3,652 Days

3,652 Days. That's ten years, and two leap days, folks. And that's also how long Asa and I have been together. 

Not only is July 21st our dating anniversary, it's also our engagement anniversary. Six years ago yesterday we got engaged. Since there was no blog way back in 2008 (holy geez!), I thought I'd share a couple pictures from that night 

(Oh, Asa Waterstraut- you look like such a baby in this picture!) 

Anyway, usually on our anniversary we aren't even together. I've mentioned a lot how I miss nearly the whole month of July in Florida. Well, part of that is because I get to be a stay-at-home-mom and so I can go take off for a month at a time. Asa isn't so lucky, and usually gets left behind for all or most of the trip because of vacation hours and such. Last year we were lucky enough to spend it together in Seattle (my cousin Tim and his awesome wife got married that day), so we were partying it up at their wedding reception. But, for the most part it's not a day we get to spend together. But yesterday, Asa scrapped up one of his last few remaining vacation days, and we spent the day at Disney together. It wasn't quite as extravagant as our wedding anniversary, but it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Although, let's be honest, Asa and I have spent days wandering around thrift stores and had the best time. 

While narrowing down our Disney plans, (because you can't just say 'lets go to Disney'-- do you know how much there is to do there?!) we decided to take advantage of a no-kids day and do some things that wouldn't necessarily be into. So, we decided to do Epcot and walk the world showcase. While the boys like doing that, they only have so much patience for window shopping and trying new foods. We parked at the Beach Club, and took the boat into the back entrance. 

Our first stop was in the United Kingdom Pavilion. I've always heard about how awesome the fish and chips are there, but I'm not a fish eater. I decided we should try them anyway (since people really do rave about them), and honestly-- they were my favorite thing all day.  So good. 

Asa used the chips to make friends with a duck. I tried to stop him, but after ten years with him, I'm fully aware I married a rule-breaker. 

Our next stop was France, and while the pastries looked delicious, we were there for something else. 

I forget what it's called, and I wouldn't spell it correctly anyway, but it was basically a ham and cheese croissant with bechamel sauce. Pretty yummy stuff. (At $4 this often gets voted one of the best values on all of Disney property) 

We didn't see anything in Morocco that struck our fancy, so we went over to Japan. 

We browsed the shops here for quite awhile. They have some of the coolest stuff, and I always loved the tiny little dishes. Asa and I both picked one out. 

They also had fun tiles you could write on with water and they changed colors. We didn't buy any, but we had fun 'painting' some. 

Then it was off to Italy to peruse that pavilion. 

It was getting pretty hot out by this point, and gelato sounded amazing, so we stopped by the stand for a treat. 

We ended up with a cookies n cream gelato sandwich. 

We wandered a bit through Germany, and then over to Africa. There was a cute little stand there I'd never noticed before. They take old Disney maps and send them to Africa, where people roll them tightly and turn them into beads. They send them back and Disney sells the bracelets. I'm not a jewelry person, at all, but I do like the cute little stretchy beaded bracelets, and this is exactly what they are (I'm realizing now I didn't take a picture of the actual bracelet). Asa bought me one, and I love it. You can even see tiny writing on it from the maps. (At least one of my beads comes from a Typhoon Lagoon map). Half the proceeds go back to the Africans who made the beads. Super cool. 

We walked over to China and went back into the pavilion. We realized we'd never been all the way into it before, they had some really neat stuff. 

Of course we needed a Chinese Hat self taken picture. 

Norway is getting a little less authentic, and a little more about Frozen, which I don't love (I love Frozen, I just think the world showcase isn't the place for it), but we stopped for a Norwegian club (complete with lingonberry mayo!) and some School Bread. 

I know everyone tries on the big sombreros in Mexico, but that would be impossible to get in a picture, so we went with the tiny little hats. 

While we were pretty full, we've been hearing a lot about these cronuts (a croissant doughnut hybrid) and wanted to give them a try. It was ok. I would get it again for the boys to try, but probably not if it was just me and Asa splitting one. 

Back where we started in the United Kingdom, we ended up buying some of the stuff to make our own fish and chips (the batter for the breading), and some tea to take home. 

We were happy we still hadn't even seen the start of storm clouds, so we hopped on the boat and head back. 

Sadly, we can't crash the Beach and Yacht Club pool (it's the only one they check room keys), so we left and headed across the way to the Swan and Dolphin. 

We found a perfect set of chairs by the pool, under trees. The shade was welcome mid-day for sure. (I just noticed you can kind of see my bracelet in this picture) 

We swam for awhile and Asa decided we needed drinks to celebrate. 

Then it was more swimming. We spent hours at the pool, and it was awesome. No kids, we weren't dying of the heat, and we got to just hang out and relax. 

But then came the downpour and the thunder and lightning. We knew it was coming. The weather forecast never looked good for the evening portion of our date day, but it held out until a little after five. 

We did end up back at the Boardwalk for dinner though, we went to the ESPN Club, and split and appetizer and an entree. I picked the crawfish salad bites, having no idea what they'd be like. I thought it looked awesome when they brought it to the table. 

Asa on the other hand wasn't so sure. But, he tried it was pleasantly surprised. 

He picked the sundried tomato, arugula, balsamic, mozzarella Burger. It didn't disappoint either. 

We went over to the Boardwalk Bakery for desserts. They have lots to choose from, but we were there for the salted caramel ganache. 

Unfortunately, it was raining pretty good with no end in sight, so we knew our mini golf plans were out. 

But we found a nice dry place to sit. 

And we enjoyed our dessert with nobody else around. 

That was it for our day out. The kids behaved themselves at home, and we decided date-day might have to be a once a month occurrence. 

Today Asa is in the office, so the boys and I spent the morning on school work. I've got everyone's bedding going through the wash and I cleaned out the garage, so I've been pretty busy. 

Theme weeks are on a bit of a hiatus. Our last three were USA Week, Florida Week, and Harry Potter Week. Florida week got nixed because we didn't want to be running all over a week before we left, and nobody is up for outside Florida places anyway. I figured no big deal, we'll schedule that for the fall. But then USA week became tricky because it's a big all encompassing day and we've got too much going on (our anniversary, birthdays, SRC wrap ups, a MOSI trip, Hayden and Peyton's Evaluations, Night Practice & Training Camp, the Amazing Race/End of Summer Party), to get 7 days in a row to have to do everything I wanted to before we head out on vacation. I thought since it's already planned that'll be perfect for the week after we get back. Nobody will want to leave the house, and we've got nothing going on. Harry Potter week might still happen as planned in August though, we'll see. Until then, we've got all those above mentioned events and a bunch of summer bucket list items to get to, so I'm not too worried about staying busy. 

Up Next: It's Asa's Weekend! Yay!