Disney World Day 6- 1461 Days of Marital Bliss

Although I could hardly contain my excitement about our entire Disney trip, I was most looking forward to Thursday, the day we celebrated 4 years of marriage. 4 wonderful years of marriage might I add. Thursday contained my all time favorite memories of our entire trip. As soon as Matt heard me stirring and waking up Thursday morning, he pulled me close and whispered, "Happy anniversary," and then held me while we savored the moment of remembering back to an incredible first four years of marriage. While we were still in bed, he surprised me with the sweetest anniversary gift, a Disney themed Precious Moments figurine he had picked up earlier in the week. He saw me ogling over them in a gift store and told me he would get me one for my birthday or Christmas. I said okay but made him pick it out and surprise me because there were so many adorable ones that I couldn't choose. He chose the sweetest one and all along planned to surprise me with it on Thursday. It's displayed on our mantle now. I'm thinking it will probably be there for a while :).

We were able to have a lazier morning because we planned to visit Typhoon Lagoon, Disney's second water park and it opened later than the other parks. We made it to the water park just a few minutes before it opened and set off to explore. The ride I was most looking forward to at Typhoon Lagoon was a water coaster named Crush 'N Gusher. It was a coaster not a slide because they used powerful water jets to propel us upward several times during the ride. Once we shot up we would almost immediately drop down and were going fast enough to catch some air in our inner tube. Matt mentioned that he was surprised at how steep the drops were. I'm sure I screamed every time we dropped, not really because it was scary, but just because it was so fun! They had three different coasters in the ride and in total we rode it six times I think. We rode it 4 times that morning and a couple more times right before we left that afternoon.

The Crush 'N Gusher

After getting our water slide fix from the Crush 'N Gusher, we set off to see the rest of the park. Another neat thing at Typhoon Lagoon was that they had a snorkeling pool where we got to snorkel through a salt water pool. We saw exotic fish, sting rays, and sharks. We rode all the other slides in the park but weren't too impressed with anything else. Maybe we shouldn't have ridden the Crush 'N Gusher first :) Of course we rode the lazy river which was elaborately decorated with plants and waterfalls as we cruised through. The last thing we did before we left the park was the wave pool which had huge surfing waves. They were by far the biggest waves I've ever experienced in a wave pool.

We left the water park around 1:30, headed back to the hotel and grabbed lunch and rested and then got ready for our big evening which included a dinner reservation with Cinderella at her castle.

We made it back to Magic Kingdom around 5:30 that evening. Since it was the last time we planned to visit Magic Kingdom during our trip, we wanted to make sure we saw everything we had missed before. The first thing we did when we arrived was to see the Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-D show. We were disappointed in the 3-D effects, but I enjoyed the show. It was basically Donald Duck visiting Disney movies while the played all the famous songs. It was a great way to get in the Disney mood :).

We couldn't pass up a picture in front of the castle on our anniversary

After that show, we went to Tomorrowland to catch a few attractions we hadn't ridden yet. We grabbed fast passes for Space Mountain when we arrived so we'd get a chance to ride it one more time. Then we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority which was a ride that took us through a tour of Tomorrowland and its major attractions. It was leisurely and relaxing, and I'm pretty sure Matt enjoyed the dark tunnels we went through where he made sure to steal some kisses (Hey, don't judge, it was our anniversary).

On the Transit Authority

After that attraction we saw the Carousel of Progress show where we sat in a circular theater that moved and showed Audio-Animatronics figures sharing about the latest technological advancements at different time periods in the 20th century. It was amazing to think about how cutting edge all this was in the 1960's when Walt Disney thought of the attractions. I wonder if he had any idea of all the technology that was to come in the next 50 years.

We also rode the Astro Orbiter which was similar to the Dumbo ride but 3 stories higher. We realized as we squeezed into the spaceship that it really wasn't made for two adults.

Waiting to ride the Astro Orbiter

On the ride

Before we left Tomorrowland, we used our fast passes to ride Space Mountain one last time and then headed back to Fantasyland because it was getting close to our dinner reservation. We had time to ride one last ride in Fantasyland (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) and browse through a couple gift shops before we made our way to the castle. We booked our dinner at the castle on Valentine's Day, a good three months in advance, but still were a little disappointed that the only time available was 9:30 pm. Turns out we had nothing to be disappointed about. We couldn't have picked a better time to go. Matt was hoping there would be less children there so late, and it would be more of a romantic atmosphere. Well there were still plenty of children, but our reservation was timed perfectly with the Fireworks Display, and our reservations were so late that the restaurant began emptying out as we ate and was much quieter than if we had gone earlier.

