A Debacle at Disneyland -- Joshua Memories!

A Debacle at Disneyland

...he suddenly grabbed a cute stuffed animal out of a baby stroller near us, and flung with all his might that cute stuffed animal clear out into this water surrounding Tom Sawyer's Island.  

As you see Joshua (green shirt) looking so innocent and sweet in the picture below, standing next to his younger brother Jeremy, and looking out at Tom Sawyer's Island, you would never realize the tough situation he had just gotten us into!  Well either just moments before, or perhaps after, this picture was taken, we had one of many sudden "oh no" moments with Joshua!!

Jeremy & Joshua looking at Tom Sawyer's Island

We had dared to take Joshua to Disneyland, hoping he would really enjoy the excitement, the rides, the people and the fun!  Because he was so high maintenance, we only brought one sibling, as we knew Joshua would need every minute of our attention.   The day went fairly smooth -- but the benefit given to those with disabilities helped a lot as Joshua could not stand in long lines.  This was a blessing and helped to avert tantrums, aggression and confusion for him.

We had just stopped to take a break and look at the water surrounding Tom Sawyer's Island.  Well, Joshua LOVED water!  And had spent many, many hours throwing rocks, and anything else within reach, into numerous rivers.  And he had a very, very keen eye, and before we could even see or stop him, he suddenly, with lightning fast speed, grabbed a cute stuffed animal out of a baby stroller near us, and flung it with all his might clear out into this water surrounding Tom Sawyer's Island.  

I gasped in horror, and immediately gave my best apology to the mom pushing the stroller, and quickly asked where she had gotten it in Disneyland so we could hurry and purchase another one for her.  She replied with frustration that it was not purchased at Disneyland and was her child's favorite stuffed animal.  I gasped (with even more horror inside), and felt terrible!  I told her we would do everything we could to get that animal out of the water.  Yet inside, I was feeling quite stressed as I really didn't know how this was going to be accomplished!

Between his dad and I, we were able to find a worker at Disneyland, explain the difficult situation, and plead for help to retrieve this very precious stuffed animal!  Well, the Disneyland workers were fabulous, and worked very, very hard to bring that animal back to shore.  It did take a while, and while we were doing all we could to help, waiting and hoping, the mom did seem to relax and realize that this was not an intentional, deliberate naughty child.  In my apologies I had explained that Joshua had autism and did not realize what he was doing.  And I'm sure she also noticed that during this entire long time of retrieving the stuffed animal out of the water, we really did have to stop Joshua, with his very long and quick arms, from throwing many more items into the water of other unsuspecting Disneyland visitors!

Thankfully, the stuffed animal was at last retrieved, and mom and child were happy even though the stuffed animal was wet!  She truly accepted our apologies.

Jeremy, as always, was a wonderful, kind, patient and loving brother.  He was always incredible!!

We then tried to stay away from any water after that.  One long retrieval of a treasured stuffed animal was enough for one day for sure!  (If you ever been at Pleasant Grove Pool when Joshua was there, you might have had your flip flops, sunglasses or towel thrown in and will completely relate to this story!)

Joshua & Me with Jeremy

We did enjoy the rest of the day as you can see in the pictures below.  My back did begin getting very tired after about 4 hours of Joshua on my back.  So this was one of the first times (or maybe the first time) that we used a wheelchair to help get Joshua around.  He was tired, I was tired and the wheelchair was a huge blessing!!  And amazingly he stayed in it too.

This was a treasured, fun and special day!

Jeremy & Joshua on the Tea Cup ride - we did not spin the Tea Cup at all!

Joshua & Jeremy in front of "It's a Small World"

Mike, Joshua & Jeremy in front of The Jungle Cruise.
Thankfully there were no items thrown into this water!!