Memorial Day Weekend 2018: DISNEYLAND!

After our fun Spring Break trip visiting Sequoia & Yosemite, we decided we wanted to make one more trip visiting some new-to-us national parks before bidding adieu to the Southwest. But since this trip was kind of last-minute in nature, accommodations were hard to come by + the itinerary we had in mind was going to be a lot of driving. So we decided to scrap the national park trip & have one final hoorah at Disneyland instead!

Disneyland was completely Derek's idea, and I initially nixed the idea b/c we'd just done a Disney trip four months prior over MLK Jr. Weekend in January. But ultimately, we decided to go! We'll probably never live this close to Disney again {at least not for quite some time!}, and we don't think we'll be taking any Disney trips for at least another 2 years...and by that point, Disney will look very different for us! This could potentially be our last Disney trip sticking to the kiddie areas and excitedly waiting in line to greet princesses. Disney is always magical no matter how old you are, but it'll be a different kind of magical as our children get older. I'm so glad we got to experience the magic of Disney one more time at this stage of our kids' lives!

These first couple of pictures of Shelby & me were taken from the car on Autopia, which was one of the girls' favorite rides this trip along with the Ariel ride, Toy Story Mid Way Mania, Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters, and riding the train. Shelby used to like rollercoasters, but now she prefers the more low-key rides which works out well b/c that's more Hadley's speed, too! And as an added bonus, Brady can tag along on those rides, too!

Two things I love about this next photo--we're trying to show Brady how to spin our teacup, but he wasn't having it! And secondly, Hadley's sweet little hands that are always sporting her jewels!

And just for grins, here's a picture of Shelby in the exact same shirt on the same ride at Disney World in 2014. {For comparison's sake, Hadley is currently 5 and Shelby was 3.5 in the picture below.}

Jungle Cruise was one of Brady's favorite attractions at Disneyland! He is pointing out animals in the picture below to Dada. :)

 

I'm so glad we got to see a parade on this trip! When we visited Disneyland back in January, there was a lot of construction going on since it was the off-season & there weren't any parades. Watching parades & eating Disney treats is one of my favorite Disney traditions!

 

We made a pitstop for bathroom breaks, and then these three crazies started playing on a random curb near a back door where cast members went in & out of. They were having the time of their lives jumping on and off the curb. Derek kept laughing that we brought them all the way to Disneyland when all they needed was a curb!

We decided to ride the train around Disneyland really more as a time killer than anything while we were waiting for the fireworks, but this ended up being one of the kids' very favorite things we did!

This next picture of Brady sitting in Shelby's lap was taken during the Disney Junior Dance Party Show. Brady only lasted a few minutes in Shelby's lap, but it sure was cute while it lasted! This is another one of those things that I don't know if the girls will be into in a couple more years, but they both had a BLAST at the show this time around!

 

 

I took this picture as we started the drive home yesterday afternoon, the girls were just giggling and having the best time together in the car. Of course this didn't last the entire drive, but it did last about an hour which totally surprised us! And, the sound of their sweet & silly giggles was just music to our ears!

We had the best time kicking off our summer at Disneyland! But of course there is no tired like Disney tired!!! The first day we were at Disneyland we were there from the park opening at 9am until after the fireworks show at 9:30pm!! Needless to say, we were all so happy to get back home last night & have a low-key day at home today!