Titensor Adventures : Disneyland + St George

Since my in-laws will be moving to Mexico for three years we went on a big family trip to Disneyland! The entire trip was a blast even if it was different (very different) from any other Disney trip I've been on. Going with kids is just that, different, not hard. I did a lot of research about going to Disneyland with a toddler and a baby before going and I only have a few things i'd add to those bloggers list.

Andrew and I bought a new camera two days before we left on our trip. Andrew had been playing around with the camera's settings the night before, trying to take night time shots of the moon. One of the first things we saw when walking into the park Monday morning was Minnie Mouse, Denali's favorite. I hurried and grabbed our brand new camera while Denali ran over to Minnie, yelling her name, and gave her a huge hug! I of course wanted to document the precious moment (and oh was it heart melting) with a sweet, amazing quality picture, from our new camera. Click....and 3 seconds later the camera finally stopped taking the picture.I frantically looked over the camera and made a few adjustments and made Denali hug Minnie again. Three times this happened and I don't have a single picture of Denali hugging Minnie. After, I realized the camera was not on auto and was still set to Andrew's nighttime exposures! I was so furious.

We also decided to stand in line for Mickey since the line was very short. We knew that our camera does great video and will take pictures while filming. We made the plan that I would take Denali up to Mickey while Andrew did video and we would take some pictures at the same time. After we got home we finally took a look at that video and the stills and realized that the stills were blurry and the video cut out every time we took a picture.

The lesson here is KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR CAMERA and MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE CORRECT SETTINGS FOR THE CAPTURE OF FAST MOVING MEMORIES.

Next piece of advice I would share is that most toddlers don't like the "dark rides". If you're there at a busy time and have to be choosy about which lines to wait in, I would suggest skipping Snow White, Pinocchio, and even Peter Pan. All the toddler sees is that it's dark and scary. The ride moves so quickly that they can't even make out their favorite characters. DO wait in line for Dumbo, the Carousal, and the Tea Cups which are all more toddler friendly.

Before you go, check out where there are areas of the park where you can take your kids to run around. The adventure park in California Adventure saved our butts.

Last piece of advice is to stock up on toys at Dollar Tree before you go. I went and spent 15 dollars at Dollar Tree before we left and just got toys and activities that I didn't care if they got destroyed or if we threw them out after 30 minutes. Also, young kids don't know the difference between their Minnie shirt from Disneyland or from Walmart. I bought a bunch of souvenirs from other places, for Denali, and gave them to her when we got to Disneyland. Glow sticks from the grocery store also work great as light up toys for the late parades and firework shows.

Nora was a champ! She either rode in the stroller or hung out in a front pack the entire time. It was a lifesaver that she decided to take a pacifier our first day of Disneyland. I only have a little bit of advice for bringing your baby to Disneyland. Make sure you have a watch and are noticing how often they eat. It's very easy to get distracted and forget that they need something reliable and "normal". Make sure you bring a jacket AND cool clothes to the park with you. The difference in the shade and in the sun can be big enough to make your baby feel uncomfortable and therefor grouchy.

I'll mostly just let the rest of the pictures help tell you about our trip.

***WARNING*** lots of pictures, and lots of pictures of Denali!