Disney Trip 2022
While we were all down with Covid, K and I decided to surprise the kiddo with a trip to Disneyland once we were all recovered and feeling better. It was a total blast! And believe it or not, I was able to keep the surprise for two whole weeks!
Day 1 Once a week we take the kiddo to Gaga's house and the two of them get time together while K and I take a date, then we all come back together to share lunch. It is such an important part of our week, and we absolutely love it. It worked out that our flight left just after that tradition, so after lunch we gave the kiddo a surprise bag with clues to where we were going. Anytime we tell him about something fun coming up he responds with "right now?!" and so it was extra awesome to be able to say "Yes! RIGHT NOW! Let's get in the car and go!" Our flight was delayed, but once we got on the plane it was a super easy flight and the kiddo had a blast. The crew member gave him extra cookies, which he was thrilled about. We rented the car, and headed to the hotel where there was one more surprise! Grandma and Grandpa were already in the area for Rees' baseball tournament, so they extended their trip to do California Adventure with us! When the kiddo walked into the lobby he saw Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mindee, Uncle Matty, and Rees just waiting for him! He froze, was so confused for a second, and then bolted over to grandma! We chatted for a second and said goodbye to the Jenkins (the flight delay canceled our dinner plans for us), and got ready for a night swim!!! Night swim the first night of vacation is quickly becoming a family tradition, and I am so here for it. Once the kiddo was shaking from the cold (but still refusing to get out of the pool), we called it a night so that we could get up early to hit the first park!
Day 2 Our first day was at California Adventure, and the very first stop was Cars Land. It was truly magical to watch the kiddo process Radiator Springs in real life after seeing it in the films so many times. He just stared at the statue of Stanley the Founder for like a solid 45 seconds. We rode Mater's Tractor Jamboree first (huge success. We would ride it like 5 more times before the day was done), and then headed over to the Radiator Springs Racers. Grandma and Grandpa got Lightning Lane passes for it, so our wait was reduced from 60 minutes to like 10! Awesome!! The kiddo LOVED the slow parts. He got a bit nervous during the actual racing bits, but afterwards gave it a big thumbs up and said he wanted to go again! Since the wait was so long, we decided to head over to Luigi's Casa De La Tires and do that ride. It was so cute! The cars all danced to Italian music. Cars Land was honestly so cool. Grandma and Grandpa went to get a stroller for the kiddo, and we rode the tractors on repeat, and then went into a gift shop. The kiddo had $10 to spend as a celebration for completing his first Learn to Read workbook, and he decided to take home a toy tractor (that was just like the ride). He even got to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater!!! We explored Pixar Pier and the rest of the park and rode rides until lunch. The kiddo got to enjoy his first Mickey Ice Cream Bar of the trip while we waited in line for Toy Story, which made the line super chill for all of us. The kiddo loved all of the rides he went on, but his favorites were the ones that he could run around and get right back on without too long of a wait. Lol. He and I did the Jumping Jellyfish like 3 times before I had to call it quits. The kiddo wanted to eat at Flo's V8 Cafe, so we headed over there for lunch, and the food was SOOO GOOD!! It was the perfect choice.
After lunch we hopped on the trolley and the kiddo got to ring the bell! We walked back over to Hollywoodland and went to see "Turtle Talk With Crush." The kiddo was called on to ask a question! Crush opened the show up to audience questions and he said he wanted to ask Crush a knock knock joke. We told him he needed to raise his hand, and he stood up so tall with his hand raised. It was precious. Before we knew it, Crush was sending the moderator over to "the little dude by the railing who looks like he is going to explode." The kiddo introduced himself, got a turtle name, and then forgot his question. Lol. But Crush said that he actually had a question for him. He found this thing (A Buzz Lightyear Toy) and needed to know what it was and what it did. The kiddo let him know it was a Buzz Light-ear and that it flies. It was really cute, and totally made his day. We rode Monsters Inc, and after a long line for that one it was time for another treat. While we were waiting in line the kiddo skipped both moms and went right to Grandma. He let her know he needed something. Something brown. And white. That is a circle. And has ears. Grandma is quite the sleuth, because she was able to crack the code and get him another Mickey Ice Cream Bar. Lol.
