Days in the Park Turns the Big 0-1!

Days in the Park outside Club 33 - February 20, 2011

It's so hard to believe that a year ago today we made our first post at Days in the Park.  What started out as just a regular Blogger blog with a Blogspot name, "ourlivesasdisneyfreaks.blogspot.com", quickly went through a domain purchase and became the site most people now know as Days in the Park.  The last year has been such an amazing experience for all of us!  When Mark and I first started, I'm not sure we ever expected to last this long; it was just a way for us to start writing and share our stories with a few people here and there.  But it's long since become basically a daily thing and we're still going strong!  And we hadn't been at it very long at all before we met Amy through Twitter and asked her to join up with us, she seemed like such a perfect fit, and she has been!

It's been awesome writing about Disneyland on a daily basis; it's not always the easiest thing to do, and we may not have grown quite as much as we would have liked over the year's time, but we've been thankful to each and every one of the readers we've had and always will be!  We said all along if we had just five readers a day who cared what we had to say, we'd keep it up, and we have, and we will!  We've had the opportunity to do so many things that were just dreams of ours thanks to so many of our readers; it's just been incredible!  The Disney community has proven to us time and time again just how generous its members are, and we're forever grateful to those who have made our dreams and so many of our "wishes upon a star" come true.  And we've made so many friends over the course of the past year that I think for me, that's where the true joy has been.  We've all enjoyed meeting our readers inside Disneyland, getting to hang out with them there, and we now have true friends because of it that we'll have for years to come.

Overall, it's just been an amazing experience that we wouldn't trade for the world.  So as we mark our first year officially in the books now, we look forward to our next year and what it might bring for us.  It hasn't always been the easiest row to hoe, and things haven't always gone as planned, and some things have conspired to make us wonder if we're doing the right thing or not, but here we are, and here we'll be.  We hope that you'll continue to be here with us as we move forward into another year here at "Days".  Thanks so much to everyone who shared in our first year.  Onward and upward!
~Chad

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Wow!  Has it really been a whole year?!  Time sure flies when you're having fun!  If there is one word I could use to describe the last year, it would have to be "incredible."  So many incredible things have happened since we began our blog this time last year.  Some of my own personal highlights were:

• Starting the site, of course!
• Finally fulfilling the dream of eating at Club 33
• Finishing my very first Vinylmation set - Muppets Series #1
• And Heaven forbid I forget my very first Dole Whip!

But none of that can top the fact that I got to meet and hang out with some of the funnest people.  You all know who you are, but enough about them (LOL!).  I want to thank our readers for making it all possible.  Without you guys there to read our stuff, we probably wouldn't be doing what we love doing.  Finally, I want to thank Chad.  If it wasn't for this guy I wouldn't have met most of you guys.  I have to thank him for all of the gas he's used to get us to Disneyland, all the times he's put up with my bad jokes, and all times he's let me whoop him on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.  Just wanted to say "thanks" dude, and a huge "thanks" and to all our readers out there.  Here's to the next year!
~Mark

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I am truly honored and absolutely love that I get to be a part of Days in the Park's first anniversary! Seriously folks, Chad & Stephanie and their boys, and Mark, are about as awesomesauce as they get, and I love that I get to be a part of the fun here on our blog.  I am so thankful that I was introduced to Chad and Mark through the wonderful randomness that is Twitter.  I first connected with Chad on October 18th, 2010 (yes, I even went back and checked my email to double check the date).  We "followed" each other on twitter for about a month, and then on Sunday, November 14th, while visiting Disneyland with another friend, I learned that another new friend I had recently met on Twitter was in The Park with her daughter.  So, I made arrangements to meet up with her in Frontierland, and lo and behold, she had met up with Chad, and "ta da!", that was the first time I got to meet Chad in person!  It was like meeting a long lost brother or something.  Not long after I met Mark, and it's pretty safe to say that from that point on these guys are my life-long "Disney bros".  Even though it hasn't even been a full year yet, it feels like we've known each other forever.

I was honored when they asked if I would be interested in helping contribute content for their blog, and while I haven't been able to post as often as I wish these days, it's been such a joy to have the opportunity to share my love for Disneyland and the memories I have with other people who also share that love.  You guys really are the best readers around and your comments are always so kind.  Know that you are greatly appreciated and that you are an integral part of what makes Days in the Park what it is!  So thanks for joining us in this celebration!  I say we all meet up at Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room for a celebratory Dole Whip (ha)!  I appreciate the time that each of you share with us here, and look forward to another year of sharing our adventures in Disneyland!
~Amy

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From the bottom of ALL of our hearts, we say "Thank You"!