Adventures of a Mermaid

I honestly cannot believe I never updated about my fabulous vacation and amazing half marathon! Where have I been?! I guess there's no time like the present.

Florida was absolutely amazing!! It was pretty tricky actually getting to Florida. After sitting on the runway in Omaha for like 3 hours trying to de-ice the plane and figure out if we were even going to be able to leave that day. We finally flew out of Omaha and made it to Chicago. We missed our flight to Florida from Chicago, and there were NO MORE flights to Florida that day. We ended up getting a hotel room and trying our luck on standby the next day. While we were stuck in Chicago, our luggage continued on to Orlando, luckily we all had at change of clothes to at least sleep in and be comfortable. The first flight of the morning was booked, BUT luckily they decided to add another flight for all of the 45 people that missed their flight the day before. This was actually almost better (minus the whole arriving in Florida a day late thing) because there were only about 10 of us on this flight....which meant LOTS OF ROOM!! I even got a Dr. Pepper! The super nice flight attendant, Cheryl, only had one, and she had no idea how it got on there, but she snuck it to me. I was very grateful! We FINALLY got to Orlando. We had some trouble finding our luggage that beat us there. We found all of ours except Dad's. They wrote down Dad's number at the airport and began the search, saying they'd call him when they found it. As we were loading our bags into the car right outside the door, Dad's phone rang. It was the airport they had already found his bag. It somehow arrived way earlier than the rest of ours. Weird.

Once we were all loaded into the van, we set off to the Resort. Orlando was absolutely Beautiful! It was so warm and pretty! There were actual palm trees! We got to the resort, checked into our room, and settled in a bit. We stayed at the Port Orleans-Riverside Resort. It was absolutely beautiful!! Everything looked and sounded like it was from New Orleans, which means there was plenty of Princess and the Frog things in our room. The room were beautiful, and very comfortable with plenty of room. After we settled into our rooms and grabbed lunch, it was off to the parks!

I can't remember which Park we went to first, but I do know what ride we rode first. And that would be the one and only AEROSMITH ROCKIN ROLLER COASTER!! Now until this point I had never actually been on a big roller coaster, and I have discovered that I do no like them. But I WILL make an exception for this one because 1.) It's Aerosmith 2.) it's only 90 seconds long, and 3.) everyone screams on it so I don't feel as wimpy hehe.

The next day we went to the Animal Kingdom. Which is absolutely beautiful. The Tree of Life is sooooo cool and beautifully made, it's unbelievable. It was kind of rainy this day, but we managed not to get too wet. Me and my cousin went off to do our own thing and spent some quality time together. We walked through the Asia bit which had some cool animals in there, like Tigers. After that we went on the Safari Ride. Disney has their own Animal Reserve in the Animal Kingdom, and the Safari takes you through it to see all of the animals. It's one of my favorite rides there, I love animals. When me and my cousin went on it, we got extremely lucky. All of the animals were out and about, even the Safari Driver was amazed at how many and how well we got to see. He said it was the best one he's ever done. There were so many beautiful animals, including my favorites: Elephants and Giraffes. We even had a Giraffe walk right by us! I couldv'e put my hand out and touched it!!

That night we went to the Polynesian resturant, Ohana. Ohana means Family. And that's exactly what they tell you there. They said that we were all family and like to think of everyone as cousins. And that's what they called us. Cousin. It was really fun and I loved being called Cousin the whole time. It really did feel like everyone there was family and cousins. I like to think that's how Uncle Walt would have liked it, and not just at Ohana, but through out the whole park. Disney just means Family and connects people. The food there was so amazing and they just kept bringing it, until you couldn't eat anymore. Then they brought you dessert! Once we were done eating Chelsea, my cousin, and I headed back to the resort to get some rest for our big day the next morning.

Unbelievably, I actually got some sleep that night. 3 am came very fast, and we were up and at em. We got our lovely costumes on, did our hair, brushed our teeth, packed our bag, and found a delicious surprise of yogurt, powerade, and a sweet note from our family wishing us luck. We ate our yogurt on the way to the bus stop. We were heading to the starting area pretty early, but I'm glad we did. The buses and bus stops were already pretty busy. Once we got to the starting area and walked a bit we found a HUGE row of port-a-potties with pretty long lines. We decided to jump in one and empty our blatters before we started running, then we walked and walked to our corral. We were in Corral L, we even got Belle on our number bibs (she's my favorite). My bib even said Princess Shelby on it! The race started with Corral A at 5:30 am. Each time a corral started there was beautiful music and fireworks. I'm so glad they did that for everyone and every corral and not just the beginning people. Disney sure knows how to make everyone feel loved. It took about an hour before our corral was up. Pretty soon we were off!

The first couple miles were a breeze. At mile 2 we saw the girl in first place already heading back to the finish line! She ran the entire 13.1 miles in a little over an hour. Talk about crazy!! Soon after we cheered her on we came to our first entertainment and cheer section.

