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By Sarah

When your little cousin who adores you is going to celebrate his 4th birthday at Disneyland, you break the bank and spend all your savings to go with him.  At least that is what Natalie did.  She paid her own 3 day park ticket with lightning lanes, half our hotel room and Lyft rides, and her $12 airplanes ticket (using my Southwest points).  Of course we weren’t going to send her from here alone so my wonderful part time partner in crime switched a day of work with me so I could go too and still get my weekly hours in.


Our plane landed a few hours before the rest of the family would arrive and since it was so close to Natalie’s birthday too, I reserved brunch at Goofy’s Kitchen for her.  Definitely a great way to eat lots of food and meet characters so you don’t feel like you have to do that in the parks later. We explored Downtown Disney and she picked out what she wanted her one souvenir to be, a cute Winnie the Pooh baseball cap. There is definitely a trendy mom dress code here and Natalie fit right in: black leggings, 3/4 socks (bonus points if Disney) & athletic shoes, sweatshirt, baseball cap, and fanny bag slung over one shoulder. At least 2 of the things you wear must be Disney. Dads, on the other hand, need knee length modern athletic shorts, t shirt or sweatshirt, baseball cap, and full on backpack. Bonus points if the backpack looks really heavy.  I, on the other hand, could probably be spotted as a Midwest mom from a mile away.  Comfy jeans and Birkenstock sneakers + a Disney top (and my kid’s raincoat this trip) is my style. lol 


We loved our Mickey treats!  Natalie was so glad when the first treat our family picked out was beignets and I was happy to have a Mint Julep. That raspberry macaron lived up to the hype and we actually went back to Jolly Holiday the next time we were at Disneyland to get seconds. And a flight of DF soft serve while we were at California Adventure?  Yes, please!



Our must do ride (since it wasn’t open yet last summer) was Tiana’s. We were so curious to see how the ride formerly known as Splash Mountain turned out. We had heard that you got a lot more wet now and people were not exaggerating!  Even with a raincoat on, when the sun set we needed to go back to the hotel for Natalie to get dry pants on.  She wasn’t the only one who needed dry clothes!



We were not only huge fans of Disney and the birthday boy but also his baby sister and really every member of our group.  One of my coworkers was surprised I went on a trip with my husband’s family without him and I honestly responded that I enjoy being around all of my in laws!


Natalie got the highest score in our group on Web Slingers! She said it was because C wasn’t trying so she didn’t have to compete with her for points. (:


Grizzly River Run was something Natalie really wanted to do but I said it would have to be last thing before going back to the hotel. Her cousin R agreed so E and I actually let them ride twice in a row since it was a walk on. Such a fun way to end the day.


Our second day at Disneyland we had to leave the park at 5pm to go grab our luggage from our hotel’s office and head to the airport. We still got to ride everything we wanted except Space Mountain but we had ridden that on day 1 so felt like it was still an amazing day.


We feel so lucky we got to join this amazing crew to celebrate G’s birthday!!!


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