1,461 Days

Yesterday was hands down one of my favorite days ever. I really do keep track of these things. There was the day in Alaska we drove from Anchorage to Fairbanks, the day we drove down the Oregon Coast, the day after our wedding when a bunch of us went to Cedar Point, the day we did all 4 Disney Parks in one day, maybe even the day we went to Jamestowne and the Great Wolf Lodge. But, in the 1,461 Days that Asa and I have been married, yesterday might be the best. 

We has decided a couple of weeks ago that we were going to spend the whole day at Disney, doing Disney things we never get to do, either because they cost money (our Disney budget is usually just enough for a dole whip), or because it's just not something we'd do as a family (usually because it'd be too expensive). 

Asa actually came up with the plan to spend the day at Fort Wilderness. For those of you who don't know, thats the campground (they also have cabins) at Disney, just across the lake from the Magic Kingdom. The big draw is they have a million things to do, and you never have to leave the grounds. 

We had Ohana reservations for dinner since the 180 day window opened for them. Knowing we'd want to be super hungry for that, we opted to skip lunch in favor of breakfast. Not only would we save money (breakfast is cheaper than any other meal at Disney), we'd have an excuse to leave the house early (and make a WHOLE day out of it), and we'd be hungry for Ohana. We'd heard great things about the breakfast at Trail's End at Fort Wilderness, so we decided we had to try it out. 

It was AWESOME. And, for a Disney buffet total affordable at $15 a person (thanks to a passholder discount). My favorite had to be the pulled pork eggs benedict. It was amazing. But, the praline topping they have for the Mickey Waffles came in at a close second. And I LOVE the yogurt parfait bar with mason jars full of yogurt, fresh berries, and granola. Also the 'moonshine' juice was super yummy. 

And Asa was a fan of the bacon. Though you might think this is a total no-brainer, he actual isn't usually too keen on buffet bacon, but this stuff was good. Another favorite: The french toast bread pudding. 

After breakfast we rented a canoe and paddled down the river that winds through the property. We paddled so far down that you couldn't see any other people or hear any other sounds. It was SO quiet and peaceful. Every once in awhile, we'd just stop paddling and sit there. 

And let me just talk about the weather yesterday for a second. It was PERFECT. Or, as perfect as you can get in June in Florida. Yes, it was hot. We sweated a ton with our life jackets on while we paddled for nearly an hour. But, that was really the only time it was super hot all day. And it wasn't humid at all. It didn't rain, it didn't even cloud up too much. I wouldn't even say it was hot except for about noon to three and we spent most of that time in the pool. Really, we couldn't have asked for better. 

It was super fun canoeing, and apparently our passes earned us a huge discount. It was less than $5 to paddle for just about an hour. 

After canoeing, we spent the heat of the day at the pool. It wasn't even too crowded. 

A couple of hours later, we got out to dry off. We decided to just keep our swimsuits on so we could jump in the pool before we changed for dinner to get refreshed. 

Then it was time for what was probably my favorite part of the day: Archery! This was a little pricey, but totally worth every. single. penny. 

Safety first! We had funny safety glasses to wear. 

I tried to take a picture of the bows before I had to put my camera away, but our instructor Mark decided to photo bomb my picture. Thats ok, because he was AWESOME, as was our other instructor, Forrest. Kudo's to these guys. (Also, Forrest has been married to his wife for 50 years, he said he can't even remember four!) 

Every couple of rounds, they'd move our shooting line back a bit. Asa was FANTASTIC at archery (my leftie husband even used his right hand and was better than me!) . I wasn't terrible, but I wasn't amazing either. When we were all done (You get a 90 minute lesson!) , they invited everyone up for some pictures, and a nice guy offered to take ours. 

After Archery, we headed back to the other side of Fort Wilderness, we were scheduled to have our carriage ride at 5:30 (the first of the day according to the sign), but we were there over an hour ahead of time. 

So we decided to rent those fun sea racer boats that are always out on bay lake and the seven seas lagoon. Passholders also get a hefty discount on these. I had no idea, or we probably would have done it a couple weeks ago when Calib really wanted to. We even spotted an otter swimming around the docks. 

We each got our own boat and headed out ! 

It was SO. MUCH. FUN. Asa claimed my boat was way faster than his, because I left him in my dust several times. We  took the boats all the way over to the Magic Kingdom (you can kind of see the castle and space mountain in the background there) 

After boating, it was time for our carriage ride. We had originally thought we would horseback ride, but we decided since the only other time we had done a carriage was our honeymoon, it was kind of fitting. And guess who our house was? It was Angus! Merida's horse from Brave. She uses him sometimes in parades and such. 

