Jackson's Done Too!!

Happy Thanksgiving by the way...

But, more importantly :)  Jackson finished Disneyland last night!  Jackson, my brother Ryan and I went yesterday afternoon totally last minute!  I hurried to write down a list of the rides Jackson hadn't been on yet, and off we went!  Such a fun time!

He's been asking to go on Splash Mountain for weeks.  CRYING about it for weeks.  Wanted to go SO bad, but I couldn't take him because the girls were with us.  So, we make this special trip, no girls, so we can go on Splash Mountain above all else.  We walk up to the ride, where you can see the people plummet down the falls and he says "This is NOT Splash Mountain!!"  Lots of convincing followed... LOTS of convincing, and the funniest discussion I'd ever had with him.  "Sweetheart, you are thinking of the Matterhorn, THIS is Splash Mountain, I promise!"  "NO, this is NOT Splash Mountain!"  On and on and on ... "There are TWO Splash Mountains!"  "This is the Matterhorn, there are TWO Matterhorns"  All kinds of crazy stuff was coming out of his mouth.

It took a little convincing to get him on.  He didn't want to get wet (just like his Daddy), but the poncho Greg had reminded me to bring won him over.  Thank heavens we had it!  Sitting in the back row is not a guarantee of dryness by any stretch of the imagination.  We missed the initial spray, but got soaked by the follow-up wave.  He did great.  So brave, but calmly said that he would rather not do that again.

Second stop was the canoes.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  He paddled his little heart out.  We were next to another canoe for most of the ride and there was a girl about his age on the other boat.  He said "Mom!  My girlfriend is on the other boat!" "Oh yeah?  What's her name?"  "I don't know!  I will ask her!"  When we were done with that ride, I jokingly asked if he'd like to go again and he said, YES!  Luckily I was able to talk him out of it.  We can go another time.

Next stop, Space Mountain!  65 minute line, but we powered through it.  A well timed trip to the bathroom and a group of kids to play with broke up the time nicely. We talked a lot about the ride. He wanted to know how dark it was, if the ride had small, medium or big drops. If there would be any splashes. If there were small medium or big zig zigs. If the 'rocket ships' flew or rolled. He also thought it was going to be 'super silly' to pretend we were flying in space.  We FINALLY made it into the building, running down the halls to the inside line, and they announce that they are shutting down the ride!  Bad luck!!  We decided to wait, and it was fascinating to watch them bring back all the cars that had been stuck in the ride.  I practiced my fibbing skills as I tried to convince Jackson that the people returning had, in fact, had fun on that ride.  Most of the time, he said "No, they didn't."  A couple "brave" kids returning helped him pluck up his courage.

We passed the time by reading the numbers on the backs of the returning roller coaster cars.  Took a while because they had to send all the people that had gotten stuck through again.  They added a bunch more cars to speed up the line a little, and the first empty car that came down the line, Jackson stiffened up and said "MOM!!"  I am almost positive he thought the people had fallen out during the ride :)  It took a promise of a chocolate chocolate chocolate ice cream cone to get him on.  He did great.  Wasn't too scared, but also said he would rather not go on that ride again. He asked "why do people like to go fast?"

After pizza, the next 'ride' on our list was Innovations.  Also what I consider that second most boring place in Disneyland.  I thought we would walk through in five minutes.  I don't know if they changed the attraction recently or they run it differently at night, but we had SO MUCH FUN!  Instead of making us go through the boring introduction and walk through the 'house of the future' (which is actually kind of cool, but a little less cool for little kids), we entered through the top floor where all the games are!  Jackson had a great time on this driving game that was fun AND super easy.  We played a game together where you use a paddle to push around discs on a projected game floor.  Crazy fun.  Then they have a dozen xbox's set up, half of them with kinect -- I am a big fan of the Michael Jackson Experience game!  We went downstairs to the game room of the house of the future and Jackson was flipping out "WHOA!!"  But he also was about to pee his pants, so we had to leave early.

After the bathroom, we went on Autopia.  Someone puked in the line, which was pretty cool.  Backed up the line for at least 15 min because of a 'technical difficulty' :)  We hopped in line for Matterhorn next.  "Hey Mom!  You were right!!  There ARE two Splash Mountains!"  Sigh.  Waited there for about ten minutes before we realized it wasn't running.  Sad to miss out on riding it... Apparently it is Jackson's "favorite ride."  Walked around to see the Small World decorated for Christmas, got there just as they were starting the light show.  AMAZING.  Really amazing!

Went on Mr Toad for Ryan, because it is HIS favorite ride :)  He and Jackson drove together.  It was cute!  Walked around the castle to get some pictures of the always amazing lights.  Seriously can't even wrap my head around how beautiful it was.  Pictures just can't capture it!  By then it was way past Jackson's bed time, he was SO tired, but hanging in there riding on my back.  One more attraction left! Mickey's Main Street Cinema.  It's on our way out, thought we would pop in just long enough to say we'd been there, then head home.

Again, I was SO wrong!  Such a perfect 'last ride'!  We walked through the red velvet curtains and both Jackson and Ryan let out an amazed 'WOW'!  We were there for a long time and my cell battery died so I couldn't take a picture.  I would've given anything to have a camera to capture the look on Jackson's face as he watched those cartoons.  Mouth literally hanging open, and smiling.  Frozen.  He looked like a truck load of ice cream just fell out of the sky in front of him.  It was absolutely precious!! He watched Steamboat Willie last and laughed out loud several times, chuckling at the silliest things.  Such a wonderful, perfect moment.  It's probably best not to have a picture.  It will stay more beautiful in my mind.