WDW: friends old and new

ONE fantastic thing that I got to experience, that I've never gotten to before, was getting to meet up with darling, dear friends while on vacation.

The day before my birthday was that day for me!

We spent the day in The Magic Kingdom, where one of my dear friends from high school works.

Even in HS, I remember that Katie wanted to work for Disney. I am so incredibly impressed by her drive and her ability to make her dreams come true. She was one of the few people I really bonded with in the band, and she was one of my favorite friends from AHS. Katie, I simply adore you!! I hadn't seen her in about 7 years, and that's far too long. She's quite the employee at Disney, and it's so exciting to have a friend there and get to hear about the wonderful things I should be checking out. Seriously, I will be ANGRY with any of you if you go to WDW and don't try to find Katie. She's a gem. You would be lucky to know her!!

Speaking of being lucky to know people...

About 10 days (correct me if I'm wrong, girls!) before we left for Disney, so only a few days before we left for the wonderful Port A, I spent the day emailing with my sweet friend Ashley. We were able to put together plans to meet and I wouldn't be lying if I told you it was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most.

I must preface this with: if you're an ABDesigns client, and you've been emailing with these girls, you know they're sweet. But in reality, they're about 1,000,000 times sweeter in person. So, what I'm saying is, yes, they really are as good and wonderful as they appear in their emails and blogs. Which is not a surprise, but still totally wonderful.
We met with Ashley and Betsy at the Irish Pub in Downtown Disney (we took the aforementioned boat from the resort!)-- we sat outside, ordered drinks and ate appetizers. Ashley and Betsy-- well, they ordered the most fantastic french fries I've ever tried. I told you all ages ago that I knew I'd be fast friends with Ashley and I wasn't wrong-- and Betsy too! I knew I'd love both of these girls to death and I truly, truly do. Zach was very sweet to play a party to our girl's meet up, but once he discovered Betsy's deep rooted love of college football, he was pleased as punch. Besides that, both Ashley and Betsy have dogs and he's always more than willing to share a story from work (or two...). He still laughs about us posing for the camera, and simultaneously busting out presents for each other.

See:

scarf swap scarf from betsy & sweet personalized ABDesigns cards from ashley. love these girls!!

BTW, Betsy, I wore my scarf the other day and got so-many-compliments!! Aaaaand I might have also gotten the "neutral" scarf to match your purple one. Scarf twins!! 

Betsy is also the reason that I no longer find Gatorade appealing. Ashley is the reason that I'm DYING for a Hyatt to open in Sugar Land that is the *bomb* to entice Ashley and Manolo and that they'll have an extra room for Betsy and her soon-to-be Mister.  I'm dying for these girls to make a trip to TX, and I'd go anywhere in the state to meet them (and that's saying something!!! i'm lying, if they said they'd be in NOLA I'd be there... ).
They're so wonderful, so unanimously wonderful, that at one point Zach asked me why I hadn't begged them to take a day off of work and join us at EPCOT on Friday for a few drinks. Like, we love these girls. I'm still trying to convince him to take the FL Vet Board Exam so we can move to Orlando.

OMG, let's do a girl's trip to Dallas!! Sorry... I've been trying to figure out a way to see ABQ and EKH again since, oh... we parted at the pub. 

I love all 3 of you sweet, darling girls!!!! Thanks so much for making my birthday trip EXTRA special.