It all seems like a dream now, but our Disneyland trip was actually really, really fun and fantastic. We really weren’t sure if we wanted to go, especially with an infant, but it was one of the better decisions that we’ve made recently in terms of travelling with teh girls. We knew that we were in need of a little adventure, but after going on our road trip in June, to Chico, we decided that another road trip was out of the question. We made a long list of all the places that we’d like to go, things we’d like to do, and almost every time we kept coming back to the fact that having a baby and a toddler can make things a litttle more challenging. We toyed around with the idea of Disneyland, but it just seemed crazy, because I wasn’t sure that we’d enjoy it….or more the commercialization of it.
Nicole and Josh mentioned that they had thought about taking Caroline within the same time frame that we’d been thinking about and that sealed the deal for us to all go together. Guess what? We all loved it! I think traveling with another family has great potential to be crazy, (Come on, travelling with ANYONE can be nuts, right?) but Nicole, Josh and Caroline were a perfect match for us. We had adjoining rooms and that made it easy for the girls to play together and also for the adults to sit and relax a bit. We also stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, thinking that we wanted this to be a total vacation of connivence, and it was also really great. There were many characters walking around and everyone was so friendly to us and the girls. Being in a kid-friendly environment, both while in the park and at our hotel, made all the difference in the world for us.
I’ll never forget Maggie walking back to our room from the pool and Goofy came around the corner. She literally dropped her towel and stood there with her mouth wide open. She was shocked to see him, stunned, really. Once we decided to go, I started to embrace researching things a bit. My cousin has a friend that works for Disney and she was very helpful in helping us make decisions and getting some gear for the girls. We did a Character breakfast first thing on the first day, in order to help the girls understand the concept of characters, and it was really worth it.
Most of our days were spent trying to get out of the door at an early time for an extra hour (Magic Hour) in the parks, lunch on the way back to the hotel in the stroller, nap/swim, back to the park, dinner, back to the hotel. We did lots of walking, some waiting in line, and tons of picture taking. I didn’t include all the character pictures that we took. They aren’t really great images anyways. The only character that Maggie didn’t want to meet was Buzz Lightyear. I guess him being a robot or HUGE made him a bit intimidating.
Merida, from Brave, was the most amazing experience that we had. For the first time, instead of going together, Maggie and Caroline took turns going to meet her. When it was Maggie’s turn, the rest of us stayed back. Barry was walking around with a fussy Audrey and I was trying to get pictures of it. I’m so glad I did, because it was really touching. Merida noticed that Maggie has curly red hair, just like hers, and immediately started fluffing it with her hands. Eventually she took out Maggie’s rubber band and made Maggie’s hair into a ginourmous poof. They talked, hugged and it was spectacular. As we were walking away, Merida, yelled to Maggie “And always wear your hair like that!!!”. It was hilarious, but, for me, it made me tear up a bit because I really felt like Merida saw Maggie for who she was. She just wasn’t another little girl in a Minnie t-shirt and she spent an extra amount of time making Mags feel special.
Overall, it was a great trip and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Does that mean that we’re headed there again for our next trip? No. Definitely not. The Minnie shirts have now become undershirts and we probably won’t be reading/watching things now simply to educate ourselves. It was fun and some day it’ll be fun again, but I’m hoping that we’ll be able to go on some different adventures and have just as good of a time in the coming years. We’ll have to see what Nicole and Josh have planned so we can piggy back with them.
