Disneyland: Day 1

So, you've wondered what it would be like to take a 2 year old to Disneyland?  Well, prepare yourselves over the next 5-6 days, because I will be recapping our trip one day at a time.

Basically, what I'm telling you is, don't come to my blog for the next week or so if you don't want to see a billion pictures of Katie with all of the characters that she met.

Our trip started on Friday night and we (me, Tyson and my mom) drove down to St. George after Tyson got home from work.  Which means that we left late and got to St. George around midnight.  Katie did pretty well, in the car that first night.  I sat in back by her and we watch The Little Mermaid until she fell asleep around Fillmore/Beaver (hahahahahahahaha).

We stayed the night at my grandparent's house, while they were out of town.  In the morning, we got up, showered and headed out.  Grabbed breakfast on the way to the freeway.  I'll tell you right now.  I don't want to eat at McDonald's again for a long time.  We had it a little too often for my taste on that trip.  But you do what is easy and fast and cheap (and what Katie will eat).

The trip went well.  We stopped a few times for bathroom breaks and to change who was sitting where.  Katie had a mild meltdown around nap time because she wanted me to hold her so that she could fall asleep.  That didn't last long and she finally fell asleep about 2 hours out of Anaheim.

We got to the hotel around 2:30pm and couldn't check-in yet because our room wasn't quite ready.  So we had them hold our luggage and we bought a bus pass and went straight to the park.

Today was Katie's birthday we wanted to get her to the park!  When we got off the bus and started walking towards the gates, Katie noticed all of the Disney characters on EVERYTHING around her.  MATER!  On a bus!  Buzz!!  On an advertisement!  Mike Wazowskie in a window!  Jimminy Cricket on the recycling bins!  It was all VERY exciting.

We decided to go to California Adventure first.  My mom hadn't been to Disney in almost 20 years - so we let her decide what she wanted to do first.

As soon as we got in the park, we went and got Katie a birthday and 1st visit pin.

California Adventure has been given a makeover since Tyson and I were last there in 2009, so we strolled down the new Buena Vista street and when we got to the end, we saw a couple different characters out for pictures.

Now, I've been prepping Katie for character visits (watching movies, reading book, watching old cartoons on YouTube) and teaching her everyones names.  She was ready and so was I. 

We saw Chip 'n Dale first and Katie started waving as soon as we pointed them out to her.  I asked her if she wanted to go and give them a hug and she said yes. 

We had to wait in a line, but she did really well.  And was at first she was kind of shy, but she warmed up quickly and had lots of smiles for them.

Across the "street" was Mickey Mouse and she wanted to see him too.  So over we moved to a new line to wait.

This time she was ready and went up for a great big hug!  Then turned right around to pose for Mommy with a very happy face.

We decided to walk down to "talk" with Crush (it's this great interactive - um... show? - where you go into a small auditorium and get to see and talk to Crush in this giant screen that is a "window" into the Pacific Ocean - Katie loved it) and on the way we ran into Mr & Mrs Incredible.  Katie didn't know what to think of these guys and was more than a little intimidated by them and had to cling extra hard to mom (even though she said she wanted to see them).  After the pictures were taken, she warmed up and gave them each a high five.

It was crowded.  Utah's fall break was just finishing and there were a LOT of people in the park.  We walked over to the new Cars Land, but the lines were too long to wait in with a 2 year old.  We saw Mater out for pictures, but his line was a little too long.  So we headed over to A Bug's Land and on the way saw Red.  Katie was so excited ("Fire Truck!!!") until he honked.  It was loud.  And she jumped.  Every time.  And he was honking a lot because it was how he said Hello.  And then the cast members with him saw Katie's birthday pin and he "sang" her Happy Birthday - but it was just too loud for her.

(Side note: I am saving up my money for a new lens.  I only took one with me to Disneyland, and it was a fixed lens that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE, but you can't zoom out or in - so a lot of our pictures didn't fit in everything that I wanted them too, because I couldn't get far enough back.)

A Bug's Land is GREAT for a 2 year old.  We rode the "Chew-Chew" train, the fliers (similar to swings and Dumbo) and the ladybug boogie (which is a scaled down version of teacups).  And Katie loved them all.

We were all hungry, so we headed to the "Wharf" to get some soup in sourdough bread bowls.  Clam chowder, corn chowder and broccoli cheese.  Katie had macaroni and cheese and a chocolate milk.

We walked around a little more, but decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel to get all settled in the night.  We stayed in a suite and Katie shared the bedroom with us while Grandma was on the super crappy sofa bed.  Tyson and I each had our own bed for this trip (I refused to let second bed in the room go to waste) and it was lovely.  I could spread out and roll around as much as I wanted.

Katie wouldn't go to sleep unless I was in the room with her, in my bed.  But that was OK with me.  I wanted the extra sleep.  Carrying her around everywhere really wears you out.  When Katie was sleeping, we couldn't use the sink, because it was in the bedroom with us and the light would wake her up (she's a REALLY light sleeper), so we learned to wash our hands and brush our teeth in the bathtub.  Small sacrifice for as much sleep as possible for the little one.