Favorite Princess Half Marathon Weekend Memories

The Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon is here and although I'm not running this year, I'm super excited to follow along with everyone who is! This race weekend is definitely a favorite of mine and I can't wait to return to run it again (hopefully next year)!

To date, I've run four Princess Half Marathon weekends and have so many incredible and fun memories from them, I thought I'd share a few today!

It's so hard to pick a first, so these are in no specific order. :)

Running with my family and friends! 

For 2017, we all dressed in our favorite seven dwarfs outfits and hit the roads for the Enchanted 10K! I loved being able to participate in this race with all of my family and I even saw them several times while on the course! So much fun!

Also, Brayden's first runDisney event (the Diaper Dash) took place at 2017's Princess Half Marathon Weekend and we had a blast being able to share in the excitement with him. (Where did my squishy baby go??)

Taking a picture in front of the castle with our medals was definitely a high point of this trip!

Dressing as Anna and Elsa for the Enchanted 10K

Back in 2015, my friend Melissa and I decided to dress as Anna and Elsa for the 10K, take our time, stop for pictures, and simply just enjoy ourselves. This race is one of my favorites to date! We re-wore our costumes for Dopey this year, but the cold really did bother us, so you can't see our outfits very well in pictures, anyway.

Bumping into Jeff Galloway while dressed for dinner...in our tutu's and tiaras! 

This will forever be one of o my favorite memories from a Princess weekend (2012 to be exact)! We'd completed our races and it was time for dinner. Our reservations were at 1900 Park Fare and we thought it would be fun to "dress up" for dinner. While enjoying a few snacks in the lounge, we bumped into Jeff Galloway who was just so very nice...he congratulated us and agreed to take a picture with us! We laughed and laughed and laughed some more. Such a fun night!

That time my mom had to have a tooth repaired after a 5K....


So, we can all laugh about this now and that's why I'm sharing it. It definitely wasn't a "fun" memory at the time but it is a memorable one for all of us...and like I said, we can laugh about it now. Short story version - my mom was tripped by a runner during the 2014 Royal Family 5K, she fell, and her tooth was cracked in half. Sad times. We stopped by medical but she didn't need stitches (thankfully)! We learned something new from this episode - there's a call center available where the schedules of several doctors, dentists, etc are available for vacation go-ers to use. We were able to get into a dentist THAT afternoon and her tooth was repaired within a few hours. CRAZY! My poor mom.

Running the Castaway Challenge with Jason!


One of my favorite Princess weekend memories is from 2015 Princess Half Marathon Weekend! Jason and I registered for races during the Princess Weekend (him the 5K and the Glass Slipper for me). We were also getting on the Disney Dream on the Monday following the race and I was registered for the Castaway Challenge. We had NO idea that Jason qualified for the Castaway Challenge as well, so he registered right there on the boat! Taking part in all of the runDisney activities with Jason while on board Disney Cruise Line was a BLAST and I definitely have my sights set on it again in the future!

Taking photos with Gaston while dressed as Belle

This is a runner-up memory from the 2017 Princess Half Marathon, but so worth mentioning. I stood in a ridiculously long line to take this picture but I HAD to and I'm so glad I did. This was by far one of the best runDisney character interactions I've had! Gaston was hysterical and he stole my book prop (I did get it back although he told the cast member to "burn it")! I loved everything about this brief character encounter!

If you're running this weekend, have SO much fun!!

If you've run races during Princess, what's your favorite memory from the race weekend?

Weekend Fun!

Hello Monday...we meet again!

The weekends always seem to go by so quickly, especially when a lot of fun events took place!

When the Astros World Series parade was announced for Houston on Friday at 2 p.m., I debated every in an out and up and down way for me to attend. Unfortunately, even though I had a half day of work on Friday, there was no way I would make it to Houston and into downtown to catch the parade. Instead, I watched live feeds from my cell phone! I was sad to not be there along with the projected millions of Astros fans, but oh well...it was really neat to see the live stream!

On Saturday morning, we were up very bright and early to attend a Princess & Superhero breakfast. A local dance club was hosting this as a fundraiser and we thought it would be fun to take Brayden!

He was super iffy about the superheros. He did give them a high five but didn't really want to....

The princesses, however....

He was enamored with these ladies, especially Sleeping Beauty's dress. We thought it would be funny to have a picture made with him in the middle of all of them. I'm sure he's going to be mad at me one day for this but for now, it's adorable.

Another trip we almost made was to WDW. I was initially supposed to be there this weekend anyway to surprise a friend running her first runDisney event but with the hurricane/cruise cancellation and rescheduling, this trip didn't work out. THEN the World Series parade was announced for Magic Kingdom on Saturday and we debated dropping all of our previous plans to attend, but there was just way too much going on this weekend. So again, I watched this one as live stream from my house!

After nap time, we went over to a local park that just opened this weekend. It's SO nice and a decent size for our small town and Brayden LOVED IT.

Yes, I'm aware that it's November and yes, it was in the 40's last weekend...but not this weekend! We had high's in the upper 80's here this weekend which was perfect for an afternoon at the splash pad.  He loved playing in the splash pad and didn't want to get out!

He also loved these new swings as well as another little play area where he could turn knobs and push buttons to his heart's content. In all, it was an amazing afternoon!

We arrived early at church on Sunday to drop Jason off for orchestra practice, so instead of waiting around for an hour and a half for service to start, Brayden and I went to Target to check out their Christmas collection!

He LOVED the trees with blinky lights!

Sunday night's service was very special for me as four young ladies I've worked with for a while now earned achievements in our Wednesday night program. They've all worked very hard for years and have come very far! It was a really special honor for them!

I hope everyone who ran Wine & Dine had a lot of fun this weekend! Seeing all of the social media posts and stories made me even more excited for January! Dopey, here I come!

