Archive for category: Travel

Beach in November? Oh man, California really pulled on my heart strings! We even saw a bunch of dolphins catching waves, which is probably no big deal to all you west coast guys… but I LOVED IT!

Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was a high of 90 degrees or so! Almost too hot, but I’ll take anything over freezing! It was really another beautiful day back over at Disneyland. We did a lot of fast passes and stroller passes that day so we got to ride everything else we wanted to ride. FYI-a stroller pass is the best secret at Disneyland, at least it was a secret to me until this time! When you go through a line that is too big for little kids, ask the first person you see who’s working the ride for a stroller pass. They will give you (or direct you to the person who distributes them) a stroller pass which allows three people to get in the fast pass line after you exit. Worked like a charm!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Goofy’s kitchen, which is at a hotel in Downtown Disney. The food was great, Eva even ate her dinner, despite all of the distractions! As you eat, characters (Goofy, Minnie, Chip & Dale, and Pluto) walk through so you can talk to them and take pictures with them. It was great! To end the night, we celebrated Eva’s birthday a little early… can you believe she’s almost 3?!?! Ahhh… don’t get me started!

Disney during the holidays is MAGICAL! You must try it sometime. It was very crowded, but it didn’t phase me too much because I’ve been to Disney World at Spring Break once and am in NYC often. My brother went to Disney World last Thanksgiving, but a week before… I think next time I might do that! The lights are already out but no one is there! I’ve also heard the second week of December is another great time to go. Honestly, I don’t think there’s ever a bad time to go to Disneyland with your little ones, especially when they’re 3 and are amazed by everything they see. <3 <3 <3

Oh, guys. Thanksgiving break was perfect. We went to California with T.J.’s parents, his sister, and her family. We stayed at Disneyland for pretty much the whole time, except for the last day when we checked out Huntington Beach. The weather was perfect the entire time, the kids all did great, and even though it was very busy, we still got to see/ride just about everything!

Monday night after our longggggg nonstop flight from JFK to LAX, we walked around Downtown Disney. I literally cried because it was so wonderful-lit up with Christmas lights, Christmas music playing in the background, reunited with family!

The lego store was SO neat! 

Tuesday morning, we all went to Disneyland. We had park hoppers, so the plan was to go back to the hotel when we were tired, but we never could make ourselves leave because it was so much fun! When Eva was tired, she just hung out in her stroller. Just about every day she would go ALL DAY LONG and wouldn’t fall asleep until the evening. But she was happy, so it was fine with me! By the time we got back to the hotel each night, she was so exhausted, she’d sleep through us getting her ready for bed. Easiest time sleeping at a hotel with a toddler.

Later in the afternoon on Tuesday, we hung out around the castle and waited for the parade to start. We got to be on the front row, which was really nice since we had the little kids. I thought the parade was so great! It was Christmas themed just like the rest of the park, so all the floats and characters were decorated and dressed for the holidays. Disney + Christmas = magic! And I’m pretty sure it was the best time of Eva’s life. She was waving like CRAZY at each character that passed and was just SO excited. It was amazing to see all of Disneyland through her eyes!

I know the picture above is blurry, but it still shows how excited Eva was!

Lacey and her family left soon after, but we decided to go on a couple more rides with T.J.’s parents. The exterior of It’s a Small World was incredible… it was lit up with an insane amount of lights and then every 30 minutes or so there was a light show to music. It made the wait for the ride very enjoyable!

Eva was so tired ^ but still enjoying the ride! “Are their witches?” She asked me if there were witches on just about every ride, about 50 times each. The first ride we took her on was Snow White, which turns out is actually quite horrifying! Haha, so it made Eva a little weary from there out. She was still a champ and pretty brave though. If she ever got scared on rides, she would just cover her face with her blanket.

Eva, as usual, cracked me up with funny one-liners. I showed Eva the pretty Christmas tree, that was SO big, thinking she would be impressed. But instead she said, “It’s TOOOOO big!” Apparently, she’s 100% okay with our teeny Christmas tree at home.