Hollywood Studios

While Ly and Alan only spent one entire day at Hollywood Studios, they nevertheless had a blast. Thanks to the new FastPass Plus system, they were able to reserve fast pass times way in advance so they did not have to participate in the rope drop mad rush to ride Toy Story before the lines became crazy long. Thus, after a morning at Animal Kingdom, they meandered over to Hollywood Studios where they had a grand time. They rode the new star tours ride, which was fun but made Ly feel slightly motion sick and Alan beat Ly at the Toy Story ride by a million trillion points. The Osborne Lights were one of Ly's favorite parts of the park. This is only during the holiday season, but there is an area of the park that is filled with twinkle lights that even dance to music! Christmas songs, sparkling lights and fake snow just add to the magic of it all. Seriously one of the best parts of the holidays at Disney!

Highlights of Hollywood Studios include: eating grapefruit cake while sitting outside in the sunshine, learning to draw Grumpy at the Animation Academy, watching Fantasmic, riding Rock n' Rollercoaster multiple times, and wandering the Osborne Lights hand-in-hand.

Epcot

While Ly loved Animal Kingdom, Alan loved Epcot. The firework show at Epcot, illuminations, is by far one of the best shows in all of WDW. In fact, Ly & Alan went and saw it twice! The holiday message added at the end about world peace is certainly powerful and beautiful. Needless to say, Ly & Alan spent a lot of time in the evenings at Epcot - they even walked around the world showcase when there was hardly anyone left in the park. It is certainly a magical feeling to be one of a handful of people left in the park.

Some of the other highlights of Ly & Alan's Epcot adventures include: riding test track multiple times, buying a stuffed penguin in Japan, walking hand-in-hand around the world showcase, designing and riding our own roller coaster, lunch at the french bakery, and walking to the Boardwalk for an amazing dinner at the Flying Fish Cafe.

We highly recommend a trip to Epcot, especially at night.

Animal Kingdom

When Ly + Alan were at Disney, Ly fell in love with Animal Kingdom. Since Alan got super sick on their first day at Animal Kingdom (read: motion sickness), Ly & Alan spent some time exploring the park and avoiding the rides. They walked on all of the trails and saw tons of animals. Ly loved the fact that she could be a wilderness explorer and collect badges throughout the entire park. Alan also enjoyed this discovery because it distracted Ly & gave her something to do other than ride Expedition Everest a million times. They also took tons of photos of the animals (no surprise given Ly's affinity for animals). Animal Kingdom is so beautiful, the imagineers really out did themselves with the theming - from the lines themselves to the park in general, the entire place is plethora of beauty.

In fact, Ly loved Animal Kingdom so much that they decided to change their plans and went to Animal Kingdom every morning to ride Expedition Everest (her favorite ride...it goes fast, backwards in the dark, and even has a big drop) as many times as possible in a row before Alan puked (the limit was 4 times without a small break) and then to say hello to some of their favorite animals before going to visit the other parks.

Alan & Ly in front of the best ride ever!! 

Ly + Alan in Disney: a photo only post

Forever Friends!!

One of Ly's really really really really good friends from high school recently moved to DC which needless to say made Ly over-the-moon-happy since DC is within driving distance from her house.

And last weekend that very same friend stopped by her house for a visit. They stayed up 'til all hours of the night chatting & Alan had to tell them to go to sleep because they were getting up "early" in the morning. Even though they hadn't seen each other in a super long time (due in part to the fact that they were on separate continents for quite some time) it was as if not a day had passed since they were last together. #BFFreunited

We are still alive!

Quick Update:

- Ly flew to Texas for another session of school. She realized some things will never change and Texans love college football.
- Ly decided to take a double load of classes this semester in an effort to finish ASAP.
- Ly went to CA to see one of her favorite people get married. She also spent time with her family and realized she misses the West Coast.
- Ly turned 29. Alan bought her a panda cake and some clothes.
- Ly also got a print of the Family Proclamation that she's been wanting for quite sometime.
- Alan is loving his MHA program and has more free time, so Ly+Alan went to the temple one Sat afternoon.
- Alan finally decided on a speciality.
- Alan has a lot of exciting plans in the works in regards to school