splash mountain

Um, I know we're like, almost two weeks past our trip to Disneyland, and people are sick to death of photos from that trip, but I HAD to post this one.

Those who don't care about the story, skip ahead to the picture. I won't mind, it's a pretty long story. What makes it worse, I'm not a great story teller.

I honestly didn't think Aiden was big enough to ride this ride. Size wise, and maturity wise. Although, we had been on several rides in the morning and he really loved the dips and turns and speed. We went to get fast pass tickets so that a couple of the adults could ride it while someone stayed behind to ride with Aiden on something more age appropriate. I saw the post with the minimum height requirement, and was like, no way. He's not tall enough. I even measured him up against it to make sure. The post they use to measure kids against is like a T, and about four inches thick, so there's a big difference between the bottom of the top of the post, and the top of the top of the post. Aiden's head barely touched the bottom of the top of the post, and I though it would have to reach the top. Little did I know.

After I had declared him too small, Kenny double checked with one of the ride attendants, who carefully measured him once, twice, and three times, then announced that he was in fact tall enough, because the top of the head just has to come in contact with the bottom of the top of the post. I still had my doubts, as Aiden has never been on anything remotely like this ride. For those who have not been to Disneyland (ie. anybody in my immediate family) first, you are missing out. Second, Splash Mountain is a log ride (you know, in the water) and there are a series of ups and downs, and toward the end there is a HUGE drop (the sign said 50ft) and you splash into water at the bottom and get very wet. Hence, Splash Mountain.

Anyway, I am scared to death, and I sit and explain to Aiden in detail what is going to happen on this ride that his terrible parents are taking him on. I tell him "we are going to ride in a log, through a river, and it's going to go up and down, and up and down, and then there will be a part where we go down down down and we'll get splashed a little bit. Do you want to do that? Do you want to go down down down?" Aiden: "Yeah, I'nna go down down down." Me: "are you sure?" Aiden: "No, I not sure" (Which means that yes he is sure. He doesn't know what sure means.)

So we get on the ride, meanwhile ride attendants check his height no less than three times on the way to the ride. We finally get on the ride, sitting Karrina in front, Kenny right behind her, then Aiden, and I sat right behind Aiden. I put each of Aiden's hands on the bars on the sides of the log, and told him to hold and tight and don't let go. Ever. And he didn't. The whole ride I watched his hands, and he never let go. And I never let go of him. I was scared to death (not of the ride, I was afraid Aiden would fall out, or worse, get scared and panic. I was in no position to hold him and comfort him. Anyway, he loved it. Laughed through the whole ride, especially right after the big drop. He laughed his big, loud laugh and said "I'nna go down down down AGAIN!"

So we did. We rode it every day, for a total of four times. Each time, we tried to get a good picture, which was a challenge because in each picture Aiden could barely be seen. We devised a plan where Kenny and Karrina would lean one way and I would trick Aiden into looking to the other direction (I tried to lean him to the side, but he had such a death grip on those bars on the sides of the log). Finally, the fourth and final ride resulted in a near perfect picture. (As perfect as you can get with those ride photos).
Just look at that photo. Now you can see why I had to explain it a little, because if you were to just look at that photo, you would think me the worst mother ever, and probably turn me in to CPS. But, just so you know, right after this photo was taken, Aiden was giggling, and shouted "let's go down down down AGAIN!"

After he went on Splash Mountain and loved it, we took him on ALL the rides he could go on, and he loved them all. Including Space Mountain.