So for the first time in YEARS, we went on a family vacation!
My husband has been with a new company for a little over a year and now gets the opportunity to take paid vacations, wooohooo! May not seem like much but after not being able to do so in forever it was nice to take advantage of it. So we sat down with calendars and booked our first ever family vacation! We of course chose Disneyland, especially since Noodle was on the verge of being the age of having to pay full price for him we needed to jump on this opportunity now.
Anaheim isn't that far from where we live so we did have the option to drive back and forth, but after much thought and pure laziness we decided why not just make it a full hotel style vacation, so the search began. I am what you would call a "hotel snob." I am not much of a camper, heck who am I kidding I am not a camper at all! I like staying in nice, clean, hotels, and man are there a whole lot of hotels to chose out in Anaheim. I knew we wanted it to be clean, nice, close to Disneyland, and of course affordable. After much research and debate we decided on Hotel Indigo. Its not a huge hotel, but it was nice, clean, affordable, close like super close to Disneyland and the staff was remarkable. When booking online I told them it was my little guy's bday and requested a fireworks view. To my surprise when we got there (before check in mind you) our room was ready, they even made him a card with a hand drawn Mickey and gave us a room with an incredible view of the fireworks at Disneyland! My kids were beyond stoked as was my husband and I was very impressed. The room was clean, the shower was beautiful and actually had water pressure and the soaps were AVEDA!!! I was in "hotel snob" heaven. The walk to Disneyland was literally 11 minutes (keep in mind I have long legs and tend to walk fast, but I was pushing a double stroller). You could drive to Disneyland but why would you when Hotel Indigo has free parking in an underground garage. I just want to be clear that I am not paid or affiliated with he hotel at all, I am just a ordinary mom who was looking for the best place to vacation with my family and honestly Hotel Indigo really hit the mark.
(the card they made for my son, cute right?!)
Now on to Disneyland. We did the two-days, one park per day tickets. First on our agenda was Disneyland. I was stoked because on the crowd tracker it forecast it not to be as crowded, which is amazing. To my surprise if that was considered not crowded then I would hate to go when it was crowded. I love Disneyland, my kids love Disneyland but it was so crowded and so hot it made it hard to enjoy as much as I wanted to. Lines were long and the sun was blazing. We were there all day and got to go on maybe 4 rides and take pictures with Captain America and Thor. Which that in itself was amazing! My kids love all things Marvel and the line to take a picture wasn't as long as most. My kids were so excited. SoyBean has a crush on Captain America and would not let him go, it seriously border lined to an awkwardly long hug, but Captain America was such a great sport and just held on to her. We ate, we laughed, we took tons of pictures and had a blast. Besides a teensy sun burn for me and the sun-kissed look on the kids it was amazing. We walked back to the hotel and crashed out.
Now its time for California Adventure!!! Can you tell this is our absolute favorite place. Its never super crowded, they have Disney Jr. Live shows, lots and lots of shaded trees and the lines for rides are much shorter not to mention tons of characters walking throughout the park who are amazing at interacting with the kids. We started off with Aladdin Stage Show, it was amazing and air conditioned! Next we went on Monsters Inc., which is such a cute ride and never longer than a 15 minute wait. From there we went on everything with little to no lines. We ate at Flo's V8 Cafe, amazing mac and cheese and turkey sandwich, and Mr. Vee had a cup of chili in a bread cone. Food was great, weather was hot but thanks to all the shade that California Adventure has it was barely noticeable. We loved it!
We laughed, and cheered, and enjoyed being with each other but most of all I loved seeing how happy my family was. I loved seeing the kids experience stuff for the first time. Hugging Disney characters, asking them questions, seeing their faces on rides, eating and trying new foods for the first time. When you get older you forget and take so much for granted so it made it even nicer to stop, relax and enjoy life through the eyes of the kids for once. Loved our family vacation and sad to be back to reality. Here's looking forward to next year!
-It's Me...Jamie Vee
