Have Yourself A Disney Little Christmas

 

I know nobody’s surprised, but we took another trip to DLand for the holidays.  Just the 4 of us.  Being Cole’s first visit, we figured we should introduce him while Disneyland is at its best; Christmas time.  Who doesn’t love a giant tree, lights, garlands, wreaths, fireworks, parades, a sparkly castle, and fresh-falling snow?  Certainly not us.

We stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian. It was closest and we figured it might be best with a 6 week old.  Yep. And now we’re ruined.  We’ll never want to stay anywhere else. Among a million other perks that place had to offer, each night Old St. Nick graced our hotel lobby.  We paid him a visit, and even got a photo for Christmas cards (but we’ll not spoil it on the blog).

Kate especially loved having a bunk bed all to herself, and I think Cole liked his complimentary pack n play.

 

Kate had one goal: to fill the autograph book.

 

She did a pretty good job, just shy of 2 signatures (but to be fair, some characters couldn’t sign because of ginormous, nonfunctioning digits (Sully) or the lack of (Lightning McQueen).

Cole was a dream.  He watched the insides of his eyelids for most of the trip. I swear this boy doesn’t cry unless his basic needs aren’t being met, which of course NEVER happens being the stellar parents that we are:)

 

This is him on his very first ride, The Jungle Cruise:Mmm…he has kissy lips.

On Sunday we got to visit the rest of L.A. and Pasadena. We will forever do this, and I can already see our kids HATING us because of it.

Visiting our ward and other favorite spots is always bittersweet for me.  I love the nostalgia of seeing our old world and life, but it sometimes feels like someone put a dagger through my heart visiting it again.

Speaking of worlds, here are two of mine at our favorite Old Town restaurant, Café Santorini. Best Mediterranean food hands down.

The weather cooperated for all of the trip, except for the night we watched the new World of Color fountain show.  We got all bundled, put on some rain coats, and it was actually a fabulous, uncrowded night…kind of romantical being out in the rain too.

I have a lot of moments where I’ll stop and tell myself “Remember This Moment.”  I had a lot of those on this trip (Kate squeezing me during the firework show; Kate dying to talk to Crush, the turtle, and still yelling out loud to him, even when he wouldn’t call on her; watching Dave run with Kate all around the park and pointing out every detail of every ride to her).  I love those moments.  So glad I have Dave to make those for me. If Cole and Kate fully understood who was in charge of our vacations, they’d be ever-so-thankful for their daddy too.  He is always the one to think up, schedule, and plan all of our fun trips; so glad to have another great one to add to the list.