Celebrating a Decade of Magic

Back in July, at our Peper Family Reunion, it had come up that the Warren's 10th Anniversary was the next month.  Clay and Katy mentioned they had decided to go on a trip without the kids to celebrate.  They had debated Hawaii but knew Clay would be bored while Katy would have been content to relax on the beach with a book.  So they had made up their minds to hit DisneyLand.  Interesting... and the more I thought about it the more intrigued I was.  We had made several trips to Disney World with the kids - its a great place.  Then I began to think about all the great things we could do there without kids, and all the things I wouldn't have to worry about or lug along.  Huh.  We never did anything big for our 10th anniversary because we moved here to Florida that summer.  Interesting idea.  Very interesting... Well what did I do next??  At the end of the reunion I was alone with the Warrens in the car as I drove them to the airport.  And I might have sort of kind of invited myself on their 10th anniversary trip :[  Who does something like that?!?  I'm awesome I know.  But I promised them that if they came out to DisneyWorld instead that PJ & I would be cute & fun company for them, they would get awesome military discounts that would save them money, um... I can't remember what else I tried to sell them on but I was trying pretty hard.  And they didn't seem to think it was all that bad of an idea.  Which got my hopes up.  And sure enough by the end of July they had airplane tickets bought and I had a resort and dining reservations booked!  We were ready to go!... but had to wait until November.  But it was totally worth the wait :)

Another added bonus to this trip, other then going kid free with my sister, was that I got to go and experience Christmas there.

PJ got picked from the audience to be an extra in the Indiana Jones Stunt Show (which we hadn't been to before).  And this may seem like a random picture of a squirrel but I was pretty proud about how perfect of a picture it was - and a nice lady on the tram was pretty impressed as well... at least that's what she told me when I was trying to get a compliment on it from my husband and he was ignoring me...

Disney gives you big round 'pins' to wear around the park to announce if you are celebrating anything - like 1st visit there, happy birthday, family reunion, happy anniversary, etc.  All of their employees are very well trained to comment on them every time you pass them.  Our first day at the park we grabbed pins that said "Happy Ever After" on them since we were there on our anniversary trip celebrating a decade of magic.  Half way through the day we took them off because everyone was so nice and kept congratulating us and we were ready to be done talking about it :)

 

It was so nice to stroll along hand in hand, not worrying about where we left a stroller or who was on the verge of a melt down or what snacks we had left in the backpack.  We didn't have to worry about wait times (which were practically none existent anyway) because we didn't mind waiting because we didn't have to constantly remind any children not to hang on the ropes or back up off the people next to them or tell them 20 times how much longer it might be - we just relaxed and talked.   

Preston & Clay got picked to be the armed guards at Enchanted Tales with Belle and they did a dang good job...

Speaking of those Happily Ever After pins... I had never seen Gaston before but we saw him wondering around.  PJ made some comment to him about how his muscles were bigger/real so Gaston came back at that with checking out how his hair looked in PJ's sunglasses.  I laughed at the obvious jab at how my sweet hubby has no hair.  They were funny.  When it was mine and Katy's turn to say hi to him I handed PJ my bag (which had my pin on it).  As I walked up Gaston said Hi and said that he noticed how quickly I ditched my Happily Ever After pin as soon as I saw him :)  Oh these characters are so cute and fun...   

So we didn't have kids with us, but we went to the bathroom WAY more then we would if they were there.  We maybe take our kids like twice a day when they are there.  But I swear one of us adults had to go like every half hour - enough that it became noteworthy :[  And since we are all good parents we knew that if one person had to go then we all might as well at least try too.  So it became a joke that when ever we passed a restroom sign we asked if anyone needed to go - and sadly usually one of us did, so we all did.   

I learned that Clay LOVES the "corn" (aka popcorn) at Disney and that he's a big fan of the Mainstreet Daper Dan's quartet.

 

I think Preston told someone his favorite part of the trip was the food.  We did eat at some amazing restaurants (that we never would have gone to with the kids).  And when you are paying like $30+ a person for a buffet you kinda feel like you need to get your money's worth.  So a few times we ate a little too much.  And it was fun because we didn't have snacks in our bag since we didn't have kids with us and so we bought a little something when we were hungry (something PJ does't usually let us do).  We finally tried these Dole Whips that everyone talks about (sorry we weren't in love).

 I'd been patiently waiting to try one of these babies and Preston promised this trip we'd do it (this time I was in love - way better than a Dole Whip)...

It became a running joke... someone would ask, 'Hey, when do we EAT?!"... and then we'd all throw up a little in our mouths at the thought of food :)

Love this picture... taken in the Animal Kingdom Wilderness Lodge before our dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe...

 Another one of my top favorite photos I took...

We ate a Mickey Waffle for our kids :)

Oh, surprisingly it was my first time on Hollywood Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain - loved them both!

Another running joke:  The first night we were there it rained.  Nothing really hard or torrential but at times it was coming down.  So Katy and I asked, several  times very nicely, if we could pretty please purchase some ponchos (they weren't even that expensive, we are talking like $8 here folks).  But no.  Our husbands insisted that it would be a waste of money, we wouldn't use them again, and so we could deal with some dampness for the night.  Well of course as it turns out we could have used them basically everyday while we were there - which we didn't let them hear the end of.  No, it didn't rain every day, although it did sprinkle a few times off and on.  But for instance one night is was chilly and we wanted to go on Splash Mountain without getting wet (please notice the backpack on Clay's head in the picture).  Or when we scored awesome front row seats at Fantasmic (which we hadn't seen before) and the amazing water show kept spraying us so bad it might as well have been raining...

We happened upon this lights spectacular in HollyWood Studios one night where it even "snowed"...

One evening we explored Disney's Boarwalk (another area we'd never been to before) and hit up Beaches 'N Cream Ice Cream shop...

It was "chilly" one day - a high of 60 - which required us to purchase some hot chocolate and blankets to warm up with.

Oh to be kids again...

We also did the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater... totally cute...

 

Probably my favorite part of the whole trip was getting to stay up late and experience all the nighttime light displays/shows/fireworks... absolutely gorgeous.

We certainly had an amazing time celebrating our 11+ years of magic in the happiest most magical place there is :)  Thanks for letting us tag along Warrens!