthday

Friday started out as a ho-hum morning. We had transformed ourselves back into the Badelves, and the only evidence of any pirating was the candy staring at us from the table.

By the way she longingly stared at it, I'm sure it was screaming at Miss Renee.

Today was the perfect day to deliver a few goodies that we had brought for our friends over at MGM...I mean, Disney's Hollywood Studios. Tomorrow was Renee's birthday, and we had the great plan to attempt to visit all the parks in one day. With all of that running around, we knew we didn't want to carry anything extra along with us.

We arrived at the park just in time for their newest parade, Block Party Bash. As we worked our way towards the back of the park to secure a good spot, a member of the Dream Team walked up and began to talk to us. Before we knew what was happening, we had a special spot for the parade and some Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania in our hands!

We can't say enough about Anastasia, our Dream Team friend. She was just amazing, and totally made our day. Thank you so, so much!



After that, the afternoon was a whirlwind of activity.

Again, this post will be a little light on photos as I was doing lots of mobile blogging. If you want to see those photos, you know the drill.

;)

We hopped from the parade to Toy Story Mania. Then we went back up to the front to watch our Streetmosphere friends for a bit. Then it was over to the Animation Studio to visit with Isaac, one of our animator friends.

See? It was a whirlwind!

We decided to take a little break and introduce Mark to the newer version of the Playhouse Disney Live! show. Honestly, it was a little bittersweet for us because they took away many of the characters that Renee loved as a munchkin.

It's still a wonderful show, and we totally understand why the changes had to happen. From the looks on the faces of the tots in the audience, they were thrilled with the new version!

It was a little Goofy...



and a little sweet at the same time. And look...Daisy was there!



When we walked out of the show, the clouds were just beautiful. It's such a shame that this photo doesn't do it justice.



Because we had another set of Fastpasses to use, where do you think we went next? ;)



After all our crazy fun, we realized we were starving! We were going to head off property for dinner, but then decided to walk over to the Sci-Fi Dine In to see if we could snag a table. Luck was on our side again, and we were seated at one of their 'flying saucers' within minutes.

In the next photo, Mark decides that he will really smile for me.



This was after me teasing him for not smiling for the two photos prior. I also think he was watching the movie and sort of ignoring me, but we won't get into that. Love ya, babe!

Tomorrow was to be an early day, so we decided to head back to our resort. Before we could even get there though, Nick called and asked if we wanted to come over to exchange photos. This sounded like a smart idea to me, especially because we would be leaving for home on Sunday. I knew that he had captured some great photos, and I knew that I needed them. My camera had been misbehaving for days, and I had to have those photos for our blog!

We also got to see the sugar gliders again.

Don't you just love the little pouch that Nick carries them around in?

After exchanging our photos, it was time to call it a night. Tomorrow was Renee's 9th birthday, and we were all in for an amazing day!

Wednesday...late nights bring late starts.

This trip will forever be known as the 'Sleeping In' trip. It's not surprising considering the late hours we were keeping, and honestly, it really wasn't a problem. As long as we were spending time together as a family, it didn't matter what we were doing or what time our day began!

Renee decided she wanted her face painted, so I took a little extra time to make her nice and sparkly. Later that afternoon we would be attending Disney Vacation Club's 'Welcome Home Wednesdays', and she wanted to look extra special for our friend, Deevee See. Ms. Deevee See is the 'First Lady' of Disney Vacation Club, and one of the funniest ladies...evah! Besides being hysterical, she is just one of the sweetest people we've ever met. We always try to find her on our trips because once we see her, we are guaranteed to be sportin' some huge smiles for the rest of our day!

I'm sad to report that I didn't get a photo of Miss Renee with Deevee See. Things got pretty hectic towards the end of the gathering, and we were just happy to have a few moments to chat with her. She was really excited to see Mark because it had been awhile since he had been able to travel to WDW with us.

I think that made Mark's day.

;)

I really want you to 'meet' her, so here is a little clip that DVC sent to its members to share the news about their newest resort.



Isn't she a hoot?

After picking up our smiles for the day, we took a nice stroll around the Boardwalk towards the International Gateway. We needed to renew our Annual Passes, so our close proximity worked to our advantage. I'm not so sure if it worked to our American Express' advantage though-LOL!

With our new passes in hand, we headed into Epcot and towards Future World. Renee was dying to show Mark some of the new attractions that had been added to Innoventions since his last visit.

Note from Mare--This blog post will most likely seem a little light on photos because I did a lot of mobile blogging that afternoon. If you would like to see some of the photos that go along with the day, just scroll back a page or two. You should be able to find them there!

We spent a few hours in both Innoventions East and West and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I hope to share some of these new attractions with you on our next trip to Disney. They were so much fun, and quite educational!

We still had a little time before the park was going to close, so we made our way towards the Finding Nemo ride. I swear I could hear the seagulls screeching, "Mark! Mark!"



And Crush was like, "Dude! Come on in!"



Do you think they missed him as much as Deevee See had?

;)

We love the Finding Nemo ride. It may be geared towards the munchkins, but listening to Peach's spiel at the end of the ride is worth any wait that you may have.

Well, at least for us it is! =)

There was one more chance to enjoy Turtle Talk with Crush that evening, and we spent our time waiting for the show by watching the rays. It really makes us laugh to see them swimming up the side of the tank like this!



As usual, Crush did not disappoint. Especially when he chose to speak with both Renee and Mark!






They look pretty happy, don't they? Talking in 'Dude Speak' with Crush can do that to you!



As they got up from their spot on the bench, I was surprised to see the beginning of IllumiNations behind the fountain.



I couldn't believe our good fortune to be standing in that spot at that very moment.



Now that's an unobstructed view!



Beautiful, yes?



I could have stood there forever, but instead, we decided to walk through the rose garden. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect!



As we were leaving the park, Nick and Danny called. They were attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party with us the next evening, and they needed a hand trimming a wig for Danny's costume. We were all hungry so we decided to meet up at Perkins for some eats first.

It may not seem like a big deal to eat at Perkins, but we don't have any in the Atlanta area. It used to be our fun, family place to go for breakfast when we lived up in New York, so it's always a treat when we have the chance to stop in.

It's also always a treat when we have the chance to hang out with Nick and Danny. You just never know where the conversation or the evening may go. I really can't remember what Danny was doing in this next photo, but it was most definitely making Renee laugh!



Renee was sitting between the boys, so I actually sat thisclose to my husband. It was really nice!



Nick and his 'I'm being thoughtful and drinking from my straw' face.



Ummm, not sure, but there was a french fry involved.



Things escalated after that...



and somehow Renee and Danny ended up sitting on the floor!



If I remember correctly, at this point I was crying from laughter. It's never boring when we are together, that's for sure!

After paying our bill, we headed back to Old Key West. We tried the wig on Danny, and after seeing it with the hat, he decided not to trim it after all. The crazy bangs on the wig were easily tucked underneath the brim, and then he could use it for another costume later on.

We had planned to take them swimming with us, but it was pretty late and Nick needed to get up for work the next day. Once we said our goodbyes, Miss Renee decided that she still wanted to hit the pool. Although it was really late, we quietly made our way down to the quiet pool and swam quietly.

Yes, I said qwietly. We were vwery qwiet. We weren't huntin' wabbits, but we were being gwood gwests.

After a quiet soak in the hot tub, we made our way back to our room. Tomorrow was the night we had been planning for, and we needed our beauty rest!