Disneyland 2015 - Day 1

We had a great time at Disney this year. We always do but this year was a year of a lot of firsts! We decided to book our hotel for four nights even though we'd only be going to the parks for 3 days. It was nice to have 3 full days this time. Last year we were glad we only had a half day on the last day but that was because our feet were killing us. We definitely learned the importance of having good shoes when you're going to be on your feet all day every day. :)

So day 1 was mostly a travel day for us. The kids did great, as usual! How did we get so lucky with two awesome travelers?!

We got to our hotel sometime in the late afternoon. We got all checked in and settled into our room (we even unpacked this time so we weren't living out of our suitcases! It was nice to have the suitcases tucked away instead sprawled all over the room) and then decided to walk around Downtown Disney for a bit. We had dinner reservations at Goofy's Kitchen that we were able to push up by an hour or so but we still had lots of time to walk around. I was most excited about going into World of Disney, the kids were excited for the Lego store!

The kids were watching a little TV in the lobby of the Grand Californian while Dave got us checked in. Dawson eventually started wondering around the lobby looking for hidden Mickeys.

 
This was the view from our room. You can't really tell in the picture but we had a park view and could see the Grizzly River Run ride! It was fun being able to see the tubes filled with people go by every now and then. My favorite part was the sound, though. The sound of the park. The music playing, excited kids, excitement everywhere, really, it was awesome.

Hulk made of Legos.

After spending a couple of hours in Downtown Disney we headed to Goofy's Kitchen for dinner. Ashlynn was a little nervous to be around Goofy. She usually takes awhile to warm up to new people and characters at Disney!

I know it's blurry but I feel like you could feel their excitement as Minnie was walking up.

So happy!

Ashlynn was trying to scare Chip by hiding under the table and scaring him. LOL It was cute.

We usually do Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast, this was the first time we've had dinner there and I don't think we'd do it again. There are more characters at breakfast time and it just has a different feel to it. Oh, and it was more expensive! Breakfast is definitely a better time to go in my opinion. The kids loved it, though, so I'm still happy that we were able to go.

And lastly, Dawson wanted to get a picture next to Beauty and the Beast with me. So sweet!

Day 2 will be our first day in the parks for this trip! I'll do a separate post for that because I have a lot more pictures!