D I S N E Y L A N D

We have been planning on taking Mia to Disneyland since the beginning of 2015! We wanted to take her in December to see the park at Christmas time, but before Mia's birthday so that we didn't have to pay for her (ha ha!) Once we found out we were pregnant, that sealed the deal for our December date! Of course work threw a wrench in our plans and we had to change the date to November. I was only 7 weeks postpartum and really nervous as to how I would hold up being on the go with a newborn, but it all worked out! AND we still got to see the park decked out for Christmas! My parents came as well which was a huge help with the kids (plus Eric and I got to sneak in some alone time and ride rides!) It was such a fun and exhausting vacation ;)
I'll be recapping each day as there are so many little moments I don't want to forget about the trip! Day 1 was Disneyland and we were SO excited to see Mia's reaction!! It was a cold day (We never took our jackets off, and I was actually wishing I had a second jacket to layer with, especially once the sun went down!) but that didn't stop us from playing all day! When we first entered the park, we spotted Snow White so while I fed James, Eric took Mia to meet her. She was so excited to get her autograph and picture taken! After that we found Pluto, Goofy and Minnie Mouse. By the time we got to Minnie, Mia only wanted her autograph and no pictures. She was over it and wanted to play! The pictures are hilariously awkward from that meet and greet, ha ha!
Finally we headed for the rides! We took Mia through Sleeping Beauty's castle on the way and while she LOVED the castle from the outside, she wasn't a fan of being inside even though she was with Eric and me. I was surprised by how nervous Mia got with certain rides and any dark place... she's definitely hit the :scared of the dark" phase! Anyway, we rode the carousel first, then went on the Dumbo right next. That's the first ride we took Mia on when she was 6 months old. Sweet memories :) Next up was the tea cups. Eric loves the tea cups and has fond memories of riding that kind of ride with his mom, and he loved talking to Mia about it so she had been waiting for weeks to do the tea cups with daddy! Then we finally took James on his first ride, a little boat ride :) That took up our whole morning (I forgot how long it takes to get through the lines at Disneyland!)
After a quick lunch I was hoping Mia would nap in the stroller while we walked around to get fast passes for the big kid rides ;) No such luck- that girl wasn't going to miss out on the party! We spent the rest of the day eating junk and riding rides! We were banking on a slower week at the park since it was the week before Thanksgiving, but no such luck! We just happened to be there the opening day of Star Wars stuff in Tomorrowland so it was insanely packed! It was fun to experience the new graphics during the Space Mountain ride though. We ended the night with the Buzz Lightyear ride and ended up scaring the crap out of Mia. It didn't occur to me that our over stimulated and exhausted toddler would get scared of the little alien/robots throughout the ride, I just thought she would be so excited to shoot the gun. As we were strapping her in the stroller after the ride she started panicking and said, "they're coming to get me!" Parenting fail, ha ha! Eric held her and she fell asleep on his shoulder within minutes! We were so tired that we left the park a little early (sometime after 8pm) instead of staying for the parade and firework show. Doing Disneyland with a newborn (who doesn't sleep through the night) is no joke, but James did so amazing! The days only got better and more exciting for us as we figured out how to make the most of our time, and soak up the things that Mia was really excited about!

Mia was so stinking excited- she was constantly grabbing our necks and squeezing so hard :)

Goofy is one of her favorites! This is actually the closest she got to any of the characters that morning!

The carousal is the first ride she wanted to go on, of course. She loves those!

And here's James on his first ride! It's a little boat ride.

Chip N Dale stopped to love on James then ended up smothering me in hugs and kisses, ha ha!

Mia got to meet Snow White when we first got to the park while I fed James. If you look closely, you can spot me sitting down turning to look (looking like a creeper, ha ha!)

My parents took the kids for a bit so Eric and I could go play and what did we do? We bought ears and had them personalized for the kids, ha! Mia picked hers out the night before and she was SO excited when we gave them to her!