Disneyland!

So we booked our room at the Grand Cal Hotel and Spa in Anaheim for a family trip in October!  I'm super excited.  This will be our first "real" family vacation since Eli was born.  We've had trips here and there, but have always stayed with family or friends.  When we first talked about going to Disneyland, I thought that Eli would be too young to enjoy the place (he'll be 18 months then).  After some deep conversations about starting family traditions and yes we can afford it if we save $130/month, blah blah blah, I was convinced.  Oh, don't let me kid you that the $1000 covers airfare, hotel, tickets, food and fun.  We are lucky enough to be related to some fine folks (shout out to S&K) for allowing us to use their Disney vacation points to get a room at the specific hotel.  They're shareholders or timeshare investors or something like that - with all Disney resorts - so they were able to save us almost $1000 from what it would've cost us if I just booked through Disney itself.  Yay!

I love my family and friends, of whom there are many, who live in SoCal and would have gladly lent us a place to stay during our trip.  But, I felt that being at a hotel steps away from the action would be easier than driving back and forth if/when Eli has meltdowns during the day.  It would also be easy to go back to our room during his naptimes.  And, with a 3- or 4-day park hopper pass (haven't decided which yet), we'll be able to get to everything and share the magic and commercialism of Disney with our kid.  :)