christmas week - part 1 - disneyland

My family LOVES Disneyland. We always have. But we've never made a trip in December to see the magic of Disney combined with the magic of Christmas. So this year we decided to go the week of Christmas on my mom's birthday which means she got in for free and received many birthday wishes with her birthday pin on.

Speaking of getting in free - Wes' mom gave us a ticket last year that she has held on to for 27+ years! In the early 1980's Disneyland celebrated their 30th anniversary and every 30th person through the gates got a free ticket. Wes was the 30th person through the gate and Doreen still had that free ticket and it worked! Wes got in free, too! All the lady behind the counter could say is "wow". The ticket looked like it was from the 1960's!



We drove down to California on Monday. We left around noon anticipating being to the hotel no later than 4:30pm. Thanks to a major accident that left us in a standstill we finally arrived around 8:15pm. Talk about a long journey with toddlers. As soon as we all arrived, the cousins ran around the hotel room thrilled to see each other and be out of a car seat!

{Nate was ready for his road trip with his slurpee, green gum, blanky & his headphones}

On Tuesday morning we headed to Disneyland for a day of fun. Wes originally wasn't going to be able to come because work is so busy right now but gave me an early Christmas present and figured out a way to join us! Nate and I both loved having dad there.

Nate absolutely LOVED Disneyland with the family. He loved having his cousins there, aunts/uncle & grandma/papa. He was in heaven. I've been teaching him about Disney characters for months now and it definitely paid off just seeing his face when we saw a new character or ride. His excitement started in the parking lot when he saw Mickey on the posts telling us where we parked. He gasped in excitement over and over.



Pluto is one of his favorites - he was the first character we saw walking in to Disneyland. Nate wasn't shy at all . . . he was so excited to meet his favorite dog! Seeing the characters (his "friends" as he calls them) was by far one of his favorite things about the day.





Nate loves his cousins which made his big day at Disneyland complete. He held Abbie's hand a good majority of the day.







Some of the lines were somewhat long but I was actually expecting longer since school was out and it was the week of Christmas. By the end of the day the place was packed but it was still really fun to spend the day with the entire family riding rides, eating treats, and enjoying the magic of Disneyland!

Nate loved all of the rides but I'll never forget his first ride on Peter Pan. He's obsessed with Peter Pan and loved seeing all of the characters on the ride. After riding the teacups with everyone but his mom and dad - he said, "i get so dizzy."




Disneyland all decorated for Christmas was pretty neat.




I have to say that I was very impressed with Nate and all of the little guys on our adventure. They all had significantly less sleep than usual and were still pretty well behaved the entire day. They definitely wanted to be held a lot in line - but other than that they were troopers. Nate was a little sneaky and managed to escape the line a few times when I took my eyes off him for a few seconds!

We left around 8pm and made the trek home that night which actually turned out to be a great idea, in my opinion! I was definitely exhausted on Wednesday but it was nice to wake up in my own bed and have the traveling part over. Thanks Sam for staying awake and driving me and Nate home safely!


Thanks mom and dad for an early Christmas present - it was a fun trip to Disneyland! I can't wait for our next Disney adventure.