Adventure Mouse

If you know my family, then you know that I am probably not the bravest kid in the bunch.

I blame it on the fact that I'm so much smaller than the rest of them.

I mean, I'm not saying I'm a total pansy... but I tend to be somewhat risk averse.

As the oldest kid, though, there was a time when I was the bravest kid by default. And that was the case when we went to Disneyland back in 2000.

Little us in Disneyland

Dad grew up in LA, so he'd basically been to Disneyland a hundred million times. (I was born in Orange County and my parents took me to Disneyland a couple times, but I was so little that I couldn't remember it.) My poor mom gets pretty motion sick on a lot of the rides in the park, so between that and having a small child with him on his most recent trips, it had been a while since he'd gone on any rides besides, say, Peter Pan.

During our trip in 2000, Dad quickly recruited me, as the oldest child, to accompany him on all the "big kid" rides. You know, like Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, that kind of thing. (Occasionally Jason joined us too--but that didn't always go so well. Poor little kindergartner Jason got so scared on Space Mountain he attempted to climb out of the ride. :) I was a little scared going into some of them, because I didn't know what to expect. But it turned out none of the rides were scary. I liked them, in fact. And I was so proud to be the brave kid that Dad took with him on all the "high adventure" rides. He called me his "Adventure Mouse." :) Which at the time seemed a little weird to me, because mice aren't brave really... I think I just realized right this second that he said mouse because we were at Disneyland. Duh. Haha, can't believe it took me this long...

Fast forward now to last year, 2015. Our family (minus missionary Jason) ventured back to Disneyland for the first time in over 10 years. Dad, Kristie, and I went on several of the more intense rides (ha, intense... well, you know, for Disneyland) but not all of them. I offered to go on Tower of Terror and California Screamin' (California's big roller coaster with one of those big loop de loop things) but in the end, I wimped out. I remembered how as a child, I hated Splash Mountain because of the drop. Why would I want to go on a ride that was all drops?!? And as silly as it sounds, it was the Ferris Wheel in California Adventure that convinced me not to go on California Screamin'. Being up in that Ferris Wheel for so long triggered my fear of heights BIG time, and as I sat up there, watching the roller coaster shoot past even HIGHER than the ferris wheel, I lost all my nerve. (Somewhere Melissa is reading this and laughing... she's seen how I think I love ferris wheels until I get on them, and then I FREAK out. :)

On the Ferris Wheel of doom

I knew my dad was a little disappointed, but I told him I couldn't go on those rides after all. I thought Kristie might, because she is an unstoppable force of nature, but she got so shook up on the Star Tours ride that she opted out of the other rides out of fear of getting sick.

So, this year! This year I was DETERMINED to reclaim my title as the Adventure Mouse and go on ALL the rides! And I did. :) It's dumb, but I'm super proud. I went on Tower of Terror twice and California Screamin' twice. And I loved them! Who knew?!?!? I think what I'm most proud of is that somehow, this time I wasn't even afraid prior to the rides.

This was the second time, where I was even brave enough to give a thumb's up before we dropped.

California Screamin'. You can tell I didn't know where the camera was because I didn't smile haha.

We even went on Splash Mountain again and it didn't even phase me. I like it now. :)

Anyway, basically I am celebrating overcoming some of my childhood fears. :D I have officially conquered all of Disneyland. I can go on basically any ride without fear! (Except for the Teacups... those would make me puke.)

We'll see if I hold on to this title in the future. I don't know when/if we'll go to Disneyland again, but we spent lots of time talking about what Jason and Kristie would do if we had them with us... whether they'd come with me and Dad on Tower of Terror and California Screamin' or not. Not really sure how it would go. But I think seeing their wimpy big sister rock those rides would convince them to give 'em a try. :)

Blast from the Past: Baby Shelece

Tonight my Dad let me access his computer to get some of his pics from our Disneyland trip.

While I was in there, I did some digging through really old pics just for fun... and I found some classics! :)

Our 1989 family Christmas picture!

Me on my 2nd birthday. My mom's parents gave me that Baby Goofy doll. I slept with it every night until... oh, probably 8th grade. :) It's still in a place of honor in my room.

Me and my mom on the same birthday (you can see the back of Goofy's head in the foreground).

Little me. Look how cute I was! :)

I love that we both have the same expression on our faces

That's a Chipmunk doll I'm holding--Britney from Alvin and the Chipmunks. I was OBSESSED with that show from age 2 to age 8. I used to pretend that my human form was a disguise, and I was really Britney.