It'll Be Alright: California New Year January 2019

Day 3: Tuesday –

No sleep – Welp, this day is/was a blur. Monday night we got ready for bed and Ellie went right to sleep. Grady on the other hand would fall asleep and wake up shortly after falling asleep. We tried everything to get him down in the room. We tried putting him in our bed. We gave him a bottle, he nursed, we gave him meds because we finally realized he felt warm. At midnight, I decided to put him in the stroller and go for a walk to see if he would go to sleep. He did. I walked around for about half an hour and then went back up to the room. I left him in the stroller and I got ready for bed. Right as I laid down, he woke up. So I got dressed and went back downstairs. I went for another walk and he fell asleep again. He would sleep for between 30 minutes to an hour the whole night. I think I got about 2 hours asleep. I walked the entire property of the hotel several times. It was nice that we were at a large property. I got to know the front lobby and security people very well. They were so nice and supportive. The moment that made my nice is I was sitting on a couch in the lobby with Grady asleep on my chest and I was almost asleep. The lady at the front desk brought a Toy Story blanket over and put it over us. It was so sweet. I finally went up to the room around 6:30. We were going to Disneyland early this morning. We stopped and got Starbucks on the way (I wouldn't have functioned without coffee).

Tea cups - We got into the park and took a family picture in front of the partners' statue and then went to Fantasyland. We rode the Tea Cups because the line for Alice was crazy. This ride is so great. We went without Grady because he was asleep in the stroller (shocker, right?).

BBB - Ellie’s reaction ‘oh....Yay!’ - Tuesday was Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique day (BBB). We had talked about doing this with Ellie the entire time we planned the trip and we did not tell Ellie she was going to do it so it was a surprise. After the Tea Cups, we told her what her surprise was and her reaction was "oh....Yay!". I don't think she quite knew what it was. We took her to the BBB shop and showed her and then she started to get excited. This was quite a process and I could probably do a whole blog on it. The check in was a pain because they couldn't find our reservation and I didn't bring the reservation number with us (ALWAYS BRING RESERVATION NUMBERS). They did find and walked us in. Ellie got to pick her princess and picked Aurora, which is her mom's favorite (Ellie might have been coached a little). She got changed and then they sat her down at a salon type chair. They did her hair, makeup and nails. Ellie is so girly anyway that she LOVED this. At the end, there is a magic moment in the mirror that was cute. After she was done with the make over, they took her to a photo shoot area. It was really cute. Then the big surprise was we all got to go meet the princesses and go to the front of the line. She was SO excited. She got to meet Cinderella, Snow White and AURORA!. She was so sad after our last trip because we couldn't find Aurora and this time she got to meet her after getting a makeover to look like her. Lisa was really excited too (actually, I'm not sure which of the 2 of them was more excited). It was a great experience and Ellie loved it. She was the perfect age too. I would highly recommend it to any parent with a daughter that loves princesses and dress up. (On a side note: Grady was a pain in the ass through this. He was tired and hungry and didn't want to sit still. I had him for a while and then my dad took him. Dad walked around and he fell asleep in the stroller again.)

Not much else, went back for nap around 2:30 - The rest of the day was a blur. I know we ended up across at DCA and we met my brother and his family for lunch. I wasn't really feeling it so I took Grady and we went to Smokejumper's Grill to get some chicken fingers. He did eat some of the chicken and fries and I ate as well. I was starting to get really grouchy. I snapped at one of the kids and realized I needed to leave the group. Lisa found me and Grady at lunch and she took him and let me go back to the hotel for a nap. This was much needed. I slept until dinner time.

Dinner at carnation cafe - fried pickles and meatloaf - Dinner was around 5:30 so I got up around 5:00. That was a great nap. It was quite and no one bothered me. I met everyone at the esplanade and we went into Disneyland to eat. We had reservations at Carnation Cafe. Lisa and I had eaten here on a previous trip, and it was quite good. This time it was really good. We started with fried pickles, which were good. I got the meatloaf which was really good and Lisa got the special, which was a pot roast. She said it was really good.

Rode pirates, big thunder, shop in Frontierland - After dinner we walked to New Orleans Square and rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Ellie and Grady rode it and they liked it. We got a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain and we rode it next. This is Ellie's favorite ride. She loved it. It was also the first time that Lisa got to ride with her and she loved that experience. I stayed with Grady and then we switched. We then went into the shops in Frontierland. We really like these shops. We got a couple things there. Then we left and ended up going behind Main Street, which I didn't like and won't do that again.