After we cooled off a bit we rode a couple more rides and then went over to the Redwood Creek Trails park for the kiddo to blow off some stream. It was so peaceful! Grandma and Grandpa waited out with the stroller, so moms and the kiddo did the rope bridges, and discovered a cave! Outside of the cave was a really small creek, and the kiddo played in that water for like 25 minutes. He just straight up laid his whole body down in the water. Lol. We finished the kiddo's park day with Soarin' and then headed into Downtown Disney for some dinner. On our way we had a bit of a spill in the Grand California lobby. The kiddo's wet shoes made him slip and he went face first into Mater's tow hook and then face-planted straight into the floor. A Disney security guard just happened to be right there, and came over to ask if we needed a nurse. We checked him out, and besides some blood from biting his cheeks he was okay, so said we were fine. The security guard gave him a very special sticker just for him, and gave us the info on how to get a nurse if we changed our mind. I happened to take a pic of him with his Mater about 2 minutes before the fall. We got him feeling better and had a delicious meal at Black Tap, per Grandpa's suggestion. It was honestly soooooooo good! The kiddo was falling asleep at the table, so Grandma and Grandpa took him for a night swim at the hotel and K and I got to explore the park a bit more on our own. We didn't end up riding anymore rides because the lines were longer than we wanted to wait in, but it was so nice to walk through the park and chat, window shop, actually shop, and just enjoy the atmosphere and each other's company. I always loved getting new stuffies at Disney as a kid, so we wanted to get one for Shep. Nothing was feeling quite right, but then we found a Mickey Ice Cream truck with removable ice creams! It was perfect! (We learned a few days after we got home that it's technically a dog toy when we discovered squeakers in the ice creams.... but our kid has had a blast with it. Lol).
We dropped off our postcard for Grandma and Grandpa (a travel tradition we have done for years. On our last night with them we leave a postcard from wherever we are with a thank you note for sharing this time together), and carried a sleepy boy back to our room. We all went to bed pretty early because we had another fun day at the park the next morning!
Day 3 The next morning we headed over for a day at Disneyland! One of the kiddo's favorite movies right now is Finding Dory, and the Finding Nemo ride had just re-opened the day before from a multi-year makeover (and being closed for Covid, I would imagine). We decided to head over there first thing to cut down on wait time, and then get some Mickey waffles for breakfast. The kiddo LOVED the ride! It was so cute, and he had a blast. He also made friends with some kids around his age who were also there with their moms. They bonded over their pride shirts. (The kiddo made quite a few friends on this trip. It was really cool to watch him take the initiative to introduce himself or wave to other kids that were around). Neither Keaton or the kiddo had ever had Mickey waffles.... and you know my wife..... she is the queen of waffles. We literally had wedding waffles for her. I was SHOCKED! But luckily we were able to get a walk up reservation at Carnation Cafe, and after riding the Tomorrowland rockets (that I can never remember the name of) had some delicious brekkie (as the kiddo calls it). The kiddo was a champ at California Adventure, but really struggled with the lines... you know, as any 3 year old would... so for our Disneyland day we did a whole bunch of Lightning Lane rides right in a row! We were able to walk straight on to almost all of them! The kiddo really wanted to go on the train rollercoaster. So we showed him a POV video online, and explained that the ride went really fast. He was sure, so we hopped on Big Thunder Railroad. It ended up being a bit too scary for him (although he still gave it a thumbs up afterwards), so we went over to teacups and Small World to cleanse his pallet. The crowds were really starting to come in at that point, so we took a churro break in a quiet corner by a duck pond. The kiddo LOVED playing with the ducks. He is so sweet and gentle with animals. It's really cool to watch him be so loving and caring with other creatures. We rode some more rides. The kiddo got to drive the car in Autotopia and was laughing the entire time. He was such a crazy driver! Between him steering all by himself, and Mimi not being able to figure out a nice pace for the gas poor Mama was just creeping along to try not to hit us. Lol. The kiddo said it was his favorite ride of the day. Disney makes food allergies and dietary accommodations really easy to manage! We did a bunch of research on dairy free options before we left, and realized there were just too many choices and we didn't want to miss out on many. So we decided to do a "taste of Disney" day, and it was awesome! I definitely want to make that a tradition. Instead of each ordering our own plates of food for main meals, we tried a bunch of different food options throughout the day by only ordering one of anything for the three of us to share (unless of course it had milk, in which case I would sit it out). It was a great way to break up the day, reduce food waste, eat more sensible serving sizes, and taste more of the park!
