Where are we going? What are we doing? An engagement/anniversary extravaganza!

[cfw213]

Hello and one and all to my October 2013 Disney trip report! This is my third trip report here on the DIS, in addition to a few PTR's (the one for this last trip...fail), I'm excited to share the details of our amazing trip with anyone who will listen! Here are the links to all my other PTRs/TRs:

December 2011 TR (complete)- It's 9:15am and we're already off the Touring Plan - AKA: A Very Mickey Christmas!

September 2012 TR - (completed) - Are you Push?? Our sister trip around the World - A September 2012 TR

October 2013 PTR - (not completed...) - This is not longer a vacation. It's a quest for fun.

First, a couple intros as my travel gang this trip is a bit larger than before!

Who?
First up: my sister and I!

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My name is Christina (left) and my sister is Jess (right). This was our sixth trip together (and we each went once separately on our senior class trips). We are both accountants in Philadelphia and we live in South Jersey. We are Disney FANATICS and she is the best travel buddy!

Jess loves Monster's Inc. and Sully and her favorite parks are Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios! Her favorite ride is Rock 'n Rollercoaster.

As for me, my favorite park is Magic Kingdom, followed closely by Hollywood Studios. My favorite ride is Splash and my favorite thing about Disney is the FOOD!

Also joining us on this trip (for the first time!!!) is my DH, Bryan!

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He had been to Disney only twice, and never with me! I'm really excited for he was able to join us on this trip. We celebrated our second anniversary on this trip! We got really lucky with the weather, since on our wedding day we were hit with a freak snowstorm and last year on our anniversary was Hurricane Sandy! Bryan is a machinist here in South Jersey and loves to golf and hang out with our pup in his free time. He was most excited to ride Splash Mountain, as well as play a round of golf with...

Jess' new FIANCE!!, Mike! This happened on our trip...

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and it was amazing!!! But more details when we get to that day...

Him and Bryan are really close friends, so they had a ton of goofy fun together. Mike works at a chemical company in South Jersey and his favorite hobby is golf!

Lastly, my momma will be joining us!

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This is our third trip with our mom since 2010. She enjoys the parks but she's not gung-ho like we are. I think she'd rather just ride the thrill rides all day...But she does love the food!

When: Oct 26-Nov 3. The boys & my mom came home Wednesday 10/30
Where:4 nights at a 2 bedroom villa in the Beach Club and 4 nights at a Savannah view room in AKL - Jambo

I think that covers the intros We just got our Photopass disc so I will be getting this party started soon! Let me know if you're here, I love to read and respond to comments

 

[cfw213]

Friday, 10/25
Day 1, Part 1

Saturday, 10/26
Day 2, Part 1 - Added 1/3
Day 2, Part 2 - Added 1/3
Day 2, Part 3 - Added 1/3
Day 2, Part 4 - BCV Room Tour! - Added 1/3

Sunday, 10/27
Day 3, Part 1 - Added 1/4
Day 3, Part 2 - The Engagement! - Added 1/5
Day 3, Part 3 - Added 1/21
Day 3, Part 4 - Added 1/21
Day 3, Part 5 - Added 1/21

May WDW/DL Trip - PTR!
Update 1! - Posted 1/21

 

[rachel09985]

Hi Christina! I am excited to see you started another TR! How exciting that your sister got engaged!!! I can't wait for the story.

 

[cfw213]

Hi Christina! I am excited to see you started another TR! How exciting that your sister got engaged!!! I can't wait for the story.

Thanks for following Rachel! It was pretty exciting

 

[cfw213]

Let's get this TR on the road! Our trip started on Friday - 10/25. We were originally planning on leaving Saturday, but Southwest changed our flights to late in the afternoon so we decided to leave on Friday instead.

Jess and I were off work, but Bryan and Mike had to work until the early afternoon. Our flight didn't leave until 7:30pm so there was a lot of waiting around! I woke up early, walked the dog, went for a run, then dropped Oscar off at my parents since they would be watching him for the week. Then Jess & I went and got our nails done...Disney style of course!

Bryan was home by noon, and we finished packing/getting the house ready and were out the door by by 4:30 and we had ALOT of luggage!! We left plenty early, but there was a ton of traffic getting to the airport and a long line at security...and here is Jess patiently waiting for the guys to finish parking the car!