Now, if you know nothing about Run Disney you have no idea what I'm talking about. Let me explain...RunDisney excourages EVERYONE, and I do mean everyone, to participate in these events. Whether your're insanely talented like the girl in the lead, or your not in the nest shape but are determined to run this event, it's a blast for everyone with lots of support. RunDisney also knows how much of a struggle it will be both physically and mentally. Spread throughout the 13.1 miles, they have water stops, and first aid stations, but most importantly they have entertainment and support to help you make it through. And believe me it makes a world of a different running past these, and feeling all of the love and encouragement even from people who don't know you.

So the first little entertainment spot was these really awesome bird kites. As we ran past the people flying them, the kits/birds were soaring overhead. Now this is Disney we're talking about, so of course there was music. If you were thinking that the perfect song to go with these beautiful kites would be Let's Go Fly A Kite from Mary Poppins, then you'd be right. That song was blasting through the speakers and made everyone smile and start singing along with it. Some even started skipping instead of running. It beautiful to run through.

Soon after the kites, we saw the guys! Aladdin, Flynn Rider, Hercules, and Prince Eric. At these character stops you can stop and stand in line for pictures, however, we knew we were going to struggle and be slow so we didn't stop to see them. But I did stop long enough to get pictures of all the characters we passed. The guys were very handsome and we all loved to see them. We kept moving on, I struggled a lot on the "boring" stretches, but Chelsea was amazing to help me push through and encourage me. Unfortunately because there were so many people and announcements and things going on I couldn't wear my headphones, which meant I couldn't zone out to music like I normally do. I struggle with the mental side of running and not giving up, but this was really tough. My knees started killing me, but I trudged on.

Soon we entered into the Magic Kingdom (my favorite park out of them all). The next picture spot were some of the race cars from the race track thing they have there. As we kept going, we grabbed powerade and water at every stop to keep hydrated, along with Biofreeze and Vaseline, or "goop on a stick" as they called it, at every First Aid stop. We soon came upon the Villans. The Queen of Hearts, the Evil Queen fro Snow White, and a few others were there at the character stop.

After the Villans we came across a really cool drum band. Once we heard their music, many of us started dance running and just jammed out. Temporarily forgetting about the torture we were enduring. After the Drum Band we went under and over-pass where some worker was dancing to the DJ's music with GIANT Mickey Hands on. He was a blast to dance with and watch. He made many of us laugh which is exactly what we needed at that point.

It was a but foggy at this time with the sun just coming up. Once we left the overpass and giant mickey hands behind we came around a corner. As I looked up I got my very first glimpse of the castle. Throughout the whole trip this far, I had not seen the castle. My amazing Aunt planned the trip so that I wouldn't see it until I was running the half marathon, to make it that much more special and to give me extra motivation to keep going and reach it. Once I caught a glimpse of it, I immediately hit Chelsea's arm, pointed, and started crying, (which makes running very hard to do haha), with a huge smile on my face. The castle is absolutely beautiful and so glad I got to see it for the first time doing something so special. Another runner saw me crying and just said "Make it to the Castle. You can do it, just make it to the castle." I was really struggling and the support of that other runner helped me even more. Chelsea explained to her that this was the first time I was seeing the castle ever. I had been waiting years and years to see it and it was finally happening, and I was so happy I was crying. All of the runners around us that heard her explain this, Awwwwed and encouraged me just to keep going. And I did. I made it to the Castle. Right before we ran through the Castle we made a quick pit stop, since it was just about half way through the race. After our pit stop I kept running and running, seeing the castle, touching it, and running through it gave me the boost I needed to keep going. Throughout and the whole trip Chelsea had been getting "ugly crying pictures" of me and even got some while running.

After the castle, we came upon Snow White and Prince Charming. After them it was another long boring stretch, I struggled a lot through this one. I was really worn out, tired, and was hurting. But Chelsea was there once again talking me through it. I kept pushing through it. We soon came to the halfway point. RunDisney took a poll of what song we wanted blasting at halfway. It was the one and only Let It Go. I trained to this song many many many times before the half. I cried once again hearing it. It made the whole thing real, that I was actually running a half marathon.

We saw Mary Poppins and Bert with some Penguins next. They were beautiful and fantastic. As I was taking a picture Mary even looked at me and posed for my picture. I was smiling so big after that. After Mary and Bert, we saw Genie from Aladdin. I love him! One of my favorites. After him, we ran past the guys again. I got a great picture of them all posing. This time running past them all of us, the girls at least, whistled and yelled at them. They managed to laugh only a little and stayed in character pretty well.

