small life, slow life

I was gone on a work trip last week, and V had a really hard time with me being away. On Sunday night, I said to C, “I think I’ll take her to Disneyland tomorrow.”

“Really?” he said. “By yourself? Isn’t it super expensive?”

“She’s only free a little while longer.”

As luck would have it, the parking man waved us through and didn’t charge us the $25 fee. Score! V also wanted no souvenirs (she’s not at that stage yet, thank goodness), so we saved there as well. And we saved on money by buying snacks at the market ahead of time and stashing them in our backpack. We only ate one meal at the park.

The truth is, I was (and am still) a little under the weather and didn’t honestly feel like going to Disneyland. But the bigger truth was that I had missed my girl, and wanted to do something truly special for her.

And it was so special.

Sometimes you go to Disneyland and it’s a total bust. It’s happened to me more than once. You go on like three rides total, there are people everywhere, and it’s so expensive.

Thank goodness, this was not one of those time.

She was such a trooper. We were there from 11am-9pm, just the two of us. She waited through every line, walked every long stretch of the park, patiently waited for shows to begin. I could not believe my three year-old was being such an angel in the midst of so many other kids completely losing their minds.

People were so kind yesterday. Employees let us redeem our fast passes early. V bumped into people or ran in front of them and everyone just smiled instead of being grumpy. It was the perfect weather, and lines were…well, lines were still long, but it wasn’t the end of the world. V was such an amazing kid all day long.

Finally, at almost 9pm, her eyes filled with tears and she said, “I wanna go home, I’m tired! I wanna see Daddy.” 💔 It was so sweet, I took her to the car right afterwards. I luckily planned ahead and had pajamas in the car, because I had a feeling this would happen:

C meeting us in the garage to carry a passed out baby up to bed. 🙂

My mom worked for Disney for a number of years, so this was the first time in a decade I had to pay for myself (not complaining, thank you Mom)! It was still so worth it! If you do Disney right, it is so completely magical. I could write a whole post about doing Disney the right way, but there are whole blogs dedicated just to that, so I’ll spare you.

(Spoiler: Download the Disney app and buy the Disney MaxPass. $20 and you can book your Fast Passes right from the app. It is so worth it.)

We walked onto Toy Story Midway Mania, the ride that has one of the longest wait times in the park, in just 5 minutes because of Disney MaxPass. So worth it!

V has been really into Frozen for…what feels like forever(?), so it was fun to head to California Adventure and watch the live Frozen show at the Hyperion, and also to wait in line to meet Anna and Elsa. We’re already super excited for Frozen II coming out in November!

We also took her to see her first movie in the theatre this weekend — Abominable. It was really cute and she sort of sat through it, she got pretty wiggly toward the end, but she was really proud of herself. She’s getting so big and learning so many new things everyday, it’s hard to keep up!

I think the most special part of Disneyland is that James and his now husband, Briggon, were able to meet us there for dinner. They have annual passes and were planning on going anyway! V was the flower girl in their wedding this summer, and she loves them both beyond belief. It was a really special way to end a completely magical day with my girl. ❤️