California Adventure -- Toddler Style

One of the most awesome things about having an annual pass to Disneyland is that you don't feel rushed to do everything, every time. There were nights that Matt and I went just to ride a couple rides, catch a show and people watch on Main Street, and those were just as great as any other Disney day. So when we went in April, with a baby on board and a toddler in tow, we decided to take it super easy and do the whole thing toddler style. We spent the entire first day letting Jake set the pace as we explored California Adventure from a one-year-old's perspective. It was perfect!

I'll refrain from making this a "How to do Disney with a baby/toddler" post (although I do find it funny that many such posts on the www were written by people who just happened to go on a Disney vacation and aren't actually all that familiar with the parks, but I digress). Instead, let's pretend you already know about the baby centers and rider swaps and the like -- and if you don't, feel free to e-mail for tips! But you may not know that babies and pregnant ladies can go on more rides than not, and that a toddler's paradise lives right next to the Grizzly River Run.

Seriously, I've just been waiting for Jake to be old enough to play in the Redwood Creek Trail/Wilderness Explorer Camp (slash formerly known as The Magic of Brother Bear). I had a hunch that my active little guy would love it -- and he did! We literally spent hours there on this trip, just letting him run around and climb and explore and go down slides over and over and over again to his little heart's content. He was in heaven! The best part was the huge log slide (that I wasn't even sure about letting him go down since it is big and he is little). Jake was obsessed. He'd squeal at the top, put his hands in the air, say "Weee!" on the way down, and then laugh as he ran around to do it again. And since the slide was up a couple flights of stairs, his parents (mostly Daddy) got quite the workouts in the process. Video below, of course.

We also spent a decent amount of time in Bug's Land, where Jake squealed and put his hands up and loved all the rides. On the other side of the pier, Jake tried his hand at Toy Story Mania, took pictures from the ferris wheel and held on tight to his fish on King Triton's carousel. He's checked out the Disney Junior shows and dance parties before and isn't quite old enough to get into them yet, so we skipped them this time around. A highlight, though, was climbing up and down off the benches and drinking from our grown-up water bottles throughout the park because, after all, he is one.

As you can see from the pictures, it was a "Happy Day!" Jake said so.

Yeah, he loved it.