I vividly remember saying the sentence, “You need to unpack your tooth brush because your trip isn’t for five years, Layna”. Five years ago sweet girl looked like this:

Such a tiny schnookums! In the intervening five years since we’ve been planning and plotting and unpacking her bags. Just like her Halloween costume decisions, once she’s sorted the plan there are very few changes. Right away girlfriend had opinions! Disney World with Daddy! She wanted to stay in a place with a kitchen so she and her dad could cook and make orange chicken for dinner! You know, big stuff like that. I’m so happy to report that everything went pretty much accordingly to plan. Here’s the plan run down and then all the best pictures [aside: Neil did a fabulous job of taking pictures for me. He managed to do everything from keeping her moving to ordering food to navigating the bathroom situation and I couldn’t be happier with the moments he captured. Love him, keeping him forever.]

Day 1 was driving down, settling into the hotel, Dinner and swimming. Her bed had its own TV!

Day 2 Magic Kingdom. There was a master list with all the rides she wanted to do at each park and the places she wanted to eat. Reality turned out a bit differently each day, but she was thrilled at the end of each day so who even cares? They rode Tron: Light Cycle and it was one of her favorite rides of the trip, tater tots for lunch and had a dole whip which she loved (don’t let her face fool you). They did a lot of rides and ended the day when she was done. Layna ended up loving movies and swimming at the hotel every bit as much as the theme parks.

Day 3 Epcot. Fancy pancakes, sitting down anywhere she wanted too, and epic rides. Epcot has a new Moana experience and the Frozen dark ride. They went on a brand new ride, Guardians of the Galaxy, and that was also one of her favorites of the trip. I really wanted them to catch the Epcot fireworks show. It started at 9:00 pm and she was burned out by 5ish. Ahem. I let it go and she went swimming and watched another movie. All decided the day was perfect.

Day 4 Disney Hollywood Studios. She was loosing steam by now so we had to pull out the big guns. Fancy waffles, TWO stage shows and the third favorite ride of the trip. I don’t know how I didn’t know how good the daily stage shows are at the Disney parks…they were so good! She loved Beauty and the Beast, but still said the movie is better. But can we just talk about the Frozen Sing-A-Long stage show. Neil took videos of bits of it and it was so well done. Layna about lost her mind and when the Real Elsa made it snow?! fuggitaboutit. Although Layna made sure to clean the bubblesnow off of her and Neil as soon as possible.

Day 5 drive home. Leaving before the sun came up, saying goodbye to the hotel, sleeping in the car, and getting back in time for Neil to make pizza. She missed her family something fierce and wanted to call us several times a day.

It was a lot. Layna loved it and has had so much fun telling everyone all about it. But it was a lot. I’m pretty sure it is much easier on her to travel with everyone in her inner circle and not just her favorite person. Luckily for her, all the rest of our epic trips this year are as a unit. It’s over now and there were moments of sad when she realized that this thing that she’s been looking forward to for years has been accomplished. Good thing Rapunzel (one of her favorite princesses from the movie Tangled) told us what to do when dreams come true…you get to find a new dream. Not sure what her new one will be yet, but getting back into our normal groove has been pretty great.

P.s. Pretty sure when she turned 13 her instinctive pose abilities manifested. Pop that hip!