My Mom

Let me tell you a story about my mom. This is a story about our trip to Disney World in September, but it is one worth telling. My mom had 6 children and though our family outings were not many whenever we had some fun at an amusement type place she always had a least one little kid to stay behind with while everyone else went and had some fun. She was always willing to sit out and I admired her for that.

This was to be her first trip to Disney World and we wanted her to come and enjoy herself. We didn't want her to feel she HAD to watch little kids the whole trip, this was not the purpose of her visit. We wanted her to have fun. Little did we know that we would enjoy ourselves soooo much watching her try to have fun.

Here Mom is at Animal Kingdom the very first day. We stopped for this picture in front of Mount Everest. This is one of the newest thrill rides there and we were about to send Mom on her first adventure.

We arrived at the end of the line, Ina and I volunteered to stay with kids and Mom walked on with Nato, Cliff, Gregg and Jacob. She sat with Jacob on the ride and I have to say she was never the same. She had NO IDEA what she was doing. She hadn't even seen the ride from the outside long enough to comprehend what she was about to experience. She looked scared beyond belief on the pic they take at the end, but other than that she hid it well. Next we took her on Kali River Rapids, another thrill, but more of a fun wet ride. She seemed to enjoy it.

It wasn't until a day or so later when we were in Magic Kingdom that we realized what we had done to her. We took her on Big Thunder Railroad, a much smaller and older thrill ride than Mount Everest. In fact compared to Everest, Big Thunder Railroad is nothing, but both rides are fashioned as rides in a railway car through some kind of mountains. Mom again sat with Jacob on this ride and right as it started he exclaimed to her, "Grandma, you are going to love this! It is just like Everest!" Well that was the end. She was lock in and couldn't get out, so she had to ride, but her composure was gone. Since Jacob and Mom were at the front of the ride we all got to watch her literally "Freak Out!" It was the saddest and funnest thing I have ever seen. I thought she would head back to the hotel for good, but after lunch and with some help we convinced her to ride Splash Mountain

and later that week we got her on Test Track, but we could basically only get her to try things just once.

Then she was very happy to just watch kids.

We spared her on Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster.

Through it all she was still very willing to dance everywhere we went and the kids LOVED being with her.

It was sometimes more fun to stay with Grandma than it was to ride the big rides.

I am grateful for her willingness to try and her ability to keep going for 11 Days! She was a trooper through it all!