The only kid who hates Disneyland...

We ruined her!

Josie's first time to Disneyland was two weeks ago. She was so excited! As we walked to the "happiest place on earth" she was skipping and singing with an ear to ear smile on her cherub face. We bought our tickets and entered the park; her eyes were huge with awe. Then, we took her on her first rides. Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, Nemo's Submarine Adventure; she seemed to be doing fine, only slightly scared.

Then, we took her on the ride that she was most excited about. Excited because her big brother was talking about it non-stop; about how much he loved it, how fun it was. As we made our way through the "fast pass" line, Josie started to get a little nervous. You can't really hide the giant waterfall on Splash Mountain, can you?

The ride. We made our way in our "log" boat, Jeff in the front, followed by Jakob, my nephew Kade, my sister, and finally Josie and I sharing the seat in the back. During the entire ride through "zip-a-die-do-da" magic, Josie huddled next to me with her tiny fingers gripping the seat in front of us so tight that they were ghostly white.

The plummet. As we ascended the "vulture-talking" end, I whispered to Josie, "It's just a little tummy tickle." Then, over the edge, straight down, free fall. Josie screamed. I don't mean the we're having fun on a roller coaster scream, I am talking about an ear curdling, "I'm going to die" scream. After the horrific event (how dare I try to call it "fun"), I tried to pry Josie's fingers from the now indented seat and watched as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her whole body was shaking like a scared puppy, and continued to shake for the fifteen minutes after we exited the ride.

We decided that in order to get our Josie to find joy in this "happiest of all places", that we needed a new strategy. I got Jeff to bite the bullet, and we took her on "It's A Small World". As we made our way in our new boat, the light in Josie's eyes started to return. Towards the end (to Jeff's dismay) she started singing the song that gets on nerves everywhere. She was our Josie again. We did not make anymore mistakes, we took her to only rides with a mellow, kid-like atmosphere. She was cured!

Two weeks later... "Mom, can I go to Disney World for my birthday." Who knows, maybe "World" will be different.