Flamingo Day at Disney

Last weekend we met one of my best friends, Durema, and almost her entire extended family at Disney. Durema and I actually met at camp when we were young and then happened to end up at the same small college in North Carolina many years later. I was sitting in my first day of Finite Math (the math class English majors took because there were no actual numbers involved) and the professor, who was calling the role, called out "Durema R--!" A voice from two or three chairs back called out "Here!" I whipped my head around to see if it could possibly be the same Durema I knew from camp (how many Duremas do you know?) and there she was. Durema will probably not appreciate receiving even this much attention in my blog, so I definitely won't get into our college days.

But we don't need to digress that far back to provide any background for our day at Disney. Suffice it to say that it was great to spend that much time with my friend. Flamingo Joe, on the other hand, was not as thrilled to be at Disney -- I had promised him we would go to Hollywood Studios this time since we've been to Disney with Casey several times. He's got a bum knee and if he's going to be walking around all day, he would at least like it to be in a new place so the pain will be worth it. But he was a good sport when I changed my mind at the very last second to join Durema and her family at the happiest place on earth. He only took out his frustration by taking blurry and unflattering pictures of me.

Exhibit A:




Exhibit B:



Exhibit C:



(Though that's not so much unflattering as it is doofy.)

Mace, as usual, adopted another family as soon as we stepped off the monorail. The good news is that the new family was at least people we knew this time.



This was Mace's first trip to Disney, so it was fun to watch him experience it fresh. He drove the race cars with Daddy:



(Grandma has the same trouble with visibility when she's driving, too.)

He climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse so Joe could get some ideas about what to do with all the bamboo he's growing.



And he went shooting:



After we pushed the boys aside (who really couldn't hit the broad side of a barn), I outshot Flamingo Joe by several points -- ok, no one was keeping score, but I'm sure if they were, I totally won. Winning a marksmanship award during basic training 28 years ago doesn't guarantee that you can beat your wife in a shoot-off at Disney.

On Sunday morning we went shopping in Downtown Disney. It was miserable for Joe, who had to combine two things he hates: shopping with children in toy stores and pointlessly walking around.



So he amused himself by annoying Casey:



Mace found the Handy Manny chainsaw, "Rip," in one of the toy stores and latched onto it like a dog with a bone. I kept trying to get him to go look at other toys, but I could only pull him away for about 30 seconds to go see the build-your-own lightsaber display. When he pulled me back to the chainsaw, he took the box off the shelf, flipped it over and pretended to read it.

After a few seconds he looked up at me and said, "It not a hunnert dollars."

I said, "No, but it is twenty dollars" in my most disapproving, we-aren't-getting-this-toy voice.

Unfazed, he smiled, batted his eyelashes and said, "We can buy it 'den!!"

So you can guess what happened (please don't tell Dave Ramsey):



Rip is, of course, a talking chainsaw and talked to us all the way home from Disney and has asked us to "cut some wood" with him all week. He also has a pronounced southern accent. Every time I hear him say something, I think one of my high school boyfriends has come to visit. It's making me a little jumpy.