California Birthday Trip: Day 1

Alright, lets get the ball rolling already.

Overly excited toddler in stow, we flew to LA on United Airlines last Thursday afternoon after getting a ride from my oh-so-generous brother-in-law to Denver International Airport. Kalynn did awesome on the plane and mostly drew Paint Sparkles on the iPad while munching on Goldfish Crackers. Having skipped her nap that day, I was super relieved there were no melt downs. Not one. High five.

We went straight to my Mom's house, ate dinner, and directly climbed into bed. Traveling, as I'm sure everyone knows, is totally exhausting. We had a big day ahead of us so we needed some good rest.

Friday morning we spent a few precious hours with my grandparents taking pictures and hanging out before heading off to Disneyland. The Paradise Pier Hotel let us check in early, which was awesome because Kalynn was already ready for a nap by the time noon rolled around. Our room was totally adorable, decked out with characters in a beachy theme.

We had an amazing view of the water slide and the pool although we never got to use either of them because it was record breaking low temperatures the whole time we were there. Parts of LA County even got snow. Can you believe that? Leave it to us to choose the one weekend of the millennium that the temperatures decide to chill out in the 30's.

She woke up happy and ready to go! Thank God!

Off to Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

It felt so good to be back! We immediately headed to Fantasyland to meet up with our friends Melissa and Brandon and their son Elin (the same ones who gave us the hotel suite a couple December's ago in San Diego).

I can't even explain how nice it is to be around my friends again. People whom I've known for eons. People I can just pal around with and feel like we never skipped a beat.

Our kids played, we rode rides, we caught up on everything there was to talk about and we got to just have an awesome day.

Kalynn and I took a detour to say hello to Snow White while my mom saved us the perfect spot to watch the parade. Although Kalynn was initially super excited to meet her idol, she was a little nervous when Ms. White wanted a hug. 

Walking back from Snow White's Wishing Well to my mom, who was saving our parade watching spot, we got a bit of a surprise. There she was, sitting in the middle of a circle in mid conversation with Alice in Wonderland, The White Rabbit, The Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. The 4 characters must have sat and talked with her for 10 minutes about absolutely nothing important while lines of patient Disney fans waited for pictures and autographs.

Kalynn wasn't as enthused. She's pretty terrified of the Queen of Hearts. Rightly so. Anyone who goes around yelling "Off with their heads!!" should expect a frightened toddler to deny a photo opportunity.

After the parade we met up my my friend Chris and his daughter Lilly for more rides. We kept the kids awake until 8:45 (9:45pm our time) to watch the fireworks, but they were canceled at the last minute due to high wind advisory. Just as well. Someone was a little tuckered out anyway.

My mom and I popped open a bottle of red wine (by popped open, I mean accidentally pushed the cork through the wrong way forcing a volcano of Cabernet to explode all over my face, the walls, the floor and the couch) and blew up a million balloons to cover the hotel room floor for Kalynn o have the next morning on her 3rd birthday.

Day 1 had overly exceeded my expectations of our first visit since our move to Colorado. It couldn't have gone any more perfect.

Day 2 (just as awesome) coming soon!