Conquering our fears . . . together

In May, when we went to the indoor water park - my oldest daughter was scared to go on the water slide. I told her she needed to do 'one thing that scares her every day' so that maybe she won't be so scared of things anymore. (I didn't want to tell her that I was scared too!) But we both rode it, and we both LOVED it. It was really worth it.

This year, my oldest daughter was finally old enough to ride the roller coasters with her Daddy at the amusement park. He was SOOO excited! She . . . was not. I had to remind her of our 'one thing that scares us' rule.

Since Hunkahubby knew he would probably only get one chance to ride a roller coaster that day - he went on the one HE really wanted to ride on (which - with a double-helix among other things, was probably not smart for his green roller coaster buddy).

Here they are before they got on the ride. As you can tell - she is NOT thrilled, but she is still smiling.

And here she is after having survived the roller coaster . . . according to Hunkahubby, she screamed, screamed some more, and then just cried. Poor thing. She has sworn off roller coasters for the rest of her life. And Hunkahubby probably has 2 more years before the other two are tall enough.

But Mommy had her 'one thing that scares her' moment as well. In the water park, we decided (okay - it WAS my idea) to go on a ride with 4 people per innertube that goes through this large purple enclosed slide. It didn't look that scary.

Except - I kind of forgot one thing . . .

I'm a tad claustrophobic.

And the minute the innertube took off (with me and my two girls in it) I was plunged into complete darkness. And then water splashed over my face. I panicked. But I didn't scream. I didn't let the girls know how freaked I was (they couldn't have seen me anyway). I just kept breathing and praying for the ride to be over.

When we got to the end - the ride attendants just about had to pry my fingers off of the innertube, and my body was so stiff I could hardly stand up. I was shaking for the next 20 minutes. But I DID IT, right? (NEVER again.) Open water slides, I can handle - enclosed . . . NUH UH!!

My daughter and I bonded over facing our fears and hating it. LOL

What have you done lately that scared you? Was it worth it? Would you do it again?