Dirty Thirty Disney Breakdown

It's been a few weeks since we went to the most magical place on Earth, Disneyland! I'm a Disney fan for life and thought it'd be the perfect place to spend my 30th birthday. I needed to be in a place that made me feel young again because turning 30 was not something I was looking forward too. Our trip reminded me that age is just a number and life is about quality, not quantity. At age 30, I've been blessed with amazing family; incredible friends; the world's best husband; and a son who makes my heart explode with love! I'm a very lucky girl!

I've been to Disneyland many times before, but none of those trips came close to this one. Emerson has been in love with Mickey Mouse for the last few months so AJ and I were very excited to see how he'd react to the real deal. Our first hurdle was the drive down-6 hours stuck in a car seat could only equal disaster, right? Welp that's what I thought would happen, but Emerson was a champ! We had a few minor meltdowns, but thanks to Auntie Brooke and Frozen on the iPad the six hours went by pretty quick. 

Thursday afternoon the whole family headed to Downtown Disney for some lunch and then Grandma and Papa took Emerson back to the hotel so me, AJ, and Brooke could spend a few hours in California Adventure. AJ and I felt a little guilty at first, but we knew Emerson was in good hands. We had a blast running around the park and finished the night (the cold night) by riding the water ride and getting soaked! 

Friday was my Mama's birthday so we spent the day celebrating her! We started in California Adventure and never left. Emerson rode his first ride-Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. Since he's always in awe over bright colors we thought he'd be in heaven in the Bug's Life section of California Adventure, but he acted like it was just another day. We didn't quite get the reaction we were hoping for on his first ride.

While we were riding the Chew Chew train, Auntie and Grandma were waiting in line at Radiator Springs. They got to ride and then we got to hope in the Fast Pass line using our Baby Swap pass. Best invention ever! A lot of the rides require you to be a certain height just to stand in line so when you have a baby with you half of your group can wait in line and get a baby swap pass to hand off to the other half of the group after they ride. We did this for Radiator Springs and Tower of Terror.

Speaking of Tower of Terror-we finally got my Mom to ride it. She gets extremely bad motion sickness so she doesn't ride many rides. I have similar motion sickness issues and I don't have a problem on this ride so I assured my Mom she'd be fine. Since it was her birthday she decided it was time to ride it! The ride goes up and down a few times and doors open so you can see how high you are. Around the second drop and door opening I looked over and saw this face:

Needless to say she'll never ride this again! We were very proud of her and happy it didn't ruin the rest of her day. We finished off the night with a delicious dinner and some cocktails to cheers to Mom! We ate at a restaurant that gives World of Color fast pass tickets with your meal, but by the end of dinner we were cold and exhausted so we decided to head back to the hotel. 

I love this woman more than anything and couldn't be happier that I get to share my birthday month and almost day with her! I think we need to make Disneyland Birthday Celebrations a new tradition!

On Saturday we were feeling refreshed and ready for DISNEYLAND. Emerson slept great, the weather was perfect, and it was my birthday! I believe we saved the best park for last! I love that I still get butterflies when walking into Disneyland and seeing Main St and the Castle. I was most excited for this day because it was Emerson's first time there. I know he won't remember anything about this trip, but that's what cameras are for!

At the end of the night we waited in line to meet Mickey and Minnie. It may have been a 30 min wait, but I would've waited all day to see Emerson's reaction again! When he saw them both he started bouncing in my arms and smiled from ear to ear! I wish we had been recording the whole experience because Mickey and Minnie were so fantastic with him. I told them he loved the Hot Dog dance and they started doing the dance for him. Emerson was so in love! He was trying his hardest to grab Minnie's nose during pictures. The Disney photographers got the very best picture of Mickey and Minnie kissing Emerson goodbye!

After we said goodbye to Mickey and Minnie we headed back to California Adventure and used our Fast Pass tickets to World of Color. What a fabulous way to end our first trip to Disneyland and my 30th birthday!

It was a trip of a lifetime and I can't wait till our next trip when Emerson will be old enough to remember it all!