San Diego to Disneyland Hotel

We slept really well after our day at SeaWorld.  Jared couldn't believe we weren't going to take naps that day and Lydia kept asking too.  Poor kids.  We spent our last morning there playing in the pool at our hotel. Often I feel like whenever we stay at hotels (which is not often at all but even when Mark and I were traveling alone) we never used the amenities they offered.  We did a much better job this time around.

 Jared Poolside:

Hitting the road, Mouse ears on! We all had some. LA here we come.

Sleepy sleepy kids. I was surprised at how quickly we got to LA from San Diego. I knew it wasn't that far but it went really fast. I was slightly disappointed as Jared and Lydia both fell asleep but they only got to sleep for like an hour.  It was better than nothing though.

 We walked into the lobby and who did we see?

I liked how he was in his "original" clothes. He has some fancy outfits at the park.  At first Lydia was a little hesitant but she quickly warmed up and loved meeting all the characters, which proved harder than we thought it would be (more about that later). Our room wasn't ready yet, so we checked out the grounds then went over to Downtown Disney. Lydia was excited that Tinkerbell was on this hat.  Tinkerbell is her new favorite.

I imagine a lot of people get married right here!

We got to our room and got settled in. The rest of my family wasn't there yet so we decided to go down to the pool and swim for awhile. The pools were fun shaped and one section had a large play structure and 2 slides.  Lydia and Jared were thrilled.

We loved how the fireworks on our headboard lit up and played a Disney song. The room had so many "Mickey Mouse" / Disney details.  It was great.  The light fixtures were Mickey's hands and the knobs on the faucets were the shape of his head. There were just lots of fun details.

With the fireworks on . 

 "A dream is a wish your heart makes... (on our bed was a pillow with the other half of the line) when you're fast asleep"

I had read online that if you asked for a wake up call you would be called by a Disney character. I set it up for Jared and he was so very excited when I had him answer the phone. I did it each morning.  He was just so surprised and happy when he got called by Mickey Mouse! It was fun.  He was pretty out of it the first morning because he was so tired.  Well most mornings really. We had gone out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory the night before (also somewhere I had never been) and had a super long wait and didn't get back till way later then we hoped. It was unfortunate because that was our one night to go to bed early and they were so tired from SeaWorld and such a short nap. Oh well.  Jared got to sit by his cousin Lyra who is a month older than him during dinner and had a blast.  My sister Susanna was sitting by them and she told me funny sort about Jared.  We had ordered him apple juice which we don't do often, normally it's just water and Lyra had gotten Root Beer.  Susanna saw Jared sneak some of Lyra's drink and then notice that she saw him and she said he gave the cutest little look. Sort of a "I am so sneaky aren't I?" I am glad he could hang out with Lyra.  Jared and Lydia both loved playing with their cousins and any time we weren't with them they asked when we would see them. It was super fun to see them together. 

The last day we were there we ate breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.  The food was great and we got to meet some fun characters.  It was hard though because I was trying to eat but was worried about missing a character and not getting their signature and trying to get Jared and Lydia to eat. I also was just in a bad spot at the table. It was just more stressful than I would have liked.  I am not sure I would do it again. It was also super expensive.  We had not had much luck finding characters at the park though so it let our kids meet more and have some fun with them. I am not sure why we couldn't find more characters at the park. It was really disappointing. We did take our kids back to the hotel for a nap each day so maybe they are out the most from 12 - 3. I don't know.  The first day we had to wake them up after sleeping for 4 hours!  They were just so exhausted.  Before this trip I don't think Jared or Lydia had been up past 9:00.  So these nights were pretty hard for them. I am so glad we had them take naps and they were too.  Then we could stay out later and not be completely miserable. We had gotten Lydia a cute Minnie Mouse dress and she looked adorable. 

 Jared decided to act just like Pluto. 

Lyra, Lydia, Jared 

This is a happy face.  

She saw Baloo earlier when he was by other tables and she was getting food with Mark and ran away from him because she was scared of him but when he came over to us she was happy to meet him.

Dirt Pudding:  This was at 9:30 in the morning.  Jared and Lydia were excited to have a treat after their breakfast. I am glad we got to meet more characters, our frame (which turned out amazing by the way I LOVE it and totally recommend it) was looking pretty bare so it really helped and Jared and Lydia really loved meeting the characters. My sister Susanna had a few characters signatures we didn't so she helped us out and signed their names for them.  She made it look just like their's so I am glad she was willing.  I do wish we could have seen more in the park because Jared and Lydia loved them so much. Oh well better luck next time. We had a fun exhausting time on our trip.