Next up for characters was, Captain Jack Sparrow, Barbosa, and their Pirate Ship. They were awesome. Too bad it wasn't Johnny Depp as Captain Jack. hehe. After them was the Sergeant from Toy Story. He had a microphone and was yelling "orders" at us as we ran past. Mostly orders of encouragement, but orders nonetheless.

The next huge challenge of the event soon came upon us...the dreadful exit ramp. We ran under the over passes, waved to the people on the over pass, got some water and powerade from the fabulous volunteers that really really encouraged us up that ramp. We started our walking at the bottom of it. Me and Chelsea worked out a system at this point. Power walking and small running goals to help me keep going. Halfway up the ramp we spotted Flynn Rider up ahead and made a goal to catch up with him. We were so close to making it to him, but I came up a bit short. My knees and I really don't like hills. But I ran a little way and that's what counts. We finally got up the hill, I went to the side, looked down at the other runners below, and cheered them on. I know how much I was struggling. They needed it just as much as I did. We ran for quite a ways after that. We soon made it back to Epcot for the final stretch of the race.

Tons of people were gathered on the sidelines in Epcot by this point. They cheered and cheered and gave high fives to us on the sides of the pack. It helped me so much more than they even realize. Without all of those people cheering all of us on I would have struggled a lot more than I did. They gave me those extra pushes I needed so badly. My favorite fans were all of the workers that cheered us on. They were all in their costumes and stood outside of their shops or just on the sidelines and cheered, supported, and encouraged us on. They called us Princesses and helped me so much. I love all of the workers there, but especially the ones who stood out there for hours helping us all.

When we got to the main part of Epcot there was this hilarious Pink Fairy talking to everyone and cracking jokes. There were lots of visitors in the park that were trying to get to rides but had to wait for a gap in the runners before they could. The fabulous Pink Fairy kept everyone entertained.

After her was the last stretch, the last .1 of 13.1. I knew that this was going to be the hardest part. We continued to weave through Epcot. Chelsea was getting super excited to finish and just wanted to run. Starting out we said that we were going to do it together. I told her to go run, that I had held her up enough and she needed to go. She deserved to run full out like she wanted, she had put up with me being a slow poke and walking the whole race so far. She was really hesitant at first. I could tell she really wanted to go, but didn't want to break her promise of staying with me no matter what. I told it was okay, she deserved to run like the wind, she finally said okay. As she was running off ahead of me she looks and says I'll meet you at the finish line! I kept trudging on, now alone. As much as I wanted Chelsea by my side, I knew I had done the right thing and this was just going to test me that much more. Everyone on the sidelines was cheering so much and so loud knowing how exhausted we were. Through my exhausted haze, I remember coming around a corner, towards the backstage area, there was this Security Gaurd standing there. She was cheering and encouraging us all on. She didn't stop for one minute. She kept saying around the corner, the finish line is just around the corner, we made it, we're amazing, and heros to everyone watching. I'm sure she doesn't even realize just how truly amazing and helpful she was. She helped me finish that race, when I didn't know if I could. Right after her, there was the amazing Gospel Choir that finishes the race. They stand there jamming out and singing and you just smile and feel so happy running past them, knowing that you made it. That you're almost there.

I turned the corner right past the choir and saw a HUGE crowd of people.....and the finish line. The noise here was so loud! I was so tired and exhausted, but seeing, hearing, and feeling all of the excitement and energy helped me pick up the pace and to finish fast and strong. As I passed over the finish line all I could do was throw my hands in the air, smile, and saw YES! I couldn't believe it, I actually completed a Half Marathon. After months and months of training. I kept walking with tears in my eyes. I managed to find Chelsea. As soon as we saw each other, we gave each other the biggest hugs we could while crying tears of joy (and maybe a little pain). I was So Very Proud of us. We got our medals, then got a picture taken with them together. We went and got our packed we checked in at the start and tried to find our parents.

We eventually found them and got huge hugs from Dad and Auntie Glenda, along with some heavenly ice cold water. We went back to the resort, took some pictures, jumped into the shower to de-smell/glitter. The others soon headed off to have some fun while Chelsea and I headed to the pool to cool off our aching muscles. We used the jets to massage our super sore legs. We soon headed back to our room for a much needed nap. When we woke up again, we got dressed, and headed out to meet up with the others, wearing our beautiful medals of course.

That night we ate at Be Our Guest. It's so beautiful!! It right out of Beauty and the Beast with the Ballroom and West Wing and everything is PERFECT! We ate our yummy food and for dessert I got the Grey Stuff. It really is delicious!! When we were finished eating we got to walk around, explore, and take pictures. The West Wing and the picture of Prince Adam that was slashed and the beautiful rose spinning in its glass thing. It was all dark and kind of creepy looking, but perfect. Another room had different pictures they made of Belle, Beast, and all of the other friends. They were super cute and I loved looking at them. The last room we went into was the best, just because WE GOT TO MEET THE BEAST!!!!! Chelsea and I were soooo excited, were kind of spazzing out and squealing and shaking and all of that good stuff. Apparently he was mimicking us behind our backs, but we didn't even care. When it was our turn we went over and stood by him, we took the picture, but he wouldn't let go when we tried to walk away. He wanted to keep us! We both said that that was fine, we'd stay! Everyone laughed when we gladly agreed to stay. Hehe. After dinner we watched the amazing fireworks. Disney fireworks are the best.

