Welcome to my family blog, where I’ll be sharing our adventures in Orange County. We are a family of 3, myself (Jenny), my husband (Daniel), and my 4-year-old daughter (Talia).

We love to get out and have fun, and our favorite place to do that is Disneyland. We are Annual Passholders who live near the Disneyland Resort, so we visit a couple of times a week. We also like to visit local parks, beaches, restaurants, and festivals. I’ll be sharing my favorite Disneyland events and moments, as well as fun and mostly free family activities around Southern California.

I’m happy to meet you. Follow our adventures on Instagram @castles_characters_and_crayons

When Daniel and I first started dating, we frequently went to Disneyland just to watch the fireworks or stroll around. It has always been a magical and safe place for us. In 2015, I became pregnant and unfortunately developed preeclampsia very early on. Talia was delivered at 27 weeks gestational age and stayed in the hospital NICU for nearly 11 weeks. Once our precious micro preemie was home and healthy, we found that our perspective was forever changed. 

Life is short. Enjoy it. 

A year and a half later, our family invited us to celebrate my niece’s birthday at Disneyland. When we visited Goofy’s Kitchen, a character dining restaurant at the Disneyland Hotel, Talia loved interacting with the characters. She kept petting Chip and Dale as if they were giant stuffed animals come to life. We decided to buy Disneyland Annual Passes again for the first time in a few years, and it was the best decision we ever made.

Since the passes were so expensive, we decided we’d try to visit the Parks once a week to make it worth the cost. I never thought that we’d keep up our weekly visits, but we did. Usually we would visit for a couple hours in the afternoon, we’d go on a ride or two and maybe see some characters. Talia loved it and flourished! Not only was a great source of socialization, but she also learned so much vocabulary! At her two year check up, when her pediatrician asked me if she knew 100 words, I answered that she knew at least 100 many Disneyland related words. She started reading words on maps, like the names of attractions and movies, she even started pointing out signs that said, “Exit” everywhere we went. It was a safe place for her to learn to walk (and run). It was a place where we were all comfortable. It was a place where we could be together.

Today, we visit the Disneyland Parks a couple of times a week, most of the time as a family, but sometimes just myself and Talia. Some days we visit with friends or family. Talia is very outgoing, and usually makes a new friend in line for rides. We have even visited Walt Disney World, which we loved almost as much as Disneyland. In the future, we hope to visit the international Parks as well.

Some people might think it’s strange that we visit Disneyland so often, but it makes us happy. You never know what will happen in life, things can change in an instant. Just do what makes you happy!

Find your happy place!