First Trip to Disneyland!

Yeah! The boys got to go Disneyland for the first time this weekend- we played tag-along on a band trip since my husband just happens to be the very talented director of the Galena High School Band. The funny part, Sean and Ashton were just as excited for the bus ride down there as they were for the Disneyland part. And I must say in all my years of traveling on buses on band trips, Steve was by far the coolest driver I've ever ridden with, and he brought his two 15-year old sons, identical twins like my boys! How cool is that? My boys have never gotten to hang out with other identical twins like this before, and apparently neither had they. Here is a picture of the four of them sitting in the storage bay of the bus:
I had a difficult time getting all four of them to look at me at the same time though. The order: Larry, Sean, Steven, and Ashton. They had a pretty good time together, playing and goofing off. They were good kids- letting my boys mooch off their junk food and answering their unending questions. And on a side note here, I know that Ashton is a little ladies man, but on this trip, he outdid himself! He was smoozin' and cruizin' with the prettiest of the high-school girls, sitting on their laps for hours and scoring candy from all of them. Sean is still my little man though, and wouldn't sit with any other girl except for me. :)

I've gotten ahead of myself. Before the fun park stuff, 3 of Kevin's bands performed. The Symphonic Band, Concert Band and the Jazz Band. They all played very well! Here's a picture of the Jazz Band:
Then comes the fun part! Here is a picture with Walt and Mickey, perfectly in line with the Cinderella Castle. Not the best picture of Sean and Ashton, but its what I got:
Kevin's cousin Sierra was able to join us for the day (she is lucky enough to live close enough and have awesome parents who got her a yearly pass). I somehow only got a picture of the 4 of them from the back (not so great about thinking ahead, am I?), but this is still a cute picture- you can see that Sean is talking a mile a minute, even from the back of his head. I took this picture about 5 minutes into the park (heading toward Tomorrowland).
I know you can't tell from the picture because it was dark, but I had to take a picture of the boys on their very first ride: Pirates of the Caribbean! (I know, on the other side from Tomorrowland, but we did a lot of wandering. Or maybe I took that picture second. Whatever.) Ashton held on pretty tightly to my arm when it got completely dark, but for the most part, they didn't get as freaked out as I thought they would! There were only a few little fast parts, so they were okay with the ride part. I found myself looking at the attractions with a totally different perspective- as a mom worried that the figures would be too grotesque and strange to her 5-year-old sons seeing this kind of thing for the first time. I did my best to stay absolutely calm for them, but I didn't relax until the ride ended. After that ride, game on! I wanted to try them out on some roller coasters! So then we headed over to Space Mountain. (Guess I did take that picture with Sierra later on...) When Sean and Ashton asked me what kind of ride it was, I described it like it was- outer space inside a mountain. There are stars and twinkly lights, and it looks like the sky inside. Big mistake. Ashton thought we were actually going into Outer Space! That's when he started freaking out and crying and was, "SO, sososososososo Scared!" Kevin and I tried to tell him that he wasn't actually going up into space, but nothing we could say would pacify him. We tried to talk him into it for the better part of a half-hour, but he would have none of it. Poor Kevin didn't get to ride Space Mountain. Sean, on the other hand, did AWESOME! I held his hand in the dark, and he didn't scream or yell or anything! He just held on right back, and then couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. He loved it! Ashton didn't want to hear any of it though, so Sean and I relived every moment of that ride until we got to the next one. Which was the Matterhorn Bobsleds. This one Ashton DID go on, and enjoyed. It has a lot of twists and turns, but no real big drops, so he did okay. And this time I was smart enough not to say ANYTHING about the ride beforehand. The other big roller coaster ride we went on was Splash Mountain, and while I managed to keep Sean's attention away from the big watery drop as we passed it, Ashton did see it, and started crying again about how scared he was- shaking and all. So Sean and Sierra and I got wet, and afterwards, Sean said that the drop made his tummy hurt. He was such a good sport about it all, and was willing to do everything. We wanted to go on the Indiana Jones Adventure, but Ashton was about a fingers-breadth too short. So we went on the Jungle Cruise instead.

During the awards ceremony (yes, it was in the park- all part of the competition: Music in the Parks, even though they played at a local high school), the boys and Sierra and I decided to go on a kiddie ride instead. So we went on the Toy Story ride, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, where you sit two to a car and shoot laser beams at all the Z's to in an effort to destroy Zorg.
It even keeps score between the two players in the car. Get this. Guess who was sitting behind Sierra and Sean, and two seats in front of Ashton and I? Ben Stiller! It was totally him! He looks exactly like he does in all his movies, complete with black pants and top, and sunglasses for when people were staring at him too much. This I tried not to do, and resisted the urge to become the most annoying tourist ever and whip out my camera and have him sign something. He saw me recognize his face though. He was there with a little blond boy, about 3 or 4. Doesn't he have a son that age? Anyway, very cool to see a major movie star up close. And he's about as tall as I am. Too bad Kevin had to miss that! On the way out, we ran into Chip 'n Dale, and so the boys got a snapshot with them, and hugs too: They were the only characters we saw up close, and Sean and Ashton thought it was the coolest thing ever! Then we stopped for dinner (fruit salad was all they wanted, swear!) and onto a mandatory stop for the Carousel Ride:
And this next picture- can you guess the question on Sean's face? "Mom, what ride is this? Please, please, PLEASE can we go on it in his mouth?" Exact quote. I rest my case. One more picture in front of the castle, goofy grins to boot: When I went to visit my older brother in Japan for two weeks (about 6 or 7 years ago), we went to Tokyo Disneyland, and their castle was WAY better than this one. I don't remember if it was called the Cinderella Castle or not, but it had the complete story of "Sleeping Beauty" inside the castle complete with guided tour. Not that I could understand a word of it. Tokyo Disneyland is much less "politically correct," BTW. Kinda more fun that way too. Anyway, I kept looking for the entrance to the inside of the castle, but only found the passage underneath. Got my castles mixed up there.

Just two more pictures to share with you- another goofy twins picture, and Peek-A-Boo Sean. I wanted to share this picture because if you click on the picture, you can really see the brown wedge in his left eye. Unique to him- Ashton's eyes are both completely hazely-green.

Well, this got pretty long. Thanks for reading to the end- a great and memorable trip for all of us!