KatMark
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2007
Hello to all of my old friends and welcome to any new friends who come along for the journey.
Let me introduce the cast of characters:
Grumpy – DH (Mark, aged 57 – we no longer hide our ages)
Mark is the sweetest kid at heart you’ll ever want to meet. He first went to Disney with friends a year or two after Disney opened. He loves everything Disney (watching Disney movies, reading Disney history and trivia, etc.). Mark works in sales and also umps baseball games in the summer (he started to ump games after he stopped coaching our two boys when they went into high school).
Grumpy’s wife – Me (Kathy, aged 52 – told you we no longer hide our ages)
I first went to Disney in 1976 with a girlfriend after we graduated from business school. At the time I thought…okay did that, won’t have to do it again. Then I went with Mark the year we got engaged (1982) and I fell in love with everything Disney – the magic, the rides, the themes, the restaurants, watching young kids the first time they see Mickey, etc. Mark and I have made over 20 trips to Disney now…some just the two of us, some with the kids, some with the kids and my parents, and once with our best friends (to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary). I have worked for for the same attorney at a law firm for 34+ years; I love to read, to DIS and to watch my kids with their sports teams (they both no longer participate themselves, but they both coach; Andy is 24 and Mark will soon be 22).
Here is a picture of the boys, even though they are not members of our Cast this trip. But they are Mark's and mine pride and joy (they've turned into really great young men!). The picture is the last picture I have the boys with their grandfather before he passed away August 2008 (Andy is on the left and Mark on the right of my dad).
DIS Food Porn Queen – Nicki (okay, not giving Nicki’s age because I don’t have her permission to do so
)
(Mark and Nicki outside of Starbucks on Marco Island
I met Nicki here on the DIS about 18 months ago. When she found out we were going to Marco Island she told me she lived in Naples but worked on Marco Island and that we must have dinner together. We had it all planned, but then she had to go home to Boston for a family funeral. So instead, we met at Starbucks before Mark and I were going to dinner. You would have thought we had known each other forever. We spent 90 minutes together and never stopped talking. Poor Mark couldn’t get a word in…sorry, honey ). We now talk every day either on FB, email or by phone. We have become super friends and we love her dearly. I’ve not yet had a chance to meet her husband, Todd, but Mark was in Florida last week on business and had dinner with Nic and Todd and they had a great time. If Nicki can get off of work, she will join us for a couple of days at Disney (Todd just got a new job so he won’t be able to join us). We are hoping she can because we know we will have an absolute blast.
This will be our fourth year in a row (we didn't go in 2006). We went in 2007 to celebrate my 50th birthday and my successful breast cancer surgery; 2008 we celebrated our 25th anniversary with our best friends, Tom and Shelley (this was a week after my dad passed away and we almost cancelled...but Dad made me promise him one the last times he was able to speak in the hospital that we would go and celebrate this monumental milestone and in 2009 we just celebrated life in general.
To be continued…when are we going and where are we staying (like anyone has any doubts about the where).
Let me introduce the cast of characters:
Grumpy – DH (Mark, aged 57 – we no longer hide our ages)
Mark is the sweetest kid at heart you’ll ever want to meet. He first went to Disney with friends a year or two after Disney opened. He loves everything Disney (watching Disney movies, reading Disney history and trivia, etc.). Mark works in sales and also umps baseball games in the summer (he started to ump games after he stopped coaching our two boys when they went into high school).
Grumpy’s wife – Me (Kathy, aged 52 – told you we no longer hide our ages)
I first went to Disney in 1976 with a girlfriend after we graduated from business school. At the time I thought…okay did that, won’t have to do it again. Then I went with Mark the year we got engaged (1982) and I fell in love with everything Disney – the magic, the rides, the themes, the restaurants, watching young kids the first time they see Mickey, etc. Mark and I have made over 20 trips to Disney now…some just the two of us, some with the kids, some with the kids and my parents, and once with our best friends (to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary). I have worked for for the same attorney at a law firm for 34+ years; I love to read, to DIS and to watch my kids with their sports teams (they both no longer participate themselves, but they both coach; Andy is 24 and Mark will soon be 22).
Here is a picture of the boys, even though they are not members of our Cast this trip. But they are Mark's and mine pride and joy (they've turned into really great young men!). The picture is the last picture I have the boys with their grandfather before he passed away August 2008 (Andy is on the left and Mark on the right of my dad).
DIS Food Porn Queen – Nicki (okay, not giving Nicki’s age because I don’t have her permission to do so
)
(Mark and Nicki outside of Starbucks on Marco Island
I met Nicki here on the DIS about 18 months ago. When she found out we were going to Marco Island she told me she lived in Naples but worked on Marco Island and that we must have dinner together. We had it all planned, but then she had to go home to Boston for a family funeral. So instead, we met at Starbucks before Mark and I were going to dinner. You would have thought we had known each other forever. We spent 90 minutes together and never stopped talking. Poor Mark couldn’t get a word in…sorry, honey ). We now talk every day either on FB, email or by phone. We have become super friends and we love her dearly. I’ve not yet had a chance to meet her husband, Todd, but Mark was in Florida last week on business and had dinner with Nic and Todd and they had a great time. If Nicki can get off of work, she will join us for a couple of days at Disney (Todd just got a new job so he won’t be able to join us). We are hoping she can because we know we will have an absolute blast.
This will be our fourth year in a row (we didn't go in 2006). We went in 2007 to celebrate my 50th birthday and my successful breast cancer surgery; 2008 we celebrated our 25th anniversary with our best friends, Tom and Shelley (this was a week after my dad passed away and we almost cancelled...but Dad made me promise him one the last times he was able to speak in the hospital that we would go and celebrate this monumental milestone and in 2009 we just celebrated life in general.
To be continued…when are we going and where are we staying (like anyone has any doubts about the where).
since I know this is going to be good. 
).
and 
