Disneyland!

My little boy turned five on May 20th! He had decided a while ago that he wanted to go to Disneyland on his birthday (since he knew about the promotional "visit free on your birthday" thing). So on his birthday we woke up at 5:00am, got ready and headed to Disneyland. (Cole would like me to add that that morning he had "puffs" cereal for breakfast, but it's actually corn "pops" cereal.) We were one of the first cars to arrive there, which was pleasing to both of us (I've mentioned before that I beleive in staying at a theme park for the maximum amount of hours possible). At the ticket booth Cole got his free ticket and a "Happy Birthday" button. The button ended up being a really cool thing because every time we passed a disneyland employee (or cast member, rather) they would be sure to wish Cole a Happy Birthday.


As we waited just outside the gates for Disneyland to open, with just 5 minutes to go, I had my map in hand with the route in mind that I wanted us to take. We would go straight to Tomorrow Land to get in line for Space Mountain. This has always been my favorite ride (although I hadn't been on it since I was in middle school and went there with the marching band). I was so excited that Cole was finally tall enough to ride Space Mountain and I was sure that he would love it--the outer space theme, no sudden drops or falls. Well...I was wrong. He screamed the whole way, of coarse I couldn't tell during the ride if they were excited "wow this is awesome" screams or screams of sheer terror. After the ride I found the latter to be true. He said, "I wish we had never gone on this". I decided then and there that Cole would be choosing EVERY ride from that moment on. Here he is after riding space mountain showing that he's tall enough and that he did it!

I think the Finding Nemo ride was his favorite; we did that one twice. We also did pirates of the Carribean twice. He love's the part where some pirates are locked up in jail and are trying to get the dog with the keys in its mouth to come over to them. So as his souvenir he chose a mangy looking stuffed dog with keys in its mouth.






We also enjoyed the "Celebrate" parade at the end of the day. Afterward we squeezed in as many more rides as we could before the park closed at 9:00.



We had such a fun day. I love Cole so much!