After riding a few more rides, we went to this cute little show called Story Time with Belle. It was really cute. We started off in Marice's workshop. There was this cute little mirror on the wall. It was really magical because it expanded into a door we walked through into the castle!! I want one! When we walked through the magical mirror, we got to talk to the Wardrobe. And Yes she actually talked! Needless to say, I want one of those too. All of the little kids got to reenact how Belle and the Beast fell in love. It was super cute. We then walked into the Library where Lumiere was on the mantel. He talked to!! And yes I want him as well. Soon Belle came into the library and we surprised her. She reenacted the story with the kids. She was so perfect and absolutely beautiful! When the story was done, all of the kids got to take their picture with her. All of a sudden one of the workers there came up to me, held his hand out, and asked "Can I have this picture?" I was so shocked! But of course I said YES! As we were walking to the front he said I chose you because 1.) Your shirt. I was wearing my favorite Beauty and the Beast tank top. 2.) It's your birthday. I was wearing my birthday button. and 3.) because of your medal. I was wearing my medal from the half marathon. The worker introduced me to Belle as Princess Shelby. Belle said Hello, wished me a Happy Birthday, and said Congratulations on finishing the Half Marathon. We took a picture and she gave me a bookmark with her on it. I was so happy I couldn't stop smiling! That made my day and experience so much better.

We then walked around the park and went on some more rides. The Magical Kingdom had extended hours that night, so because we has Magic Bands we got to stay for the extended hours. We went on the Peter Pan ride. I loved it! It's now one of my favorites. We walked by the Little Mermaid's Cove where she is to meet and found out that she was still there. So of course we went to meet her. She was beautiful and adorable. The park soon closed for us too and we headed back to get some sleep.

The next morning a got delicious Mickey Waffles for breakfast, and man were they good! Before Chelsea and I even thought about leaving our bed Auntie Glenda handed us Aleve and water. Getting out of bed and moving around was not fun at all. My legs were so sore. Once we started walking around they loosened up a bit and weren't as stiff. Luckily the other slowed down their walking so Chelsea and I could keep up. That day we were off exploring Epcot. We rode the Speedway track, which is kind of like a roller coaster but not at the same time. We got to design our own cars, Chelsea and I made one together. Then we sat in this 6 passenger race car and went through different tests they performed on cars. Like brakes, acceleration, etc. At one point it takes you outside and you get up to 60 mph. Then at the end you get to see how well your car did. Ours didn't do very well, oh well!

We rode some other cheesy rides, which are my favorite. I even glimpsed Elsa and Anna! The line was way too long to meet them though. We soon headed off to the Germany Pavilion for dinner. We ate at the Bier Garten, and oh my goodness! It was soooo delicious. Everyone that works there is from Germany and has cute German accents. They even and am oompa band! Chelsea and I headed off to explore some of the other pavilions after dinner. The England pavilion even has actual red phone booths that you can make calls in. I wanted to call Mikayla but it was late.

The next day was our last day there. :( We left a lot earlier then John, Glenda, and Chelsea. But before we headed off, we went to the Magic Kingdom one more time. We grabbed some yummy food and hit some shops for last minute gifts. We spent our remaining snack credits and got some food to take home. All too soon we said goodbye and headed off to the airport. It was so hard to say goodbye. Especially saying goodbye to Disney. I love it there, it's another home, someplace I feel like I belong. And of course I cried when leaving.

To our luck, this time things went smoothly at the airport. I slept a bit on the first flight and listened to music. When we landed in St. Louis it was freezing and the total opposite of Florida. We grabbed some food and waited for our second flight back to Omaha. Shortly, we were landing in Omaha. We got our bags and called the car service. They came and got us and took us to our started car. I was so happy to be back and to get some much needed sleep. But oh how I do miss Disney. And of course John, Glenda, and Chelsea.

I am so glad that my dream finally came true and I got to go to Disney World. There were some tough times, but tons of memories made. I have so many pictures to look at and remember all of the amazing times I had there. I accomplished so much on that trip that I never thought I would. Disney World is so special to me. I look at those pictures and see my medal, it all brings tears to my eyes, even writing this whole thing did. I am so proud at what Chelsea and I accomplished. I know I will be going back to Disney many, many, many more times. It has my heart, even more than it did before.

Love,

Shelby <3

Here are many pictures (but only a small portion of the ones taken) for you to look at. In no particular order :