M-I-C... K-E-Y... I-N-S-P-I-R... A-T-I-O-N!

I'm 26 (and 3 days) old now and loving it so far! Because my friends are awesome (those that went along and those that stayed), we spent this past weekend celebrating in Disney World!

Out of the 9 people that went, 3 of us had the same birthday, one was the next day and one is in a week. Another friend, who did not travel with us, came to Disney to run the 1/2 and the full marathon (not on the same day. Overall, we had a lot to celebrate!

First, we celebrated the fact that we all made it there on the same day. We had lots of weather issues this weekend starting with our flight! We ended up making a lovely side trip to Pittsburg! It was fun though because our group is full of easy-going people. We event got some of the people on our plane to participate in "The Wave". Awesome!

Disney World was filled with princesses, fun rides and more importantly princes - ha ha! No, seriously, Prince Charming = hot! But I digress... After braving a day of cold and rain and one more ride on Space Mountain, we headed to Hemmingway's for our surprise birthday dinner. I'm pretty sure that was one of the tastiest meals of my life! I'm tempted to try and recreate the crab cakes that I ate.

Epcot followed and friend Julie ran the 1/2 marathon with a good time despite the rain and freezing temperatures. I thought it was really funny when one of the "cast members" (all people who work for Disney are considered Cast Members) said, "I bet you're from up north, aren't you?" "How could you tell?" I asked. "You're all dressed appropriately for the weather!" So true... We hit all the rides and went to every country. Holly and I took a picture in front of all the signs. Holly had never been there before and was probably the most excited of everyone! Besides getting our photos taken with signs we also got EVERY classic Disney character. I promise the photos are a hoot (I also promise that I found my camera cord despite the lack of photos).

The next day we slept in and relaxed while Julie ran the full marathon. Yup, she ran both. When you do that, it's called the "Goofy Challenge". Aptly named, huh? Anywho, Julie did awesome and Holly, Annie and I were so inspired, we decided that we're going to run the Marathon in 2012. This way, I can run my 5ks and we'll have LOTS of time to train. Just watching the people run both days was so inspiring. I think it's awesome when people just reach for their dreams and get them! If anyone wants to join us, we'd love to have you!

As we were waiting in a LONG, LONG line to get through security, I noticed how many people were still wearing their finisher medals and marathon shirts. If I finished, I would TOTALLY wear the shirt for a week, and the medal for a month. They were all talking about how much fun they had and how they were so glad to have done it. I'm so there people!

Pictures and fun anecdotes later - this traveling birthday girl needs to hit the hay!