Family Trip to Disneyland - Part One

With so many family members on both sides of the family, most of our "vacations" are spent taking trips to see them for weekends or for a week or two to those who live across the country. Since moving to Southern California, we have been blessed to be so near Disneyland. We hesitated at the beginning of the year spending the money for annual passes, but they have WAY more than paid for themselves and it has been a nice way to be sure that we take time to "vacation locally" with our own little family on a regular basis. Usually we simply go for an evening here or there, but our trip across the country to Ohio this summer included enough hotel rooms that we received a free night through our rewards program. With the new baby coming soon and only my parents as possible babysitters to watch the kids overnight anyway, Chris came up with a fun plan to use our free hotel night and spend some quality time as a family. He booked a night at one of the Disneyland hotels, Paradise Pier, and took a day off work so that we could make a family trip happen. After he got off work on Thursday, we headed over, checked into our hotel (they upgraded us to a suite free of charge, so that was even MORE awesome), and spent the evening at California Adventure.

We arrived in the park just when the Pixar Parade was about to begin and the girls love the parades even though they have seen them several times before. The music and fun just never gets old. 5-4-3-2-FUN! Kayla and Chris jumped on the Ariel ride (one of her favorites) during a segment of the parade since we were sitting right in front of it and there was no line.

After the parade, Chris and Kayla headed for a ride on the Tower of Terror. Though she asks to go on it somewhat regularly, she has never yet smiled for the picture during the ride...until now.

Meanwhile, Elise and Ava and I hung out in Bug's Land and rode some of our regular favorites, "Flik's Flyers", the "Ladybugs", and "Heimlich's Chew Chew Train".

The line for the Toy Story ride is usually long, so we have never yet ridden (Yep, you heard me, there are still things we haven't done at Disneyland/California Adventure even after nearly a year with annual passes). The line was not super long though, so we all rode that ride together. The whole family loved it; can't wait to get back on that one again!

Before the park closed, we hopped on King Triton's Carousel for a quick ride. The girls all chose dolphins to ride on their undersea adventure.


Then we headed back to the hotel to watch the World of Color performance from our room before heading to bed for the night. It's better if you can watch it in the park up closer, but it was neat to get a different perspective and see all the neat lights and fountains from a different vantage point. And it was nice to be able to sit in the quiet privacy of our hotel room to do it. The coordinating music plays on of the channels on the TV in the room.


Oh, and in case you wanted to see the amazing suite they upgraded us to free of charge...

The suite was definitely more spacious than our condo as far as living space and the decor was really beachy and cute.

And check out the amazing views of the park from the room. So lovely.