But luckily we had enough time to make a stop for dinner, at Earl of Sandwich! I know I have a picture but I can't find it. They put one in the Philly airport, nice & close to the Southwest gates

By the time we ordered, it was time to board the plane! Airtran/SW is in the process of merging, so they have a stupid way of assigning seats. Normally with Southwest, you board in number order and choose a seat anywhere. Since this was an Airtrain flight, they assigned seat numbers when you checked in. Since we all booked with points, we had to check in separately. We lucked out and got 3 seats together, and one seat in the row behind us. Jess, Bryan & I rode in the three seater, and Mike sat directly behind me. We're ready for takeoff!



Bryan hates to fly...


We spent our first flight doing crossword puzzles and taking selfies. I'll spare you the photos. I came up with this genious idea of using the (clean) barf bag to store an open bag of candy...


And soon we were landing in Atlanta! We had enough time to grab a drink, walk over to our gate...and board again! We were having good luck today...



Pluto is ready for flight two!

This flight was quick, made even quicker by the fact that we had a medical emergency on board! There was a guy a few rows back or kept passing out. The flight attendants really had their act together and were able to help the guy quickly along with the nurses/doctors onboard, but it was definitely scary! We landed a few minutes early and the pilot drove the plane SO FAST around the tarmac, it was crazy. I didn't know they could drive that fast on the ground! We ended up getting off the plane about 15 minutes early. Luckily, the guy ended up being fine and walked off the plane.

After that little scare, we were finally in Orlando!!!

Always have to have a picture of the first monorail of the trip!


Mike enjoyed his quick monorail ride.

We had to pick up our bags since it was after 10pm (boo), but pretty soon, we were checking in!


By this time, it was after midnight and there weren't many people around! We walked right onto the bus and waited 5-10 minutes to leave. We were in the bag so no picture of the sign, but we were too enamored with this video!



We stopped at Caribbean Beach first, then onto our home for one night...All Star Music!


Honestly, I can't say I was too jazzed about shoving 4 adults and 8 bags into a tiny room with 2 double beds. I especially wasn't excited that it was literally as far away from the lobby as we could get. We checked in, discussed MagicBands (Mike's wasn't working, but since we were only there for one night and would be checking into BCV tomorrow, and he had another band for that stay, we told her to just forget it).

We drug all our luggage to our teeny tiny room. Half a mile away. At 1am. To say we weren't happy about it was an understatement, but we were also just super excited to be in Disney!


See? Excited!


So glad we could squeeze the golf bags in...


Bathroom


Yikes

We all went to bed pretty much right away, and set an alarm for the morning. We were exhausted! Bryan & I had a pretty comfy bed, but Jess and Mike said there's was awful.

We didn't sleep as late as we thought we would the next morning, but we were ready for some fun!!!







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[ostrom]

Looks cramped with the four of you. But for 1 night, no big deal.

 

[cfw213]

Looks cramped with the four of you. But for 1 night, no big deal.

Thanks for reading! Yes, quite cramped, especially with all our bags. But we were happy to be in Disney!

 

[cfw213]

Hello out there disboards! I super-suck and was debating on whether or not to even start this TR...but I've found the motivation and I'm ready to update! Hopefully I will gain some readers out there We had a snow day at work today so I'm using this time to update and write a bunch of my report in Word so it's ready to go! I'm also finally done editing the hundreds of pictures I took. On with the show...

Saturday, October 26

Saturday was a very exciting morning - we were heading to the parks for the first time! My mom was flying in that day (since we had switched our flights because SW changed ours, she kept her old flights since she was on a different airline), and was due to arrive around 11. We had set out alarms by 9:30 but we’re all early birds and were up by 8! We took our time getting ready since we were early, and around 9:15 called for bell services to get all our crap and have it transferred to the Beach Club.


Jess & Mike ready for their first morning!

KIDS - DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!! I know he looks like a moron but his picture of Mike cracks me up...


Then we were off! Our room was very woodsy!


We walked the lonnnng walk to the front of All Star Music...I must say that we were kind of excited to be leaving this place!




But this fountain is pretty!




