As some of you may recall, little Miss Madison has a keen memory back to age 5 or earlier. Because of this she remembers when I said in passing "maybe we can go to Disneyland when you are older." Well, Madi has determined that older = now and wrote me a letter earlier this year. For the past 9 months each time I talked with her she reminded me how we were going to go to Disneyland when I was done with school (this coming summer). Little did she know that I had a better plan!
We didn't tell Madi that I was going to take her to Disneyland for her 10th birthday until the week before we went. I used skymiles for our flight and had it booked for several months. Needless to say she was a pretty excited little girl. I wasn't sure how "fun" the trip would be. You never know when you are traveling with a 10 year old, but she was so good. It seriously felt like I was with an adult, except for the fact that I had to watch her. She never sassed me, cried or anything. She wanted to go to bed at 10 (which I enjoyed). She also seemed to really enjoy the "grown-up" time and it was so fun to watch her act grown-up. For example she would always try to run ahead and get to the elevator to the room before me and then when I would knock she would politely say "who is it?" You could tell she was just eating up the fact that she was doing something so grown-up by herself, without her parents. It was pretty funny to watch. She did miss her family and called them daily with updates.
Here is a recap of our trip in pictures (click on the pictures to see them bigger). Be sure to scroll to the bottom where I have included a few "one-liners" from the trip.
Here we are on various rides and games at Disneyland including the Ferris wheel that I still hate! I had some instant flashbacks to age 8 or so and Stacy rocking our Ferris wheel at Lagoon and having me cry. I still hate it and this time I also almost puked. Madi was forced to go on the swings alone after that one cause I needed some recovery time. I must be getting old!
It's a Small World was all decked out for Christmas. Madi didn't especially want to go on this one cause it was for "babies," but I pretty much dragged her on it and told her you can't go to Disneyland and not go on "It's a Small World." She seemed to enjoy it enough and I loved seeing it all Christmassy.
And you can't go to Disneyland without meeting all of the princesses. Madi was a perfect age. She was old enough to go on all the big rides, but young enough to still want to meet the princesses. She is older than I thought though because one day when we were having a tough time trying to find "Tinkerbell" I said....."Maybe she is busy out flying around the park....." Madi then said "You know it's just a woman in a costume, right?" I laughed pretty loud at that one. We spent the most time in line waiting for these "women in costumes" so they still had some magic in them :) Madi also got all of their autographs including a very "rare" one of PRINCESS Minnie Mouse. She is apparently "rarely" in her princess outfit.
The park was beautiful at night and we stayed for the fireworks one night where I may or may not have been crying as I heard some new "Believe in Holiday Magic" song and "When you wish upon a star." I loved the magic of the holidays at Disneyland and loved spending it with a kid. We also saw "World of Color" at California Adventure which was an awesome show. Just think the Bellagio fountains in Vegas with Disney songs, lasers, and projection of the characters in the mist. It was probably my favorite thing. A great, great show!!
I also found that junk food was #1 on Madi's list. Every 5 seconds she wanted ice cream, cotton candy, etc and at Disneyland you really could buy some every 5 seconds. At first I was letting her eat whatever she wanted (I am the Aunt after all), but I finally had to slow down the sugar intake! We did have 3 ice creams once on our longest day and she had more than 1 thing of cotton candy. I think I made her day on our early morning day when the lines were so short that I said "let's skip breakfast and just eat junk until we have a good lunch."
We also ordered room service one morning. It was scheduled to come at 8:30 because we had planned to just do California Adventure which opens at 10am. Well at 5:45 when Madi woke up (so sleepy!) we changed our room service to come at 7am and then went to Disneyland early :)
We also ate at the "fanciest" restaurant twice at Madi's request.....The Cheesecake Factory. I asked her why it was fancy and she said it was because "your napkin is made out of cloth." LOL!
I also had to take a picture of Madi at Subway because we ate there twice as well. When we first got there and were trying to find somewhere to eat I saw Subway and mentioned it in passing. Madi stopped in her tracks and said "Is that the place where you make your own sandwich and pick your own toppings and they say 'eat fresh?'" When I said that it was she begged to eat there. Seeing it was outside the park I thought it was an excellent financial choice and obliged. Madi's order was..... a ham sandwich with mustard and pickles. Way to take advantage of all those toppings :)
Splash Mountain - Madi was not initially a fan, perhaps it was her very front row seat for the first time, but no....it was the birds warning you of the danger ahead. This was our first "big ride" and that made me a bit nervous considering it wasn't that big. Hear about it in Madi's own words below.
She loved Space Mountain though and the next day asked to go on Splash Mountain again because the "birds wouldn't scare here because she knows they are there."
Tower of Terror is the only ride she didn't become braver on and did not want to go on it again. She didn't enjoy it at all. As she put it "my legs are still trembling."
And now for the big white roller coaster "California Screamin." This is a real roller coaster. It counts down and shoots you up a big old hill and it also goes upside down. I hadn't been on this one at all. I made Madi watch it "launch" before we went on it. She wanted to go but was nervous. After our first time she leaned over and whispered to me "Between you and me my bum was really tingling at the top of that hill." I really laughed at that one. I guess that is how a kid would describe being super nervous!
Well as you can see from the picture collage below she definitely got over her fear. On our last night there we had no lines so she decided she wanted to try to go on the roller coaster 10 times for her 10th birthday. We had only been on it 4 times the previous day/night so we had 6 more to go. We had 1 hour 15 minutes until it closed so we were on a mission. So we got in line and she decided she wanted to go in the front car. Now that makes me nervous, but then she also wanted to "put her hands up." I attempted to convince her not too, but she was determined. I made sure she was smashed into that seat and unable to move at all. I didn't want to tell Jenny her kid fell off the roller coaster! I thought for sure she would grab on as soon as we went over the peak of the big hill, but she didn't. From there she started "posing" for the camera. In order to make our goal she would sprint off the ride and get our place in line while I took a picture of the monitor that had our picture from the previous ride on it.
On the 10th time she informed me that she wanted to go alone in the front seat. This likely stemmed from the fact that the previous night we had met another 10 year old girl in line that was going on it over and over again by herself (her mother was done apparently and for good reason!). I didn't like this idea, but completely buckled when she said "How will I ever grow up if you don't let me??" So as you can see for her 10th time I'm in the seat behind her and she is in the front seat all alone. FYI...all of these poses for the camera were her idea. She was seriously cranking me up smiling for the picture each time. We actually got to go on it an 11th time, but Madi was SO fast that the train took off without me. She screamed "I'll meet you at the pictures." So for her 11th time she really went all alone.
For those of you who were wondering going on a roller coaster for 7 times in a row will make you very, very sore. I don't get sick, but I will admit that the last 2 times I was ready to be done, but we had a goal to accomplish. I was in desperate need of a massage afterwords!
So that's it. It was a great trip. I loved it, secured my favorite Aunt status (at least for Madi) forever. In the car on the way home Hannah said "Aunt Jen, can you maybe take me to Disneyland for my birthday?" And so it begins.....
