It’s no secret that my family loves going to disneyland. We love getting out of cold northern Utah and driving down into the sunshine of southern California. In fact we never totally book our trip until days before we plan to leave to make sure it’s going to be good weather. I know that sounds crazy and it is. Honestly part of the reason I have a photography business is to be able to pay for trips like this for my family. We tried to talk my kids into a different vacation but they didn’t want to hear any of it. So Disneyland it is! And I can’t say I was too sad because I absolutely love Disneyland.
We stayed at my favorite hotel for our first night. It’s the Courtyard Marriott Theme Park Entrance. I love it because it has a water park at it and it’s right across the street from disneyland! I wish I could say that this was sponsored but sadly they don’t care and I pay full price haha. My family is so large that’s hard to find hotels that fit my family close to the park! I love being at the waterslide and looking across the street and see the matterhorn at disneyland. We actually changed hotels after the first night to save a little money- which was a pain. It did save a bunch of money though.
This is part of the room in our hotel. Easton felt like he needed to sleep in the bunk bed.
My two year old thought it would be fun to wake up at 5 am on our first disney day. The little poop wouldn’t go back to sleep no matter what I did so we were both super tired by the time the park was ready to open. We always have a game plan when the park opens so one of us takes the older boys on some big rides while the lines are small. (super good disney tip right there. Always be there when the park opens!) I had my two year old Easton and we were going to head to critter country to the winnie the pooh ride. I knew he would love it.
Because Splash mountain was closed no one was in their area but disney employees. As soon as we got by the ride we saw tigger! He started hiding behind trees and and playing peek a boo with Easton. East was a little nervous at first but pretty soon Pooh bear was out saying hello to him too and he was giggling and grinning from ear to ear. Tigger was taking him to pooh corner and he was walking down the path holding both of their hands. So adorable you guys. For the next about 10 minutes they sat and played with him.
For some reason East wanted to collect leaves (he had been doing this all morning) so tigger started helping him find some. Pooh was pretending to dip them in honey and eat them and tigger was balancing them on his nose. Pooh tried to pull a whole bush out of the ground and the workers were laughing and telling him “not the alive leaves pooh!” East went from being super irritable (I’m guessing from his lack of sleep) to giggling more then I’ve seen him in a long time. Tigger helped Easton get on the ride and was waiting for us when we got off.
This was the highlight of the trip for me! This is one of the reasons I love going to disneyland. They cared so much about making my one little boy so happy. Later in the trip my husband was over by tigger with him and he was giving tigger leaves and my husband couldn’t figure out why. haha! I know why!
I usually hand people my phone to take pictures of me so they aren’t blurry!
He called Tigger my tigger for the rest of our trip.
We enjoyed the absolute best weather. It was worth waiting to book to get the best weather. It 90 for our first two days in California. But then it got cloudy so it wasn’t as hot in the sun. Because we went in the off season (another really big disney tip!) we had small lines for disneyland. We were able to ride all the rides we wanted to multiple times in our three days in the parks.
We did go to California adventure to ride the new guardians of the galaxy ride. I actually really liked it! My boys were upset when they got rid of tower of terror but I liked this ride better and they did too. It was really fun to go on a ride we have never been on before.
On our last day we read up on how to get the highest score on the buzz lightyear ride. Let it be known I have the highest score in the family.
This guy rode the haunted mansion at least 15 times this trip. He kept asking to see the ghosts. He loved disneyland more then any other two year old I’ve taken. He could stay on the rides forever.
Easton is a little star struck.
Toy story ride. The wait was twice as long as the sign said (that happened a lot for some reason this trip) and I had all 5 kids alone while Bryan got fast passes and a hour in line alone with 5 boys about made me crazy. But we lived and enjoyed the ride.
YOU GUYS- my husband has figured out how to work my camera! Can’t you hear the angels singing? Because I can and I can finally be in a few photos. He took this fun pictures of us on the tea cups. We filled our cup with kids. They spun the dang thing as fast as they could and made me sick. We had a really good laugh about it though.
Another miracle- some nice girls walked by as Bryan took my picture with the boys and offered to take a group one. And knew how to work my nikon camera! Seriously never happens. Notice how East is asleep sitting up? haha- we made him stay awake as best we could so he would go to sleep in our hotel. He is a bad sleeper.
Jungle cruise light. So pretty.
This teenage girl cut in front of my kids in line to see goofy. Seriously what is the deal? A teenager needs to see goofy more then a two year old? People in disneyland are weird.
Until next time Disneyland!
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