Four hours later we made it to the ASM food court and paid for some coffee/soda OOP- it was really crowded and between that and all the crowd reports on here, I was nervous about what the parks would look like! We head out to the busses and waited for-ev-er for an Epcot bus (spoiler: that was the longest wait we had the whole trip!). When we arrived I would say it was about 10:00 - first Jess & I went to ticketing to get our APs!



We were both pretty psyched to be AP-holders.




We were in contact with my mom and knew she was on her way to the hotel. We had talked about jumping on a ride in Epcot but decided to skip it and started the walk to the World Showcase. I was just so *so* happy to finally be in back after 13 months of planning the trip! Hello beautiful Epcot!!!







We eventually got to France and all got breakfast there - I had a croissant and everyone else got apple turnovers. We also got some drinks I believe, everything OOP since we didn’t have the DDP for our one night at ASM.





We head out of the bakery and made our first trip through the International Gateway!



It was such a BEAUTIFUL day, literally could not have been more gorgeous - low 80s, low humidity and so much sunshine! Perfect weather. We had been talking with Mom and she had made it to the Beach Club and was hanging out in the lobby! After a short 5 min walk, we met up with Mom and decided she would change and we could head over to Hollywood Studios. But first - picture time!

















Continued directly below since I went photo crazy....

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[cfw213]

A boat was approaching...









so we jumped on it and were at the Studios by around 11:15! I do like the option of the boat but damn, it's SLOW!

We finally arrived!



How cute is this??






We still had a few more administrative tasks to take care of so we stopped and exchanged our voucher for a FP+ card! I have tons of photos, but basically we really enjoyed it! I probably wouldn't get it every trip, but since there was a big group of us this time we enjoyed having it. After we got the card, we got some MagicShots with our good friend Stitch...





We walked over towards our lunch destination but decided it was a bit early to eat, so the guys grabbed some paper fastpasses for Star Tours (we were excited our KTTW cards were working for this!) and then we all went into Muppet Vision! Don't mind my frizz...



Bryan was cracking up the whole time and I was glad he was having fun even though he was a bit apprehensive about the trip. Once we were done, we were getting hungry so we head over to Pizza Planet! Pizza Planet is just okay for me, but my sister is obsessed with the place so we agreed it would be good for our first CS of the trip! The guys and my mom were not familiar with the DDP so Jess & I gave them the rundown, then we split into two groups to order - I find it a pain to order for 5 people all at once. We all got a pizza and everyone got cookies for dessert, except for me! I wanted to try the carrot cake cupcake (spoiler: It was gross! I was not a fan of the orange flavored icing they topped it with and would have preferred a traditional cream cheese frosting). It was a gorgeous day and I was so happy to be sitting outside at Pizza Planet with my favorite people just getting excited about what was to come on our trip!


10.26iphone-3
We took our time eating lunch, and when we were done we still had time before the next activity we had planned. The guy’s paper FP for Star Tours were coming due, so they head over there while the girls skipped Star Tours and went to walk around One Man’s Dream. I love this attraction! On the way there, Stitch was out with no line so we decided to meet him.





We did the walk through for OMD’s and decided to stay for the video too - I definitely teared up, I must have been emotional from being in the park!!

When we were done, it was time for Indiana Jones! It had been a few years since I’d last seen it (2010) and it was also raining that year so they didn’t do the full show. We enjoyed the break sitting/out of the sun and the show was good! We probably wouldn’t feel the need to do it every year though.









After Indy, the boys tried on silly hats!





And we took our time walking through the Streets of America.



Unfortunately the Osbourne lights came on right after we were home!


More below!

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[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[ostrom]

I hope you decide to continue. Remember, for every post you get, you probably have hundreds of readers that don't post. They are out there reading this!!!

 

[cfw213]

Day 3, Part 3 - More DHS!
We then did a little browsing...





and stopped to see if Mike and Sully were out, since they are Jess’ favorites.





Only Mike was out and the line was pretty long so we decided to skip it and head to the Backlot Tour!



While we were waiting in line, there was a little girl behind us who must have gotten confused and was hanging onto Bryan’s leg like he was her dad! We were all cracking up and Bryan’s not the type to say anything so it was just awkward. Eventually she realized that he wasn’t her Dad and just kind of detached and turned around. Hahaha, we were all dying.

Finally it was time for the tour!


I think Mike wanted to participate...








