Disney Marathon Weekend

From January 9-15th we took a trip to Disney World for Marathon Weekend.  I ran the half marathon on Saturday the 12th and Casey ran the marathon on Sunday the 13th.  We made a family trip of it so we also visited each park for a day.  We spent a night on the road and arrived on Thursday afternoon to our hotel - The Art of Animation.  Per Ella's request we stayed in a Little Mermaid themed room.  We also picked up our race packets that day and visited the huge expo.  On Friday we started our morning with a visit to the Contemporary Hotel for breakfast at Chef Mickey.  Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald came to see us at our table while we ate.  We then spent the day at the Magic Kingdom.  On Friday I got up at 3 a.m. for a 5:30 race start for the half marathon.  It was such a fun run.  There was characters along the race route and all kinds of entertainment.  I think I had a smile on my face the whole run.  It was just amazing!  Running through the Magic Kingdom and seeing the beautifully lit castle took my breath away.  It truly was an awesome experience and one I recommend to anyone!  After the race I headed back to the hotel to clean up and we then spent the day at Hollywood Studios.  Colby and Ella's grandfather "Pup" joined us for the day too. For lunch we ate at Hollywood and Vine to dine with our favorite Disney Jr. characters Handy Manny, Jake, Special Agent Oso and June from the Little Einsteins.  On Sunday it was Casey's turn to get up at 3 a.m. for the 5:30 start of the 20th anniversary of the marathon. He also loved racing through each of the parks and taking pictures with the characters along the way.  While he was running the kids and I got a head start at Epcot.  When Casey joined us we celebrated with some German beer and brats at the Biergaten.  We sat at a table with some other fellow runners and enjoyed lots of good conversation.  I think we stayed for almost 2.5 hours.  For the rest of the day we enjoyed walking around the many countries and ended the night with a quiet spot to watch Illuminations - a sentimental show for us as nine and a half years ago Casey asked me to marry him on the bridge in France during the fireworks show.  We finished our vacation with a trip to The Animal Kingdom on Monday and Downtown Disney that evening.  We had so much fun it was really hard to come home.  We are already starting to plan our next trip to Disney for Marathon Weekend in maybe 2 years.  Since I had so many pictures I wanted to share here is a slide show of all our favorite pictures from the trip.