Disneyland And Pin Trading

We took little Al on his first trip to Disneyland. Not that he is going to remember any of it or even enjoyed any of it. He slept through almost all of it. But we weren't going because he had never been, we were going as a family and he was lucky enough to be born by then and come along.

So at Disneyland and in California Adventures (I'm assuming there is something simular at DisneyWorld), there are these baby care centers. They were so nice to use. They had a nursing area for nursing mothers and their babies. We used this a few times a day. There are also high chairs for feeding and diaper changing stations (which we used regularly too, they were much nicer than the restrooms changing tables. I only have one wish, that there were more stations around the park. Everytime it was time to feed Al I had to go back to Main Street (in Disneyland) next door to the Photo shop, or back to the Fisherman's warf area (in Cal Adv). If you know where the first aid is, its right next door in both parks. I am so grateful they had these areas, it just took so much time to walk across the park each time.

Pin Collecting:

I started collecting pins back in 2002. I would purchase pins of my favoriate character. Each trip to Disneyland I would purchase one or two new pins. The concept of trading I couldn't understand- why would I want to trade my precious pin. But the two trips prior to this one I learned that by buying a pin I don't really care about, I can trade it with a cast member to get one I really want or one that I could never buy because they aren't in the stores. This has become needed as I have wanted pins that were already out of circulation before I went. Such as an 'Incredibles' pin and a 'Meet the Robinsons Pin'. Those where of particular priority to me and there are other characters I'd love to find, but never seen. The last trip I took (right before we were married) I traded a pin for the Mr. Incredible pin I have. This trip every new pin I got I traded for it. I traded for some really special pins. My Mother-in-law found me a 'Meet the Robinsons' pin and traded the cast member for it for me. She is awesome. I had been stopping every cast member in site that had pins to trade and nothing. Sure I found other cool pins, but no 'Meet the Robinsons'. I did find a Shere Khan pin, and an Yezma pin (from 'Emperor's New Groove'). Which was really cool because I've never seen an 'Emperor's New Groove character on a pin. So needless to say when my Mother-in-law found the 'Meet the Robinsons' pin I was super happy.

It was a great trip. Sure we took everything at a much slower pace than I have in the past (and if you have every taken a trip to Disneyland with me and Ted you know they crazy fast pace and planing we take that park at). But it was nice to take it easy and just enjoy being there.