How was your weekend? Anything exciting happen?

Pinterest Pins & A Giveaway

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been loving these Disney Wordless Wednesday posts because they really throw a fun element into the middle of the week!

Today’s theme is: Pinterest Pins
Host: Deb at Focused on the Magic
As another runDisney race weekend (Princess) draws closer, my Pinterest board has once again been over run with costume ideas, funny images, packing lists, etc! Here’s a few of my favorite Pinterest pins as of late….and you might find a giveaway here somewhere that’s perfect for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend, so stay tuned! :)

















---------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of runDisney and costumes, how about a giveaway? :) Amber of Chic by Amber recently reached out to me about her fun Princess themed costume tops that would be the perfect addition for any Princess Half Marathon/Enchanted 10K/Royal Family 5K costume (or any runDisney event for that matter)! She’s offering a giveaway for one top in the style/size of the winners choice between the four that she offers below:



Source

Aren’t they so cute? Enter via Rafflecopter below. One lucky winner will be chosen on Monday, February 2nd.


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck and happy running!
---------------------------------------------------------------

Want to participate in an upcoming Wordless Wednesday? Click on the button below for more details!

Disney World in February Take 2

Thanks so  much for all of the Anniversary wishes yesterday! We  celebrated over breakfast because both Jason and I are working different schedules at the moment. We do plan on going out for dinner sometime within the next few weeks but nothing is set in stone yet. Guess we’ll see! :0)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

My last Disney World recap left off at the night of the 5K in Epcot.

The following morning, I ran the Enchanted 10K and Jason came out to cheer me on (yes, at o-dark-thirty – he’s such a good sport)! After the race was complete, we went back to our rooms to shower and Jason fell asleep (can’t say that I blame him). He decided to sleep a few extra hours and would then meet my parents and I at Hollywood Studios at noon.

My parents and I decided to have a bit of morning fun in Epcot. We didn’t have a chance to check out World Showcase the night before and that’s what we wanted to see. Our first stop was Club Cool with the new “coke” flavors (in the south, if it comes out of a “coke/soda” fountain, it’s a coke). :0)

I really enjoyed the new Fanta flavors and have even seen the pineapple one in a local store (canned)!  My dad was insistent he never tried the Beverly – so being the lovely daughter I am, I handed him a glass. His expression was hilarious! That might have been kind of mean. Whoops.

See how empty China was? Norway was a completely different story. The line for Anna and Elsa was enormous. When I returned home and read reports of the line begin 5+ hours at times, I believed it!

No trip to WDW (or Epcot for that matter) is complete for me without a traditional picture in Germany.

After passing Germany, my mom began searching for her long lost tooth. Yes, she did. We knew she wouldn’t find it but helped her anyway. Poor tooth.

Somewhere around the American Adventure, we bumped into Heather and her family. After talking for a few minutes, we continued on to the International Gateway.

I told my parents that the walk to Hollywood Studios “isn’t that far”, so they agreed to walk. I think Marathon brain hit me upside the head because guess what? It was further than I remembered….by a lot. Ninety percent of the time I’ve been on that path has been while running so the distance seemed a lot shorter. “It isn’t that far” became our new joke for the trip. Thankfully they were good sports about the whole thing!

Our fast passes began in Hollywood Studios in the afternoon, so we met up with Jason and rode several rides – including Tower of Terror (which I hate, by the way). Not sure how they talked me into that one. My parent’s also hadn’t experienced the new Star Tours and they loved it!

My dad, Jason & I got in the single rider line for Rock ‘n Roller Coaster and I guess it’s hit or miss, but we were in line for forever. We honestly didn’t save much time by taking that route vs the regular standby line. Oh well…lesson learned.

Another trip traditional picture – with “Karen” in One Man’s Dream! :D

As we entered the fastpass line for Toy Story, I couldn’t help but laugh…..

…my mom might have gotten a new nickname…"Scooter” (related to her 5K incident)!

We had fun on Toy Story, then said goodbye to Hollywood Studios. After boarding a bus to Wilderness Lodge, we met up with Heather and her family to take a boat to Fort Wilderness for dinner.

This was the first time our dads were able to meet and I think they talked more than the rest of us! We had a great dinner and loved hanging out with them.

Love the buffet at Trails End. If you ever have the chance, go! It’s delicious – and they make their own homemade sweet tea….yummm!

After dinner, we spent a few hours walking around Downtown Disney (party animals, right)? Disney trips don’t usually involve sleep for me. :0)

The following day, I ran the Princess Half and my family was there to spectate and cheer runners on. After cleaning up, we spent the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom!

We arrived just in time to see the ending of the morning parade!

Lunch reservations were for the Crystal Palace with friends.

Piglet is too cute. I asked if he ran the race that morning and he gestured that he was sleeping.

I somehow convince the boys that they needed to take a picture with Tigger!

This picture made me laugh because I have NO clue what I was doing!! Who knows!

We rode several rides and enjoyed the rest of our afternoon spent with friends. The park was open until 1 a.m. and I had every intention of staying until I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer.

Since I missed Snow White during the race that morning, I wanted to find her before leaving the parks.

Mission accomplished!

Wishes is a favorite for our family – we try not to miss it!  

After the fireworks, we walked around New Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Adventureland before finally calling it a night around midnight.

The following morning, we checked out of our resort and boarded a bus for the Port terminal.

On our way out, I met Kimberly! She stopped me because she is a blog reader and wanted to say hi! Hi Kimberly!!

This was my breakfast the morning of the cruise. I purchased it a few nights before in Downtown Disney and forgot to eat it. Since fresh fruit is not allowed on the Cruise Line, I had to eat it before leaving. Therefore, it became my breakfast!

Up next: A Magical Cruise! :0)

Do you have any vacation traditions?