My husband and I {finally} had a chance to take our son on our first vacation as a family at the end of February. We decided to ease into the world of family vacationing by hitting up Southern California – a place that we were relatively familiar with already.
I have to admit, I had some pretty mixed emotions about traveling here. I had a very hot and cold relationship with the place when I lived there after college and during subsequent visits, so there was a part of me that wasn’t sure that I was ready to go back again. I’m pretty sure my reservations started to melt away though once our plane got into the air and my son said, “GOSH Mom, I can see everything from up here!”
We spent our first afternoon visiting a friend in Malibu. It was little man’s first visit to the ocean, and even though he wasn’t too keen on the idea of touching the water he did have a great time throwing sand into the surf and running from the waves as they came and went.
He kept asking our friend why they had a huge lake in their backyard… One of those little things I hope to never forget.
We attempted fishing. It was an epic fail. Unless we were fishing for rocks. Then I suppose you could say we did REALLY well.
Sunday was the first of our three days at Disneyland. We got off to a rockier start than we expected. Little man declared that he didn’t want to go, and would rather go back to the beach. Had a minor breakdown over not being able to pick the yellow flowers tucked safely behind a nice little decorative fence, and then refused to smile when we posed for a photo with Pluto. Ahhh… welcome to Disneyland!
He did come around eventually. A train ride and then a small break from the park to take a nap seemed to help. All in all I’d say it was a definite success. Looking forward to going back again for sure. Especially now that we have a better feel for what to expect.
Keep an eye out for a few tips on what to expect if you plan on taking your own trip to the happiest place on earth!
My Running Leap 