Berning Vacation 2022 came EARLY this year – but we aren’t mad about it! We’ve been thinking of taking the kiddos to Disneyland for the last several years but then COVID happened and we kept postponing it. We finally just decided to go forward with it and I am so grateful that we did – it was a week filled with beautiful memories.
Grandparents Trip
I am not really sure how Mark and I landed on inviting both sets of grandparents with us to Disneyland but that was easily the most special part of this trip. It was so unique to be able to do this with the grandparents and I am so happy we were able to share this experience with them.
Telling the Kids
We surprised the kiddos with the news of our trip on Christmas morning. It was so fun to see their faces light up. Sarah proclaimed that she thought she was NEVER going to go to Disneyland and was in complete shock. It was the best. Everything came together really fast and we had everything booked up within a week!
Disneyland Prep
When I figured this out I felt ancient, but I had not been to Disneyland in eighteen years! I had only been to Disneyland twice and the last time was when I was fifteen. So this felt really new since it had been so long and I, obviously, had never gone in the role of parent before. Plus, there was some extra research I needed to do to prepare for Lydia but everything worked out really well!
Travel to Utah
We had an early flight to California, so the evening before we drove down to Draper to spend the night at my parent’s house. Lydia’s medical equipment was taking up A LOT more space than we anticipated so we had to do quite a bit of shuffling the night before – this was definitely a learning experience – but we got it all in!
Travel to California
We woke up early early to SNOW! Snow was not in the forecast and so this came as quite a shock to us. Luckily, we had given ourselves plenty of time but we were still RUNNING.
Story time. Last time our family rode in a plane was on our trip to Louisiana in 2017. The travel days were nightmares. We were determined to not have the same thing happen! We loaded everyone and everything and made our drive over to the airport. The roads were a MESS. We literally RAN to the shuttle, while dragging our luggage in the snow, along with three car seats. To use a phrase common nowadays, we were a “hot mess”. But we made it! The kids were such troopers and were so helpful.
Everything actually went really smooth once we got in the airport and I am grateful for that. We settled into our gate and the kids loved watching the planes come in and take off!
Right before our flight started to board, Lydia went from happy to very sad. Poor little one was so tired. I was nervous how the flight was going to go, and Lydie looked mighty sad at the beginning, but she conked out before we even took off and slept almost the entire flight! First flight in the books for Lydia and it felt like the first flight for all of the kiddos because none of them could remember flying before.
When we got to Los Angeles, we rode a shuttle to our hotel. We loved the shuttle service that we found and it was so nice to be able to have all of us (we were a group of TEN!) in one car AND we learned later that they provide car seats if you need them so that would be nice if we ever need them in the future.
Downtown Disney
Once we got to our hotel, we dropped off our baggage and walked over to Downtown Disney. Our hotel was in a great location and in walking distance to all things Disney. We were all feeling pretty hungry and so our first stop was to Napolini Pizzeria for some PIZZA!
There is a lot of fun shopping to do down there and we were enjoying soaking up those California rays. The two highlights were The LEGO Store and the Star Wars Trading Post.
The Lego Store
This store was the ULTIMATE in fun for our LEGO-loving kids! We spent a lot of time looking over all of the amazing sets they had there!
Star Wars Trading Post
The trading post was such a fun tease into the world of Star Wars! They have IT ALL there! The kids loved everything.
Swimming
After Downtown Disney we went back to the hotel and got settled in. We really liked our hotel. As I said earlier, it was within walking distance of all things Disney, but it also had some great room options. Our room had two rooms, one big room and then another room with double-sized bunk beds.
We had to get a little creative with Lydia. She ended up sleeping with Mark in the big bed, and I bunked with Jacob, Sarah, and Benjamin in the bunk beds. It actually worked out really well and it was nice to have two separate rooms. PLUS we were able to watch the fireworks right from our room so that was another major plus!
Once we got settled into the hotel, we split up. Lydia and I went across the street to CVS to get some water bottles and snacks to take into the park. We also grabbed some highly nutritious easy Mac and Cheese to eat in the hotel room for dinner that night.
While Lydie and I were gone, the other kiddos, Mark, and Gramps jumped into the pool! They had a blast playing “Shark”!
Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boutique
When we asked my parents to come on the trip with us they asked if they could take Sarah to the Bibbidi-Bobbidi Boutique. Sadly, the boutique is closed right now due to COVID, so Grammy came up with the idea to do her own little boutique. I bought the girls some princess dresses and my Mom painted their nails, got them bows for their hair, and a necklace. It was so sweet.
Sarah got her “experience” done after swimming and Lydia had hers the next morning.
We were all ready for FUN!
DETAILS
shuttle
Hotel
dining
Napolini Pizzeria in Downtown Disney
shopping
- The LEGO Store in Downtown Disney
- Star Wars Trading Post in Downtown Disney
Disney really know how to do everything right and it sounds like you had a great time. Happy for that.