littleJULES

Everything in my life seems to be only partially finished, or on hold. On the home front, we live in a 100 year old house that is still being worked on after 11 years. On the JULIAN & Co. front, new products need to be added to the website. A much needed “up date” email needs to go to our retailers. Most of the photos need to be replaced, and I still don’t have a press kit - even though we’ve been featured in many loved blogs and magazines. On the personal front, I’m still on a diet after bla bla years, I haven’t worked out since last Thanksgiving and it’s also been a very long time since Mabel has been walked. Meanwhile, for the last year we’ve postponed taking Lovebug to Disneyland too many times to count.

So last week, I made reservations, Hon bought tickets from his work (at a great discount), and we made the 90 minute drive Wednesday evening.

It had been 12 years since my last trip to Disneyland. Things have changed on the outside.

The parking lot is now a multiplex - much closer to the entrance - and an outdoor mall was added as well as California Adventure. Wow. Even being a native Californian and native Southern Californian, I felt so out of the loop.

We arrived around 9PM-ish and what was once a relatively short block of quaint hotels leading up to Disneyland, has morphed into a freeway exit that takes you right to the theme park’s parking lot, and miles of sky rise hotels not leaving out any of them.

After checking in, we made it to Downtown Disney to eat a late dinner and shop at the biggest Disney store in the world….Parenting mistake #10,784: We bought Julian a toy monorail. He played with it until 1:30AM.

Needless to say we didn’t make it to Disneyland at the planned 7AM, but we did manage to get there by 9.

Lovebug had only one goal. Meet Mickey Mouse in person.

I learned that my cautious 3 year old is actually fearless (I’m in denial). After begging me to go on Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain (all three of which he is too small) - we took him on the Pirates of the Caribbean and told him it had a “splash mountain”. After sliding down the second waterfall, I thought for sure he would be cured, but I was wrong. We had to actually wait in the roller coaster line 2 times in the dreaded and shadeless Toon Town to semi-satisfy his craving for a roller coaster ride.

All in all it was wonderful fun, although Lovebug did ask numerous time to go back to the hotel so he could play with his Monorail; and he didn’t meet Mickey in person… but he did meet Chip.

Our little photographer at the “Parade of Dreams”.

Navigating Dumbo

Hanging with Chip in Goofy’s Kitchen