I spent our 4 year anniversary at Disney World, eating dinner in Cinderella's Castle with my prince charming and a spectacular view of the fireworks shooting off outside our window. By far, it was the best anniversary we have ever celebrated and one that will be hard to top. Matt has his work cut out for him next year.

When we arrived we took pictures with Cinderella in the lobby before we went up to the restaurant. The photos were included with our meal, but unfortunately I don't have any digital photos of us with Cinderella. I guess if you want to see those photos, you'll have to come visit us. We waited in the lobby until the hostess announced that Cinderella had a royal invitation to have dinner with the Baugher family. Then we made our way upstairs to enjoy dinner. Dinner was a fun experience. The waiter referred to us as Lord and Princess whenever he asked us a question or brought our food. Shortly after we were seated at our table, the fireworks show started. Again I was mesmerized by the beauty of the Fireworks display and was thankful I got to see some of the show again. Talk about a romantic evening!

The hostess had warned us that we would have a limited viewing because of where the fireworks were shot from, but we saw so many more than I thought we would, and they played all the great music from the show in the restaurant.

While we were eating all the Disney princesses stopped by our table to say hi and take pictures with us. They asked what we were celebrating and when we told them it was our anniversary, they would ask how many happily ever afters we were celebrating. They also remained in character during our conversations. Cinderella mentioned she should take a pumpkin ride to Oklahoma, Belle told us her prince didn't shave very often, Sleeping Beauty warned us to watch out for dragons, and we overheard Ariel saying to another family that she wasn't used to walking on legs. I might not have been 5 years old and believing the princesses were real, but it was still special to see them and take pictures with them.
Our food was good, not great, but we didn't go there for the food. We went for the experience, and it was a great one. They brought us some fun souvenirs including a scepter, a sword, and some wishing stars. They also had a wishing star ceremony. I can't tell you what I wished for though or it might not come true :).

They brought us a special anniversary cake. Too bad we were stuffed from all the rest of the food by the time they brought it to us.

The dessert was really good!

During dinner we reminisced about all the great moments we shared during our 4th year of marriage. We each came up with a list of our top 5 moments together during year 4. We limited ourselves to one Disney experience in the list because Matt mentioned that he could think of 5 just from that week. Oh and we also decided that dinner at the castle didn't count in year 4 either because it occurred after our anniversary since we were married in the afternoon. I bet you can't guess what's going to make my top 5 list for our 5th anniversary.


Matt's top 5 moments of year 4
5. Watching OSU beat Texas Tech (Apparently this game had big consequences for him at work)
4. My birthday weekend. He mentioned how much he enjoyed just spending the day together celebrating
3. Visiting Branson with friends last August. We made some fun memories that weekend.
2. Standing in line and watching me ride the Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach
1. Camping at Montauk last June

Angela's top 5 moments of year 4
5. Watching OSU beat Georgia. It was the first game of the season at our new stadium. It was a great game too (back when we still had Dez and Kendall Hunter)
4. Visiting Branson with friends last August
3. Celebrating Valentine's Day. Matt made me breakfast in bed, we explored a new nature trail, had lunch out, watched OSU beat OU in basketball, and had homemade pasta for dinner.
2. Walking along the beach at Montauk
1. Seeing the Magic Kingdom fireworks at Disney World.

By the time we finished our meal it was close to 11:00, and we decided we should call it a night. The restaurant was pretty empty by then.

We caught a picture of Jack and Gus Gus hiding on the ledge in the lobby

We took one last picture of the castle before we left the park

Oh it was such a great night. I had high expectations for that night and was looking forward to it for a long time, but it exceeded my expectations. Sometimes when Matt and I are doing something romantic, and I get that feeling, the one where it feels like you're walking on air, and you're so happy you feel like your heart's going to burst and all is right in the world, I'll lean over and tell him, "I'm feeling all ooey gooey inside." Well, that night was saturated with ooey gooey feelings :). I don't think I'll ever forget it. I can picture us celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary and me saying, "Remember that anniversary when we ate dinner at Cinderella's castle." I made Matt promise that if we're ever at Disney World on our anniversary again, we have to eat at the castle.

I really can't believe we've been married for 4 years already. I just can't get over how wonderful they've been. We've had stressful times in our marriage, but the Lord has blessed us so abundantly since we've been married. This last year has been especially great. Removing the stress and busyness of graduate school has given us a chance to really enjoy each other and make great memories. Additionally, we feel like we are putting down roots in Tulsa and it is becoming home to us. We've made great friends and are settled into our jobs, neighborhood, and church family. We're cherishing the time we have to spend together just the two of us.