We got to try a delicious gumbo bread bowl in the French Quarter, and an awesome vegan burger at The Hungry Bear. We are not huge Star Wars people, but I was really intrigued by the Blue Milk, so the kiddo and Keaton went to ride Winnie the Pooh (her favorite character growing up), and I ran over to Star Wars to get a Blue Milk for us to share. I made it back right as they were getting on the ride, so had it for them to taste as they got off! It was so good! It was subtle, lightly sweet, and thick like a slushie. It exceeded all expectations so much that we ended up all going into Star Wars land to each get our own later in the day. Winnie the Pooh was out so we got to meet him! The kiddo was so excited, and even gave Pooh Bear a hug! My favorite moment, though, was as we were leaving we asked him what he thought and he very excitedly said "He didn't have any poop on him!" He thought that Pooh Bear stood for something else. Lol. As we had been showing the kiddo some things from Disneyland here and there over the past couple of weeks (so that he would kind of know what the vacation would be when we surprised him) he was most excited for Mickey Ice Cream Bars and Dole Whip. Dole Whip was one of the very last things we did in the park, but throughout the day the kiddo would remember and say "We neeeeeeeeed:" and a mom would respond "Dole Whip!" or vice versa. It became quite the inside joke for the day, and made enjoying it all together in front of the castle even more fun. After Dole Whip it was mid-afternoon, we were hot, there were people everywhere and there was no wait time less than 45 minutes, so we decided to top off with another blue milk and hop on the monorail to head back to the hotel. As we were walking up the stairs the kiddo was telling us a story and stopped mid-sentence to say "whhhaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!" We turned to look and there was a stroller that had a Lightning McQueen shaped backpack on it. It's amazing the radar he has for Cars stuff, man. We went back to the hotel to recuperate for a moment and then Keaton surprised me with a BEACH BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I adore the ocean, and it was the perfect make-up celebration! We drove down to Laguna Beach (which is adorable, btw) and spent the evening playing in the sand and water. We happened to park right next to a section of the beach that is dedicated to LGBT lives lost in the AIDS Crisis, and there were Pride flags all over and a beautiful tribute garden. There was even a bench with a really cool pride sculpture on the back. The water was cold, and the kiddo wasn't super into that, so he and Keaton stayed pretty high up while I played in the water for a bit. Once we were all beached out we got some delicious sandwiches and headed back to the hotel. We got clean, put the boy to bed, and packed up for our departure the next day.
Day 4
Our flight was in the afternoon, and none of us were quite ready to be done with vacation mode, so we tried our luck at Goofy's Kitchen. There were no reservations available, but we thought that maybe if we got there right when they opened we could be added to a walk up list. We didn't even have to wait! It was awesome! Keaton has never done a character meal before, and we used to do Goofy's Kitchen all the time when I was growing up, so it was a lot of fun to be able to share that with my family.
The kiddo was a bit unsure of Goofy when he came up to him in the lobby, but was all about Minnie Mouse and Pluto as they would dance by. He had been asking to meet Minnie Mouse most of the day at Disneyland, and was especially excited to meet her. He told us she is his favorite character. He thought the buffet was amazing, and especially liked the Peanut Butter and Jelly pizza (always my favorite) and mac and cheese scrambled eggs (leave it to Chef Goofy to come up with such a zany menu). I got a tour of the buffet from one of the chef's to accommodate my allergy (it was actually really nice to not have to guess), and it added so much magic and fun to our last morning. We have decided it's the perfect departure day tradition, because it makes even departure day special and fun.
They've adapted it a bit during the pandemic, but I thought it was a blast! Every 20 minutes party music would come on and we would welcome Chef Goofy and his friends to the floor by waving our napkins over our head. They would then dance through the restaurant stopping for a dance party with each table, but not taking too much longer. It was the perfect way for the kiddo to enjoy meeting the characters in a fun/upbeat way that was not too much time of them in his personal space. I think they should keep it like that. It was honestly A BLAST! After breakfast we spent a couple more hours in Downtown Disney. The kiddo was COVERED in syrup and ice cream (because 7am ice cream is a must at Goofy's Kitchen), so we needed to get him some clean clothes for the flight, and we ended up doing a bit more shopping while we were there. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather while the kiddo played with his new big rig (I'v never heard a bigger gasp than when he laid eyes on that thing). We made wishes at the fountain, and got to see a couple of the Pride displays they have out right now (The kiddo asked to get a picture with us kissing his cheeks in front of the Pride heart and our hearts melted. It was so sweet.). Disney has made so many extra efforts recently to make sure LGBT+ guests feel safe and welcome. It was great! The trip back to the airport was easy and uneventful. We got lunch while we waited, and then headed home! Before we knew it we were back in Salt Lake watching Grandma drive up to take us home (with Gypsy riding shotgun)!
Our family needed this trip so badly, and we had such a wonderful time. I don't think any of us were really ready to come home. The kiddo said to us "Next time we go to Gaga's we will eat lunch and then we can get on an airplane to go back to vacation!" So wish us luck while we work through that association. Lol. We are all eagerly planning our next adventure together. It feels sooooooooooooooo good to be back to traveling!