- Oct 19, 2018
- 3 min read

The Happiest Place On Earth

So we totally did a thing. We used Everly's 1st Birthday as an excuse to take a family trip to Disneyland.

Yup, you read that right.

When you are a California resident and you have a 3 year old who's obsessed with Minnie Mouse, and have some relatives fly in from Hawaii for vacation, AND you also have a baby who just turned 1, the only logical thing to do is take a family trip to Disneyland. Right? I mean, it's the perfect reason to finally take my girls to The Happiest Place On Earth!

So that's exactly what we did. And I'm not ashamed about it!

Let's be honest... 1st birthday parties (actually ALL birthday parties) are exhausting - from planning to execution. When Ella turned 1, we had planned 2 birthday parties for her. The first party was in Hawaii with my family because we decided to vacation in Hawaii for her birthday. And then we had a 2nd party here in Southern California with our family and friends we have here. These parties weren't HUGE, but still... it was A LOT of work. So this time around, I just said "forget it!" Call it #secondchildproblems, I don't care. I just didn't wanna deal with the whole party planning thing again so we said "off to Disneyland we go!" At least when Everly gets older, she can't say we didn't do anything for her 1st birthday, right? I mean, we may not have thrown her a huge party but we still did cake & ice cream with family to celebrate on her birthday and that following Saturday.

So there. 2 mini parties + Disneyland = THE BEST 1ST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!

Anyway, Disneyland did not disappoint. However, I will say, it was a completely different experience this time around. Before kids, it was all about getting in line to ALL the favorites: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Thunder Railroad, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribbean… just to name a few. With kids, it's ALL about standing in lines to meet Mickey & the gang. We spent our entire morning on Main Street waiting to say "hi" and take pictures with all the Disney characters.

And then after that, it was off to find all the Disney Princesses in Fantasyland.

Then after THAT, it was off to Toon Town to stalk Minnie at her house.

I think we only did 2 rides. That's it. I didn't even get to go on Peter Pan because Ella just wasn't feelin' it and was on a mission to find Rapunzel who, by the way, was not available for a meet & greet because according to Ella, she was "too busy singing and dancing to talk to me." Rapunzel happened to be performing in a show and Ella was a bit upset that Rapunzel did not make time for her. *sigh* #threenagerproblems

Oh! But we did get to hang out in Tarzan's Treehouse. Well... Ella and Daniel did that. I just stood down at the bottom because Everly had fallen asleep and I was just too hot to do any kind of climbing. (Yeah, I seriously played that card that day haha).

Overall, our trip was a success! Even though it was hot AF, and there were some tears and epic meltdowns here and there, Ella & Everly were total troopers. And we are definitely entertaining the thought of finally getting annual passes because we can't wait to take the girls back!