My daughter is quite the one with the funny.
This year for our annual Disneyland trip she decided to surprise Mark with custom made t-shirts in his honor.
For those of you who don’t know Mark let me explain that he is not one to draw attention to himself. He’s a great guy with a good sense of humor but he would just as soon not be in the spotlight.
So needless to say when he found out it was his year? Well, let’s just say he was less than enthused. But he took it like a champ. I think his first comment was “I just wish I had known 11 months ago”.
As for soaking in all the attention? He spent most of his time looking for rocks to crawl under. He kept his jacket on most of the day even though it wasn’t cold… he’s from Indiana for crissake, how could he be cold in SoCal?
At one point he asked for a black marker so he could add “EX-” in front of the word “Wife” on Jayare’s t-shirt.
As we strolled through Disneyland we could see almost everyone who passed us reading our shirts. Some of them read out loud and just laughed but about every five minutes some guy would say “Hi Mark!”
Since we had a wheelchair we got to go in the exit for most of the rides and get on sooner. When we went to Big Thunder Mountain we were waiting on the opposite side of the tracks from the “normal” folks waiting in line. It was a narrow space so we stood in single file facing the crowd. No one really seemed to notice us so I’m sure Mark was happy about that.
As the train was approaching we heard over the PA system “Everyone please watch out… this is the year of Mark”. LOL. Laugh? I thought I’d die.
After we finished the ride and left the platform we heard the PA system again in the distance “Mark has left the building…”
Then again as we walked through the park about every five minutes “Hi Mark, nice family you have there!”
As the day wore on several people ran up to us and said “We have been seeing you guys all over the park! We haven’t said anything but we have to know… why is it the year of Mark?” We had a hard time coming up with an answer to that. I tried several different answers throughout the day but I guess my best answer was “Well, we were all born into this family except Mark, he joined by choice so we figure he deserved it”.
The absolute funniest moment was at dinner. It had been a long day and we were all pretty much ready to just sit and relax and eat. We went to the Pizza Port which is like a cafeteria where you go pick what you want, pay for it and then find a table and eat. To our pleasant surprise, no one in the whole place said anything to us. We enjoyed our dinner while we discussed what we would do next. Once we were decided we stood up and headed toward the door. Just as we reached the door we heard the entire restaurant in unison yell “Goodbye Mark!”
LOL.
God it was a great day. I just can’t image what we could do next year to top it.
