Holiday Hootennanies with Scarlett and the Fam Damily! Day Two, Part 4, Updated 4/25 About This Page:

[travismom]

Great update, Scarlett!!! The alarm clock scenario has been played out many times by me or Terry. I LOATHE that beeping sound.

Can't wait to read more!!!

[tammyd_rn]

Great updates.

I am totally drooling over the french toast loaf. I guess I know where one of my snack credits is being spent.

Thanks for sharing all the cool pics and the update with us.

[BelmontBelle]

What a fun morning so far! (well except the annoying alarm clock.) I really hate hotel alarm clocks, I can never seem to figure out how to shut the darn things off, so I sure can understand you yanking the plug!

I have to try and get to MK before opening and see that show, we always arrive just after, no matter how hard we try . I'll be looking at my DH to check for goosebumps, but I'll probably be to teary eyed to notice.

Great PP pictures, the girls are too cute! I never would have guessed that Mackenzie is 9, she's just a tiny little peanut, I'd have her in a stroller too.
Can't wait to hear about the rest of the day!

[DELG8TOR]

Originally Posted by Disney_Scarlett

Yes, that's mustard packets in that second picture. Dad puts mustard on everything - even breakfast.

Not so strange!!! My father-in-law puts salt and pepper on everything.... including pancakes and syrup......

Great update by the way!!!!!

[lindawdw]

The french toast looks scrumptious!!! It sure looks as if it was worth stopping to smell the Main Street Bakery!!! Sounds like you're all having a great morning at the MK. I love how Jeff gets the goosebumps from the MK opening show. You've really converted him into a real WDW fan!

[Disney_Scarlett]

We agreed to meet the Millers at Pecos Bills around 11:30 before going our separate ways. Our first stop was to pop into the Olde Christmas Shoppe (you have to say it like Old-eee Christmas Shop-peee, too. And no, that never gets old. Eee. ). Mary Clayton had given us a list of “suggested gifts,” one being the new piece of the Christmas Village that she collects. I think it was the Haunted Mansion, which was new last year. Anyway, we headed to Liberty Square, which just may be my favorite area in this park. In the Shop-peee, Mama asked a CM about the piece. She told us they were currently sold out of it, but to check back later in the week, as they should be getting more in. Will do. Before exiting, you know Mama had to take a quick browse around. No purchases were made, but I’m sure they were planned.

We decided to go do at least one of the mountains in Frontierland before meeting the others for lunch, so we made our way towards Big Thunder and Splash. On our way, we passed by a tour group. Not sure which tour they were on, but one thing that caught my eye was a guy on the tour who had the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique “Cool Dude” hairstyle. He had to be at least mid-thirties, and his wife or girlfriend (approximately the same age) had one of the princess ‘do’s as well. How awesome is that!

The wait for Big Thunder Mountain was 40 minutes, so we grabbed Fast Passes and after Mama and Dad took a bathroom break, jumped in a 10 minute line for Splash. We didn’t even have to wait that long before boarding our log raft (no inappropriate, or appropriate, @$$ crack this time, CLT!). I’m thinking we had the second row, which proved to be an excellent row to get absolutely soaked! We got wet as we turned the corner and another raft splashed down, and on the big drop. Luckily it was a warm day, so we’d all dry off quickly.

I was sure our ride photo would be hilarious, but unfortunately our photo had been “washed away.” The only thing I can figure is that they deleted it because the teenage girls (who were really kind of cute about the whole ride and drop-anticipation) in front of us did the “rock and roll sign.” I don’t really consider that obscene, but I guess Disney doesn’t want to take any chances.

Once we exited the ride photo area, I checked my phone and saw I had a voicemail from Jeff. As we walked towards Pecos Bills, I listened to it: “Hi it’s Jeff, I just wanted to let y’all know that we are at Pecos Bills, on the porch area. No hurry or anything, we’ll wait. <<long pause>> I bet y’all are on Splash Mountain, aren’t you! Harumph!” Click. I’m sure it was one of those “you had to be there moments” but at the time, I just died laughing, as you could just hear the wheels turning in Jeff’s head as he concluded we were on Splash.

