Seventeen

Years. That's how long we have been married. We celebrated 17 blissful years of marriage on Friday. Actually, we celebrated on Thursday but our anniversary was on Friday, so really, we got to celebrate for two days!

To commemorate 17 years, my husband planned a surprise for me (I love it when he does that!). He arranged a sitter for the kids after school and whisked me off to Disneyworld for the day, the place where we honeymooned many years ago. Here are some THEN and NOW pictures:

Then

Now

Thanks to the stranger who took this picture (fuzzy and all):
Then

Brady looks so cool in his sunglasses and we look awesome in our denim jackets, don't you think?)

Now

(we had been very rained on at this point - more on that later - so when I asked Brady right before this picture, "How bad is my hair" he said, "Pretty bad but that's okay." Ugh. Didn't make me too excited to have my picture taken.

Then

Now

Can you believe we found Sombrero Donald all these years later?!)

Okay, now here's a bunch of pictures from Thursday. Brady is in the Coca-Cola Cool Center where you can try soda from around the world. No offense Brandon (or the other Hydes) but the soda from Italy was the worst! It was so bitter and I almost gagged!

Here's me with my hot chocolate (that was a life saver! warmed me right up.) and the big Christmas tree.

Isn't this a lovely Cinderella castle? It's for sale. If you can't read the price tag in this picture, scroll down.

Do you think Santa will bring that for me? :)

This year Disneyworld has been having their "Year of a Million Dreams" celebration. I think what that means is they give random gifts out around the park to people who just happen to be in the right place at the right time. When I chapperoned a field trip to Epcot last spring with Meghann we were the recipients of such a gift - a Disney lanyard with two trading pins already attached.

Brady and I were in the right place at the right time on Thursday. We were standing in line for Soarin' (the most awesome ride ever) and we heard two workers announcing it was the "year of a million dreams" and they were about to make some dreams come true. This time they were giving out a Dream Fast Pass - basically a pass to walk on the six most popular rides without waiting in line). Awesome! They had so many passes to give out and it just so happened that Brady and I got the LAST TWO! How lucky is that?! What a nice anniversary present from Disneyworld! We were able to ride Soarin' three times thanks to that fast pass (we didn't use all six of them though, because a few of the rides just make you downright sick. Remember "Mission Space" Dallas? We thought of you, but didn't ride the ride!)

Anyway, here is the REAL reason we went to Epcot Center on Thursday...to listen to their Candelight celebration. They invite a guest narrarator to read part of Luke 2 from the Bible about the birth of the savior, combine it with a choir and lots of pretty lights and decorations, and it makes for a nice Christmas program that centers on Christ, something you don't find much of outside of a ward party. Our guest narrarator was Marlee Matlin, isn't that funny for a deaf person to be the guest "narrarator?" So they introduced her as Marlee Matlin with Jack Johnson (who was actually the voice while Marlee signed). She was a good signer though, showed lots of emotion and was enjoyable to watch.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we got soaked in the morning from a downpour, and by 1:00 we actually drove home and changed out of our wet clothes so that we could go back and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening in dry, warm clothes. By the time we got back to Epcot the rain had cleared and we enjoyed blue skies and sunshine after that, but what a bummer to be rained on! Oh well, it's all memories, right? And what fun memories they will be. We had a great time being together for the whole day and night without a worry about the kids. I know Disneyworld is for kids, but it's a great place for adults without kids too!