After the backlot, it was finally time to use our first FP+, for Toy Story Mania!

Crappy iPhone pic!


I’ve only ever ridden this ride once (I never want to wait for it!) but I loved it so much! The line area is awesome and I’m glad you still get to see a good bit of it in the FP line. I rode with my mom and Jess rode alone this time, we all had so much fun!

Another crappy iPhone pic!


And I killed mom!


The guys loved it too. After that, we still had a little time before our next FP was ready, so we walked onto the Great Movie Ride.



I tried to enjoy the ride and not take too many pictures -




I love this ride, but the guys aren’t much into rides that aren’t “thrilling”, so I think they were a little bored. Lucky for them, our next FP+ for Rock ‘n Rollercoaster was ready! But not before a few PP pics...





They were ready!


Bryan & my mom both LOVE this ride so they were both really excited. It’s a favorite for everyone!

I had to ride alone this time!




When we were done with that, we had one more FP+ for Tower of Terror. I’m always so nervous for the first ride on this of every trip, but I love it! I can’t help but scream REALLY loud, ha! Mom sat this one out as she doesn’t like “freefall” type rides.



Once we were done, it was probably around 5:00 and our dinner reservations weren’t until 8:30, so we decided to grab a snack before we head back to the Beach Club. My mom and I got some hotdogs and chips, and the boys grabbed some beer. We relaxed in the eating area near RNRC/TOT for a bit, just hanging out and people watching! Jess got her first Mickey Pop of the trip!





We finally made our way out of the park & got a picture with this awesomeness!


Continued below!​

 

[cfw213]

Eventually, we decided to head back to the resort. We had never gotten the text that our room was ready but by now it was 5:30 so we assumed it was! The line for the boat was pretty long since the park was closing at 6:00 for a special event, and it was so nice out that we decided to just walk back. The walk is *beautiful*, especially at sunset.









Mike being silly-


There are two of my favorite pictures-




I also really liked walking by the Yacht Club, such a pretty resort!

My mom had already checked us in and we already had our KTTW cards so we just got our room number and head up! Our MagicBands were NOT working to open the door, so we just used our KTTW card. The room was AMAZING!!!! We were in a two bedroom and it was definitely bigger than my house. Bryan and I had a huge bathroom area to get ready, a lovely king size bed and then another shower/toilet area that was closed off which we shared with my mom. My mom ended up taking the queen sleeper in the living room since she likes to unwind/watch TV before bed. Jess & Mike took the second bedroom with the queen bed and their own bathroom. The room was beautiful and we loved having so much space to spread out and relax. Our bags and groceries were up shortly, but they forgot one cold bag so they brought that one back up. I was also just able to call down and get our MBs fixed and it was done within a few minutes and we had no other problems. We head down to get our mugs and fill them up. We were on the first floor of the DVC building, which was a convenient walk to the Marketplace! I liked our location as it was close to the main lobby. My only complaint is that the DVC building hallways were FRIGID!! It was really uncomfortable since it was already pretty chilly at night, or walking back from the pool! Now time for a room tour!

We had a nice foyer table - good place to toss our bags


Directly to the left was a closet and hanging area. This was inside the door to Jess and Mike's room. The boys golf clubs got stashed in this closet!


Jess & Mike's vanity area and bedroom


So much space!






Back out in the main living area, this is the dining table. It was a good place to sit and eat breakfast/play on our iPads!


Living space-


Kitchen - we only used it to store our food, not cook!


Bathroom area we shared with my mom. The toilet is behind the door on the right


Big beautiful shower!


Vanity area inside our private part of the bathroom, as well as the big tub! There was another closet directly to the right of the sink.


Master bedroom and our patio. The patio went across the front of the whole unit and each room had doors out to it.


Overall, we were THRILLED with our room!

Our dinner reservations were for around 8:30, so once we relaxed for a little while we head out around 7:00 for a delicious dinner at OHANA! I didn't bring my good camera with me and someone else was in charge of pictures this night - which pretty much means I have none! Jess, Mom & I have eaten here before and really enjoyed it so we were excited for another meal. We had really good luck with the busses and monorail and arrive at the Polynesian around 8:00 and checked in. The lobby was PACKED and I was starting to get nervous that we were going to have to wait forever. Some people around us were complaining that they’d been there almost 2 hours!! The boys both got Lapu Lapus (they’re suckers for girly drinks) and my mom got wine.


