thrillphase

I wanted to thank you for pointing me in the right direction and provide the code that is currently working for me. (wp 3.7.1)
-in functions.php:

// Menu item IDs
function grab_menu_items(){
		$menu_name = 'primary';

    	if ( ( $locations = get_nav_menu_locations() ) && isset( $locations[ $menu_name ] ) ) {
		$menu = wp_get_nav_menu_object( $locations[ $menu_name ] );
		$menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items($menu->term_id);
		$theidlist = array();
			foreach ( (array) $menu_items as $key => $menu_item ) {
				$theidlist[] = $menu_item->object_id;
			}
		return $theidlist;
		} else { return; }
}

-and the query:

$menuitems = grab_menu_items();
    /* Query */
	$the_query = new WP_Query( array( 'post_type' => 'page', 'orderby' => 'post__in', 'posts_per_page' => '-1', 'post__in' => $menuitems ) );
    /* The Loop */
    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
   		<div id="box<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="shadow-box"><?php the_excerpt(); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>" rel="bookmark">read more</a></div>
    <?php endwhile; /* Restore original Post Data */ wp_reset_query();