30 Before 30 // DISNEYLAND

#15: Take the kiddos to Disneyland.

It's been half a year since I officially created my "30 Before 30" bucket list, and I finally checked an item off! The week of fall break (17th-21st) we spent 3 glorious, fun, exhausting days at Disneyland along with Doug's family (minus his mom and youngest sister). If anything could have made a Disney vacation more exciting for Nicole, it was going on the vacation with her cousins. She had a blast and has had "It's A Small World" stuck in her head for the past week. I'm just glad that the adults outnumbered the kids (5 kids, 7 adults)! 5 kids under 5 was a little crazy at times.

^^^Really, though, Nicole loved having her cousins around!

Nicole tells me that her favorite rides were Dumbo, Peter Pan, the carousel, and Pinocchio. I would say that she didn't seem to enjoy Pinocchio much, but okay Nicole. Haha! The other 3 rides she mentioned were definitely a hit, though. Austin was a huge fan of the carousel too. We went on it 3 times, and probably would have gone more if it was just our family of 4. Nicole also enjoyed the teacups, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tarzan's Treehouse, and (somewhat surprisingly) Gadget's Go Coaster. It was her first legitimate roller coaster, and even though she was muttering "I don't wike it! I don't wike it!" under her breath the whole time we were on the ride, once we got off she asked to go again and kept talking about the ride for the next couple days. Success! I'll make a coaster junkie out of her yet! Haunted Mansion scared her, though. Not the ride itself, just the intro when the room grows taller. I'm pretty sure it's a rite of passage to get scared of the Haunted Mansion intro as a kid, though. Hahahaha!

We focused more on rides rather than on parades/shows/meeting characters, but Nicole still got to meet a couple of her favorites: Peter Pan, Olaf, Kristoff, Elsa, and Anna! She was so bashful around Peter, but still let him hug her and gave him a high five. She gave Olaf the longest warm hug in the history of warm hugs, and was shy around Elsa and Anna (but still so excited to meet them). Austin found Olaf intriguing, and while Nicole kept Elsa busy, he led Anna away from her sister and they had a little tete-a-tete playing behind the curtains. I didn't manage to snag a picture of both of them behind the curtain at the same time, but it was cute. We caught a glimpse of Mickey at one point, but he was heading out and we didn't track him down again after that. We also tried to chase down Sophia the First as she was leaving--no success--and we missed her other appearance times. Nicole was bummed about it because she had been asking to see Sophia all day, but she got over it quickly.

^^^Dark and blurry phone pics for meeting Olaf and Kristoff, but oh well! Half the time my DSLR was low on battery, and the other half the time I either completely forgot about it or just barely remembered it in time. Oops!

The kids also got to watch "Frozen - Live at the Hyperion" and they loved it! I only saw the last 10 minutes of it because I used the opportunity to go on the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride with a couple others in our group. The nostalgic part of me misses Tower of Terror, but the new version of the ride is fun! And if I want to go on ToT, it still exists at Disney World (and the DW version is arguably more fun than the DL version was!)

We had 4 different sit-down dining experiences on this trip, and unfortunately none of them were spectacular. We ate at Rainforest Cafe, Café Orleans, Carnation Cafe, and Tortilla Joe's. Slow service, kids got antsy, I'll spare you the details... the point is, I much prefer counter service at Disney parks. (At least, with young kids in tow.) My favorite meal was eating the infamously delicious clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl at Pacific Warf Café. Yuuuuuuum, SO good. The skewers at Bengal Barbeque were delicious too, as always.

^^^First picture: one of Austin's many naps. He never falls asleep on-the-go, so I was glad he took naps in the park. Second picture: kids waiting on Doug's lap for a dinner reservation. They both got soaked in a nearby fountain just minutes previously.

The kids woke bright and early every morning (4:45 AM the first morning, yikes) and were in bed around 7:30 every night. They would crash immediately, and then Doug and I would return to the parks to go on all the fun rides while Doug's dad stayed behind in the hotel room with our kids. He doesn't like fast/bumpy/intense rides, so it all worked out. I'm so glad I got to go on all my favorite rides. Thank goodness for fast passes and single rider lines!

I loved watching our kids experience Disney Park magic for the first time. We'll definitely be going back as soon as we can. (But hopefully when it's less crowded... if there IS such a thing as "less crowded" at Disneyland anymore. They don't really have an "off season" like they used to...) It's certainly more of a hassle to travel down from Utah than it is to make a (relatively) quick drive down from Fresno, but it was worth it!