In a moment we met up with K, J, M&M and confirmed Jeff’s suspicions of our whereabouts. Into Pecos Bills, we waited for a little bit before ordering. I went for the ¼ pound cheeseburger with bacon, and fries, while Mama had the same thing, except minus the cheese (she doesn’t like cheese on her burgers – sad, I know). Dad had the Bacon Double Cheeseburger with fries. I selected the Peanut Brownie Mousse for my dessert, while Mama and Dad chose the Strawberry Yogurt. I gave them both weird looks when they ordered that, as I was almost certain neither one of them liked yogurt. However, considering that they are each mature adults, I figured that they could both read the menu correctly and also remember whether or not they cared for a particular food.

After a few minutes of waiting, we had our food and staked out a couple of tables in the outside courtyard area. Krista had gotten the Chicken Wrap (served chilled with seasoned chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese tossed with Pecos house dressing) and fries and Jeff had gotten the BBQ Pork Sandwich with baked beans and fries, so they were able to watch our stuff while we visited the fixin’s bar (I think they kids had burgers, too). I love this fixin’s bar! I added some mustard, lettuce, mushrooms and pickles to my burger, and popped some banana peppers on the side, too. Yum yum yum. Without all those yummy toppings, these burgers would be okay, but with them, they are pretty darn great.

One thing that was a continual theme of this trip was the search for salt and pepper. I’ve never noticed this before, as I very rarely salt anything, but it’s hard to find salt and pepper in WDW. If you ask them for it at a table service restaurant, they will bring it to you – but it’s not typically on the table. At a counter service, good luck! They usually have it, but it’s a scavenger hunt. I’m sure this is all on purpose, what with the trend towards healthier choices. And I won’t tell you which one of us was always wanting salt, but his name starts with “D” and ends with “ad.”

We sat around and enjoyed our food and caught up on what everyone had been doing in the hour or so we were apart. Krista and the gang had met with Ariel and Caption Hook and Smee, plus the girls got to participate in Woody’s Cowboy Camp. Having learned this, the first thing I asked was, “Did any of you have to wear a cactus hat?” which the answer to was, disappointingly, no. I still recall the side stitches I got from the pictures of Karen (mattnkatsmum) wearing the cactus hat during this show, and could only hope that Krista or Jeff got recruited to don such headgear as well. No such luck, though.

Here are Krista’s pictures from their time away from us:



Those Caption Hook pictures totally crack me up. Mackenzie seems to "get" the idea, but Maeve is like, "I'm holding the sword up, what more do you want from me? What do you mean, 'pretend'?"



Notice the look of concern on Mackenzie's face. She was eyeing Caption Hook - Krista said she refused to get his autograph and didn't even want to be near him in the picture. Despite the fact that she's never had a problem meetin' and greetin' Villians in the past, she wanted nothing to do with them this trip. : Her little sister, however, was in like company.

Also, now that I think about it, that "When Dreams Come True" border for the picture of Mackenzie dueling with Caption Hook is inaccurate. For her, it would be, "When Nightmares Come True."



I guess I was so engrossed in my burger (or maybe the mental picture of Krista and Jeff in cacti, mountain and mine shaft hats) that I totally missed the first part of a conversation the rest of the family was having until I heard Mama say, “Cooey was scared of the Haunted Mansion until she was on up in her teen years!” Hey! No need to share that with everyone. Before looking up from my plate, I gave a big sigh and said, “Yeah, yeah. We all know this. I’m fine with it now, okay?” Then I glanced over to the kids and saw poor Mackenzie sitting there with tears in her eyes and her little chin a-trembling. Not quite sure what was going on, I piped in louder, “Yep! Scared to death. That was me!”

