We bought the Mickey Mouse hats back in 2005 when our whole family traveled to Disneyland for the holidays. We tucked the hats away for safe keeping until 2010 when my daughter and I decided that our annual birthday trip of shopping in the big city just wasn't full of enough adventure or fun. We put pencil to paper and started saving money for our birthday-celebration flight to LA and Disneyland - just mother and daughter. We landed, checked into the motel, donned our hats and suddenly we were the most popular two-some in Disneyland with our limited-edition hats. We managed to scream our way through 11 total rides, 7 of them consecutive in the back seat of the Big Thunder Mountain train and ended up with a count of 42 animals, 8 1/2 rights turns and an unknown bat count. The next year we were just as popular with our hats but this time we broke our record on Big Thunder Mountain with 12 total rides with 8 in a row, adding 24 bats and a buzzard to our count. I celebrated my actual birth day by courageously going on the Hollywood Tower just to impress all of my grandchildren. My daughter's birthday celebration was culminated with knee surgery several months later to repair the damage of running from the exit of Thunder Mountain to the Entrance of Thunder Mountain 12 different times. Come to think about it, maybe adding in the running to Indiana Jones, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn may have also contributed to the problem.
It has taken a year to earn the money for the ultimate birthday-celebration; a Disneyland cruise for the Bahama Mamas! But....it really isn't about the adventure, or trying to do something that is more impressive or more expensive - it is all about mother and daughter, two grown woman, friends, best friends.....laughing, hugging, sharing, splurging on cheesecake, sharing giant turkey legs, screaming and laughing, sharing lotion and lip salve, hair brush and razors and on the more spiritual side.....praying together before we head off each day, spending pillow-talk time at the motel, talking about our dreams, our challenges, and how much we love each other. That's what it's all about!
