Well, here we are! It’s the end of October and Dan and I are celebrating our very first wedding anniversary!We spent all day last Saturday taking in the beautiful fall foliage with the dogs at Fourth of July Canyon, stayed at the spectacularly amazingly Hacienda dona Andrea de Santa Fe on Sunday night for our actual anniversary, and then puttered around Santa Fe all day Monday. What a gorgeous time of year! The leaves were in full peak and the air was cool and crisp!
We, of course, had a fantastic time at the canyon and Dan and I very much enjoyed Santa Fe and our return visit to the hacienda for our anniversary, but, to be completely honest, I had really hoped that Dan and I would be celebrating with Mickey and Minnie again this year! Unfortunately, for a number of different reasons, an anniversary trip was simply not meant to be, and, in the alternative, we decided to spend the week fixing things up around the house (installing new light fixtures and faucets) and, on Wednesday afternoon, we had our 1-year anniversary photo session with our wedding photographer! How fun is that? I’m so excited about the faucets and fixtures and I’ll be sure and post a few anniversary photos a little later!
In the meantime (and as promised months ago), here are a few photos and a quick little update on last year’s honeymoon trip to Disney World in Florida. As mentioned previously, this trip was a total and complete surprise and planned entirely by Dan. We stayed at Disney's Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter and, despite the rough start described in my November 2009 blog post, we had an absolutely wonderful time and covered quite a bit of ground during our stay. We visited all four parks and took in all that there was to see, do, and enjoy, including a Cirque du Soleil show in Downtown Disney. Oh, and talk about magical! Dan and I were even selected to serve as Grand Marshals of the Main Street Parade at the Magic Kingdom! Yep, Grand Marshals!
Dan and I had just entered the park and taken a few photos when a man with a Disney badge approached us and asked if he could talk with us for a few moments. The conversation went a little something like this: “My name is Dean and I’m the [something or something] coordinator here at the park. I see from the pins that you’re wearing that you are both first time visitors and that the two of you just recently got married.” Dan and I are, of course, a wee bit skeptical, but this is DisneyWorld and the man is wearing an official-looking badge and seems harmless enough, so we confirm that yes, we are, indeed, first time visitors and that we just got married a few days ago. “Well, the two of you really seem to be enjoying yourselves (Heck! You’re wearing a top hat and veil on Main Street!) and I was wondering if you’d like to be in the parade today at 3:00 p.m.” Seriously? “You would ride in Mickey’s limousine and be Grand Marshals with another group of people, a lovely family of five.” What? You have got to be kidding? Grand Marshals? What’s the catch? “There’s only one condition, you can only be Grand Marshals if you agree to wear your gear and smile and wave at the crowd the entire time. Do you think you can do that?” Absolutely! “Meet me by the gates to the right of the Fire Hall at 2:45 p.m.” Wow! This is unbelievable! Dan and I are going to be Grand Marshals in today’s parade!
When we arrived at the Fire Hall, Dean happily greeted us and gave us each a set of mouse ear hats with our names embroidered on the back and a special certificate. We snapped a few photos with Dean outside the Fire Hall and then, a couple of minutes later, he brought us to a staging area behind the gates and helped us into the limo. A short while later, the music began to play and off we went! As the parade moved down Main Street, we heard our names being announced over the loud speaker and the crowd began to clap and cheer with excitement. After traveling down the parade route and waving to all the smiling faces in the crowd, we were dropped off at a special viewing area and watched the remainder of the parade, which began at Town Square and finished near Splash Mountain. The whole experience was absolutely amazing and I couldn’t have wished for a better thing to have happened on our honeymoon! What a magical day!
Dean took this awesome photo of Dan and me just before the start of the parade and the snapshots of us riding in Mickey’s limo during the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! parade on Main Street were taken by Trip, the Disney PhotoPass photographer assigned to the parade route.