Then Krista gave Mackenzie a squeeze and said, “Kenz, it’s okay. You don’t have to ride anything you don’t want to.” I gave Mama and sidelong glance and mumbled, “What’s going on?” She whispered back, “Mackenzie heard us mention riding Splash Mountain earlier and thought she was going to have to ride it and freaked out.” Considering that Kenz rode Splash Mountain without a care in the world on our last trip, I was surprised that she was scared of it this time. She must be going through a stage right now, as she didn’t want to ride the Haunted Mansion either, or meet with any villains (both of which she did with gusto just over a year ago).

Anyway, once Mackenzie realized no one was going to force her to ride anything, she was fine, and we all finished up our lunches. We also got to see and hear part of another session of Woody's Cowboy Camp - yeehaw! Of course, I didn’t even take one bite of that Brownie Mousse, and Mama and Dad didn’t eat any of their yogurt either, because they don’t like yogurt. Apparently, they thought it was frozen yogurt, although the menu does not mention frozen. It felt so wasteful tossing those yogurts, but it was too hot to carry them around for myself or the girls later without the risk of food poisoning.

We decided to split up again, as the girls wanted to go on a character-meeting spree, and Mama, Dad and I had BTMR Fastpasses burning a hole in our pockets. Us three had plans for a break back at OKW before dinner at Le Cellier, but Krista and Jeff had not decided whether they would take a break or not, so we just made plans to meet outside of Le Cellier around 5:15.

We made our way back to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and passed a humongous line with our Fastpasses, complete with dirty looks from the stand-by-ers. Nothing like a little, “’Scuse us, we plan better than y’all do” air about ya to get the stink-eye from perfect strangers.

We still had to wait about ten minutes until we were ready to board our train. I let Mama and Dad sit together while I (presumably) would sit by myself. Well, don’t you know when I sat down in my little train car I looked up to see two pre-teen boys staring at me expectedly, like “Let’s move it on over, lady.” Oops! Okay then. I slid on over and they squeezed in. Mama couldn’t resist sending an evil grin back to me as I sat shoulder-to-shoulder with these kids.

Trying to break that “hi, we’ve never met, but now we’re touching” ice, I joked, “I’ll try not to throw up on you guys.” Both boys just shot me “weirdo” looks while one of them said, “It’s totally not that rough. Splash is the ride that rocks.” See, and I thought sarcasm was the second language of tween-aged boys. Obviously not. I refrained from shooting back with an, “I KNOW. I just rode it. So there.” Mature, I’m not, but they don’t have to know that.

Luckily, they loosened up as the ride got started and we all squealed and shrieked our way though Big Thunder. I was a bit preoccupied with holding myself to my side of the cart during sharp turns (I was sitting next to “the little one” of the two and didn’t want to smother him!), but all and all it was still a fun ride.

They bid me adieu with very little ceremony, and I rejoined Mama and Dad. We decided to make our way over to the Hall of Presidents, one of my favorite attractions (which had been under rehab during our last visit).

Once we got to the theatre, we still had about twenty-five minutes until the next show, so we killed a little time in the patriotic-themed store next to HoP. No purchases made, we made our way back to the theatre and checked out some of the neat historical stuff they have in the waiting area. Soon we were being ushered in and had just gotten comfy in our seats when I got a text from Mary Clayton: “What are you doing now?”

I texted her back with “Waiting for the Hall of Presidents to start.” She quickly responded with “Tell Herbert Hoover I said hi. Oh and I hate you. Talk to you in a couple of hours. Bye!”

The Presidents were just as great as I had remembered, and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. Once it was over and we were exiting, we decided to go ahead and make our way back to OKW – everyone was ready for a little rest.

As we ambled towards the front of the park, the lure of merchandise pulled us slightly off track. We found ourselves browsing around in the Emporium. While I was perusing the selection of park-music CDs, I heard a distinctive sound of a parade outside. Glancing at my watch, I knew it was nowhere near time for the Disney’s Dream Come True Parade. Peering out the door, I saw what I later learned was the Family Fun Day Parade. At the moment, it looked like a lot of characters, dancers, performers and average Disney vacationers frolicking down Main Street waving American flags and singing. I decided to step out and watch for a moment, and oh, how I am glad I did.

