CA Family Road Trip: Disneyland

Warning: Fun picture overload!! :)

Here's Charlie on the shuttle our first day going to Disneyland! Look at that cute morning face! Haha.

Once we got there, we grabbed our "First Time Visitor" buttons for Charlie and headed straight for Fantasyland. Our first ride was Peter Pan, which made Charlie cry (ok, let's be honest, most rides that were remotely dark at any point made Charlie cry!). What a sensitive boy! But we quickly discovered that his favorites were the teacups and especially Dumbo! He's trying to wait so patiently for his turn...

After a few rides, we headed back to ToonTown, hoping to find some Mickey Mouse characters to visit and BOY did we luck out! Pluto, Mickey, AND Minnie! And we almost saw Goofy, but right as we got there they told us that Goofy was going on lunch break. :/ Oh well. Charlie was so funny when he saw the characters. He would get so excited that all he could think to do was sit on the ground and look at them with a big grin on his face!

We were getting near nap time by the time we got to see Minnie and Mickey... so his shyness was a little elevated at this point. :)

Can you tell? He doesn't even know how to handle himself when meeting Mickey!

Family feet shot in ToonTown! Right after this, we decided to shuttle back to our hotel so Charlie could take a nap. He was falling asleep on the shuttle ride back and we worked to keep him awake so he could sleep in his pack-n-play. Of course, we put him down, and 1.5 hours later he STILL isn't sleeping. What!?!? Trevor and I were mad that he was wasting our precious Disney time by not napping, so we just decided to head back, and go figure... he fell asleep ON the shuttle on the way back. We just let him sleep for a little bit in his stroller and things were fine. We enjoyed the rest of the day by letting us adults ride some rides like the Matterhorn. I think we may have also gone on the Nemo ride with Charlie, on which he TOTALLY freaked out, poor thing. No one told us there was a sudden, dark, loud, scary part. He just lost it. Word of advice: when the Disney workers tell you "Oh yeah, it's awesome! All the kids love it! You get to meet all of Nemo's friends!".... just remember that they "forgot" to tell you about the scary part. Hahahaha

We started off the next day in Disney's California Adventure park! When we first arrived, we saw a street show where Mickey was singing and dancing and Charlie thought it was pretty fun! Then we went to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse live show. This was BY FAR the best thing we did the whole time! With bubbles falling from the sky and getting to see Mickey on stage singing the clubhouse songs, he was a pretty happy boy!

I think my pictures are a little out of order. We took the boat ride in Disneyland near the end of the first day, I think, and then ate at a little New Orleans restaurant nearby.

Okay back to California adventure the second day. We stood in line FOREVER to ride the ferris wheel. And we rode the part that swings back and forth. I was surprised, but Charlie actually liked it :) Then he got to ride King Triton's carousel all by himself (we rode nearby), big boy!

And finally, we bought him his first Disney souvenir - a stuffed Mickey! It was love at first sight...

Charlie was starting to get tired (nearly nap time) so Trev and I decided to take turns riding some "big kid" rides. I went first on the Tower of Terror and I was surprised to remember it was even scarier and more awesome than I remembered it! I came off with an adrenaline high and a bit of a headache! Haha :) Then it was Trevor's turn. I told him to take a picture of one of the photos they took on the ride and here it is. Can you spot him?! Hahahahaha...

We also rode the new Cars ride and it was AWESOME! I was surprised I liked it so much, but the concept where you get to race the car full of people next to you is really fun, and the whole ride was very well created and almost lifelike!

Toward the late afternoon of the second day, we ventured back over to Disneyland to let Charlie ride some of his favorite rides again. And Trevor finally got to ride Indiana Jones (his favorite!). We decided that two days was perfect for our little family! In the evening we stopped by the Legoland shop and I was in AWE at their creations. I wanted to buy everything seeing as I LOVE Legos! We ate dinner at the ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney and then started the long trek back to the shuttles and the hotel.

Charlie had a traveling companion in his stroller and on the last shuttle ride back to the hotel. 

It was really a very fun time! I'm so glad we went, even though lots of people thought Charlie might be too young and not appreciate it. There were times when I'd start to second guess the decision of going (like when he was freaking out on the Nemo submarine), but overall I know he had so much fun and we did too! I'm already wanting to go back. Or go to Disney World! :D