I opted not to pay $50 for an alcoholic beverage and just hung out in the lobby with Jess! Lucky for us, the people who were complaining must not have had ADRs because we got called about 15 minutes after our ADR time - can’t complain about that! We got a window seat but we wouldn’t see the castle. Shortly after we were seated, Wishes started so Jess and I head over to a spot where we could watch it while everyone else enjoyed the salad.

Once we got back, we started munching on all the salad and apps! I really love this place, all the food is so good. Especially the DUMPLINGS! We asked for more but I don’t think our “uncle” (brother?) heard us, since we never got a second batch. We all really liked everything, with the exception of the steak which was super overcooked. My favorite was the shrimp! Once we were done, they brought over the bread pudding. Last time we were at Ohana, we skipped the bread pudding so we could watch Wishes on the beach. That was a serious mistake (not the fireworks, those were great!) because that bread pudding was AMAZING!!! Seriously my favorite thing I ate all week. I dream about it, seriously! I didn’t think I liked bread pudding but it is delicious, and the caramel sauce is to die for. Even my mom, who eats sweets about once a year, had a big helping! This was the one thing I managed to get a picture of...



For some reason the boys look miserable in these pics but they really did have a good time!




By the time we were done, we were STUFFED and tired and ready to head back to the hotel! I was worried that the busses would be packed, but we were the ONLY people on the Beach Club bus! Once again we had good luck with the monorail and bus coming as soon as we walked up. I can’t remember what time we got back to the room but we were all pooped and hit the hay since we had an early (and very exciting!!!) day on Sunday.​

 

[hayesktrm]

I'm having so much fun following along! Please keep going!!

 

[cfw213]

I'm having so much fun following along! Please keep going!!

Yay thanks for following!

 

[katt789]

Obviously I’m in!! Yay for another TR from ya! I got so lost and behind I totally missed it! Congrats going out to Jess seem to be in order! Also, we were totally there at the same time!! We went down again in Oct for a quick 3 day MNSSHP bash lol! WEIRD!

Oh my goodness, that sounds like a crazy 2nd flight! I’ve always had wonders about what happens with medical emergencies on planes! Glad everything worked out, and you got to Disney sooner! Lol!

AsMu,well, any of the all stars really, they just aren’t that great, like, they’re okay, but I’ve only stayed at them when I’ve been solo, and that’s more than enough space for one, but not great resorts! I’ll bet it made the deluxe’s even more amazing though!!

Yay for being AP holders! That must mean there’s another trip in the works very soon!! Yay! Love the France bakery for breakfast, it’s such a great place to go, it was super empty when we went in Dec and was so nice to be back there all alone eating in FRANCE lol.

BC is so pretty! I LOVE it there! Great pictures of the resort, that’s awesome! I have to agree about the boat’s, it’s so darn slow, if I’m feeling up to it, I’d much rather walk!

Pizza planet is probably the best of the CS places in DHS, bahha, I usually go there! weird that the cupcake was orange frosting, that seems gross. I agree about the shows, the stunts shows are really once every couple of trips, they’re pretty similar and not the greatest to watch every year or twice a year bahah! Looks like a pretty awesome day at DHS to start off the trip!

The villa sounds amazing!! I love the beach/yacht club area so much I wouldn’t know what to do with myself in a villa like that! AH! That suite is amazing! So gorgeous! Love the amount of space, and that shower!! Haha awesome!

Ohana looks awesome! I really do want to try it again, probably in a bigger group, the food was super tasty, but we were around a corner from all the action, and they put three of us at a table for 6….it was huge and kinda awkward, but glad you guys enjoyed it all

Excited to read more!

 

[APears]

I'm following along! Your room looks amazing, can't wait to read more!

 

[cfw213]

Obviously I’m in!! Yay for another TR from ya! I got so lost and behind I totally missed it! Congrats going out to Jess seem to be in order! Also, we were totally there at the same time!! We went down again in Oct for a quick 3 day MNSSHP bash lol! WEIRD!

Oh my goodness, that sounds like a crazy 2nd flight! I’ve always had wonders about what happens with medical emergencies on planes! Glad everything worked out, and you got to Disney sooner! Lol!