Let me say that the kids participating are having A BLAST (and obviously, that’s the whole point). They are dancing, prancing, shouting and just all around showing their enthusiasm for all things Disney and US of A. But let’s remember that this is the FAMILY Fun Day parade. Which means that Mom and Dad participate too. Heehee. As each family passed by, I caught sight of yet another adult being forced to sing and dance along. I should say that it seemed as if most of the mothers were taking it quite well – might have had something to do with the fact that a lot of them were holding a child’s hand or pushing a stroller (oh, there’s a stroller drill team at the end of the parade too ). I suppose being in direct contact with a child makes it better: “See, I’m just doing this for the kids.” The dads were the ones suffering. There were a few that truly seemed to be enjoying participating, but most of them either had tense smiles on their faces and were trying to get by with the minimal amount of singing and dancing possible, or were desperately trying to keep up and remember what they were supposed to be doing. Heehee. I think this might be worse than dancing with a cactus on your head.

Have y’all seen the commercials for Las Vegas – the ones where people return from their vacation and don’t want to discuss what happened in Vegas (you know, ‘cause supposedly it stays in Vegas). I imagine the same thing happening to these people. They get back to work on Monday and at the water cooler, their colleagues say, “Hey Sam, how was Disney?” Sam has a flashback of being forced to sing and dance his way down Main Street USA while God and everybody watches. Back to the present, Sam pauses and says, “Fine.” before walking off with a silent prayer that no one will ever know.

I was forced to go back into the store and track down Mama and Dad – who had missed the whole thing – and we made our way towards the exit. We got to see the very end of the Family Fun Day parade, where vacationers, performers and characters stand around the circle and wave their flags and sing, and the Uncomfortable Dads hope that this doesn’t end up on YouTube.

Up next: A needed break and some fine dining at Le Cellier.

[Disney_Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Caldercup

....Clara Belle's nose is just so.... so.... well, suggestive! Makes me giggle like a 12 year old boy every time I see it.

Only you, Eileen! Although now that you mention it, I totally see it. It's hard to miss!

[Disney_Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Lemap760

OK, I give up. What is she doing with her fingers? It looks like she's trying to imitate the Walt statue behind her.

I think that's what she was going for. I'm not sure if she quite "got it."

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Scarlett Great pics of the girls and their morning adventures Glad you're all having a great time in MK (and on Splash) Can't wait to hear about dinner

[RobDVC]

I am so NOT an Uncomfortable Dad. I'd love to partake in the Family Fun Day parade and embarrass my family to no end.

[PrincessSharon]

Scarlett, I always knew we had a lot in common, but I didn't know you also had that "squeeze into the ride car with me even though I am a perfect stranger" look too! And now, thanks to you, I MUST watch the Family Fun Day parade!

[goofysdtr]

Hilarious, Scarlett! I love the way you find humor all around you! Very enjoyable TR!

[mestitch]

Another great update!!!
And as for this..

The only thing I can figure is that they deleted it because the teenage girls (who were really kind of cute about the whole ride and drop-anticipation) in front of us did the “rock and roll sign.” I don’t really consider that obscene, but I guess Disney doesn’t want to take any chances.

Andy caused one of our Tower pictures to mysteriously disappear. I don't think it's the actual rock and roll sign (cause I've got quite a few like that) but if that sign is turned to just the right angle, it could look like just one finger up in the air instead of two.... I totally ragged on Andy for being the one to ruin everyone's photo.

[KandJluvdisney]

great update scarlett
glad you got a lot done
hurry back with more please
can't wait to hear about le cellier

[Caldercup]

I was howling over Jeff's voicemail (you totally captured that!), the throwing away of the "not-frozen" yogurt, the memory of mattnkatsmum with the cactus hat on... and so much more.

But, the one that sent me over the edge was the thought that you and Sharon must have some deeper connection -- people seem to be DYING to squeeze into rides with you. Heeee!

Then you finish me with the coup de grace -- the description of the mortification that is a man ina parade he wants nothing to do with. "What happens in the Family Fun Day Parade, stays in the Family Fun Day Parade."

More, more, more!
Eileen