Disneyland

We kept to our usual tradition of going to Disneyland in October (so we can trick or treat!) but this time we changed things up and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel.  We had a Blast!

Tyson was a pirate, Andrew was a Ninja, 

and Alex and Jackson were the Lone Ranger and Tonto.

Andrew was tall enough this year to ride on some of the bigger rides.  He was determined to ride space mountain and didn't change his mind once the time came.  He continued to scream "wahoo" the entire ride and at the end exclaimed "that was awesome!"  He also loved Matterhorn.  He did back down on riding Tower of Terror (although I love it -I didn't blame him one bit for being scared).  He was bound and determined however not to ride Splash Mountain.  I knew it wasn't too scary for him and something he just might enjoy so I tricked him onto it.  The entrance to the ride is far away from where you see people "splashing" down the big hill and so we told him we were going on the Brer Rabbit ride and we led him into the ride like an innocent lamb to the slaughter!  When we got into the logs he started to question things, then he saw people splashing down the drop and his face fell and he looked at me and said "are we doing that?"  I answered yes but showed him dad's jacket and told him he could cover up with it so he wouldn't get wet at all - I think this was his biggest fear about the ride.  He was scared throughout the ride and kept nervously asking is it time, is it time?  I kept answering not yet, not yet.  When the time came I told him ok now- he dove under Matt's jacket and as you can see below (sitting next to me) 

there is no evidence he was ever on the ride!

When it was all over we told him it was actually "splash mountain" he had just ridden - not Brer Rabbit.  He was speechless for quite a while trying to process what had just happened to him.  Eventually he recovered (as I knew he would) -
but he never rode it again the rest of the trip! 

Tyson had an absolute blast on the rides and couldn't get enough.  He was constantly making excited noises and screams and would try to squeeze through or climb over bars to get into the rides.  I remember taking Jackson at this age and he would silently go through the rides, wide eyed, just taking it all in.  It seemed as though it was sensory overload for him at that age.  But Tyson didn't seemed bothered or surprised by any of it - he loved it all,
especially the characters - which normally freak small kids out!

We always leave talking about "the next time!"