AsMu,well, any of the all stars really, they just aren’t that great, like, they’re okay, but I’ve only stayed at them when I’ve been solo, and that’s more than enough space for one, but not great resorts! I’ll bet it made the deluxe’s even more amazing though!!

Yay for being AP holders! That must mean there’s another trip in the works very soon!! Yay! Love the France bakery for breakfast, it’s such a great place to go, it was super empty when we went in Dec and was so nice to be back there all alone eating in FRANCE lol.

BC is so pretty! I LOVE it there! Great pictures of the resort, that’s awesome! I have to agree about the boat’s, it’s so darn slow, if I’m feeling up to it, I’d much rather walk!

Pizza planet is probably the best of the CS places in DHS, bahha, I usually go there! weird that the cupcake was orange frosting, that seems gross. I agree about the shows, the stunts shows are really once every couple of trips, they’re pretty similar and not the greatest to watch every year or twice a year bahah! Looks like a pretty awesome day at DHS to start off the trip!

The villa sounds amazing!! I love the beach/yacht club area so much I wouldn’t know what to do with myself in a villa like that! AH! That suite is amazing! So gorgeous! Love the amount of space, and that shower!! Haha awesome!

Ohana looks awesome! I really do want to try it again, probably in a bigger group, the food was super tasty, but we were around a corner from all the action, and they put three of us at a table for 6….it was huge and kinda awkward, but glad you guys enjoyed it all

Excited to read more!

Hi Katt! So funny you say that because when we were in AK, I was like 99% sure I saw you but I didn't think you had a trip planned so I figured it wasn't you! We're sooo excited to be AP holders!! We have trips planned for May & next October, right before they run out again

I'm following along! Your room looks amazing, can't wait to read more!

Hello and welcome! Thanks for following

 

[cfw213]

Let's keep this TR rolling!
Sunday, Oct 27th Sunday was an exciting day - engagement day!!! A few months back when they started talking about getting engaged, Mike asked for my help in planning the perfect engagement! Since they live together, he gave me the ring and I had stashed it in my carryon bag and then moved it to my suitcase. On Saturday night, I had a hard time sleeping because I was just so excited! The plan was that Bryan would grab the ring in the morning, the guys would walk to the marketplace to "get coffee" and Bryan would give Mike the ring there. At around 4:00am I woke up and shook Bryan awake to tell him to go to the front desk and get "just engaged" pins! I don't know why I remembered at that particular moment, ha! Around 6:30am, we all started getting up and ready and Bryan & Mike made the exchange. We were out the door by 7:00am and it was still dark, as evidenced by these pictures...these were our matching shirts! They also had our last names and a "13" on the back for the year. They were extremely unflattering but we got lots of compliments!



We only waited a few minutes for the bus to the Magic Kingdom, then walked over to the Contemporary. Our ADR was at 7:40, and while I knew we would be close/a few minutes late, I couldn't ask everyone to leave before 7, just way too early!!



The lighting in CM was pretty weird so these pictures didn't turn out too good!



Monorail!





We were seated a few minutes later, got our drinks and head up for some food! Since there were so many of us and so many difference plates, I'll just show you mine...



Mickey waffles!! Fruit, hashbrown, cheesy potatoes (I had like 5 helpings of these, they were a-maz-ing!), danish. I believe when I went back for the second round I got pretty much the same thing, the food was really good! First up was Mickey!





Next was Donald, who told us to say "Donald is #1!" I love Donald





Bryan wanted to high-five all the characters!



Then it was time for the napkin dance!



Then Minnie stopped by...



And lastly pluto!

We paid the bill and finished up, and I was starting to get reallllly anxious because I knew what was coming! It was probably about 8:45 so we knew we would probably miss the opening show. But we hustled on over to the MK anyway!





We caught the tail end of the show..



My *favorite* sign, I take a pic of it everytime!



I tend to get really anxious about things, so by now I had butterflies in my tummy and was getting really nervous about what was about to happen!



I'll stop there for now! Sorry for the short update, I'm getting lunch with my sister and we're going to see Disney on Ice!​

 

[hayesktrm]

YOU CAN'T LEAVE!!! I was getting so excited to hear about the engagement. I hope there are lots of pictures!

Come back soon so I can get closure .