The carriage ride takes you around Fort Wilderness and down some trails. It's a nice quiet, peaceful ride. 

We even saw some deer on our carriage ride. 

I can't remember our driver's name, but she was also awesome (and thanks to her for taking this picture!) Disney cast members are just the best. We had picked up the 'Happy Anniversary' buttons last time we were in the Magic Kingdom, and every,time you turned around a Disney cast member was telling us Happy Anniversary, and asking how many years we'd been married. 

After the carriage ride, we went back up to the pool for another swim. The water was awesome, perfectly refreshing. 

Then we changed for dinner, and left Fort Wilderness. I did get a magnet to commemorate the day. 

When we got to the Polynesian we did our anniversary picture-in-picture-in-picture-in picture.(or whatever you want to call it), where each year we take a picture of us holding the anniversary picture of the year before. Year one is getting awfully small. I wish this picture didn't have such a glare on it, we'll have to use a different one (we take a couple and pick the best). This one is awesome though, with the monorail in the background. 

The cast member who took our picture (thanks Gwendolyn!), was really excited to do it. She loved the picture in picture idea. Then she said 'have you guys gotten your anniversary lei's?' We told her we had just arrived, and she insisted on getting us special anniversary lei's. The Polynesian gives out cute plastic ones to people celebrating birthdays and such, so I assumed this is what she meant. 

She walked us up to the front desk, and asked the manager for some anniversary lei's. To my surprise, they were real actual lei's. I got fresh flowers, and Asa got one weaved out of tea leaves. They said we had to give them to each other, and then give each other a kiss, and insisted on taking some pictures. I told you Disney cast members are the best! 

We were pretty excited about our leis. 

We went upstairs and checked in for our 7:50 pm reservation. We only had to wait a couple of minutes before our pager went off. 

If you've never been to Ohana, you have to go. It's SO good. Yes, it's expensive, but it's amazing. I wish I could eat it everyday. it's served family style, but they will bring you anything you want more of. It's all yummy, right down to the salad and bread. There's some kind of passion fruit dressing on it, that I can't ever get enough of. The pineapple bread is also amazing. 

Then they bring out noodles, vegtables, chicken wings and potstickers. Last year I wasn't a huge potsticker fan, but this year they were tossed in some sauce that I'm going to have to figure out how to recreate at home. 

The vegetables are one of Asa's favorite, mostly because they contain baby corn, and water chestnuts. 

Then they bring around skewers of beef, pork, and shrimp that have just come off the grill. You can have as many pieces as you want. But really, by then you're already pretty full. If that's not enough, they finish up the whole thing with a banana foster pudding ice cream mixture that's just heaven. I love doing new and different things for our anniversary, but I don't know how we can not do Ohana every.single.year. It's just awesome. 

Maybe some day we'll even be able to stay at the Polynesian too. You know, when all the kids are grown and gone and we have money to spend on ourselves. Though, this anniversary was a huge splurge! But, I mean, I feel like we deserve it. We don't really do Christmas presents, or birthday presents, or anniversary presents, and we only do something big for our birthdays every other year. This is like our one day of year to go big for just us. 

After dinner we went out to the beach, and even got to catch some of the movie for the night: Wreck it Ralph. 

But, we were there for the fireworks. It's always awesome to see Wishes. I love watching it from across the lagoon. 

Then, before we headed home, it was time to carry out one more tradition: jumping in water in our clothes. It all started with jumping in the hotel pool in our wedding attire at the end of our wedding reception. Every year since we've jumped in some water (the gulf, a pool, even a fountain last year when we were desperate). This year the weather cooperated, and we got to jump in the pool. 

A nice passer by-er even took a picture for us. 

A quick change of clothes and we were headed home. It really was an AWESOME day, and while I don't get mushy on facebook or my blog, I am a very luck girl to be married to Asa. He's quite the catch. Here's to many, many more super fun years together. 

When got home just before midnight, and I  found a good place to hang our leis in our room to dry. 

A big thanks to Calib who held down the fort the first half of the day at home, and then Justin who came to monitor dinner and night time (and even played battleships and wii U with the boys). It's super awesome to go out all day for that long and not have to worry about whats going on at home. 

Next Up: A Low-Key Day at Home! I need to recoup from all the craziness of yesterday. We'll resume our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.