Blattman Chronicles

We checked out the Maritime Museum while Heather and Joey were here.  The kids were all about the pirate ship.  There was even a 5th grade class on field trip that were getting put to work before they got to sleep over on it.  From a teachers’ standpoint, that would have been just a bit too much excitement for me.

The kids loved all the ropes, nooks, crannies, knobs and buttons.  This kid sized boat was in there and the kids enjoyed hoisting the flag, setting the sails and shooting little balls from the cannon.

Going through the submarine just reinforced the fact that I wasn’t made for them.  They were cramping my style just a little bit.  It just makes me all that more impressed with those Navy guys who can be out there for months and love it.

Will even found his place in the middle of it and seemed quite content!

Fearless – that is the best way to describe Annie.  My little 3 year old has turned out to be quite the little roller coaster fiend.  We thought she would be and today Annie confirmed our thoughts.  Standing in at EXACTLY 40 inches, our little Annie enjoyed Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror.  She had her arms in the air and was hooting and hollering through them all.  I was a little worried about the Tower of Terror, but as we exited our ears were meet with, “Again, again, again!”

When I say exactly, there are no dramatics involved.  She was measured and remeasured at every ride.  As a result, we had to start giving her pep talks before each measuring station because she didn’t like the workers trying to get her to stand up straight so she would slouch and curl up.

You may have gathered that we took a little family trip up to Disneyland for a few days and hallelujah!  We don’t need anymore switch passes.  Everyone is tall enough to ride and my kids love going on ALL of the rides.  Talk about great quality, family time.  We have to enjoy it while it lasts.

The second day we were there found us exploring places we don’t often venture…Toontown, the Tikki Room and the parade.  We rode so many rides we started to become a little overloaded so we backed off a little bit and took everything a bit slower.  Since Annie is big enough now, we didn’t have any built in downtime so we think it fizzled us just a bit.

We even stopped to hug and pose with characters…we NEVER do that!

I never get tired of walking down Mainstreet Disney – all of the shops brimming with trinkets and treasures.  It was more relaxing than normal strolling down the street with nothing and no one to worry about except Will.  I’ve always wanted to stop and look through all of the shops and was finally given my opportunity.  We headed up to Disneyland on a date a couple of days ago.

We enjoyed all of the rides Will and I never get to go on together(i.e.-Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror, California Screamin’, etc).  It’s been awhile since we have had that much fun.  Note my hair in the dinner picture above is post roller coaster.  Will even took me to the Blue Bayou for dinner.  My compliments go to the chef.  I think he can quit his day job.

The ambiance was appreciated.  We didn’t even notice the Pirates of the Caribbean riders passing by.

I never thought I would be tired of coasters, but after 10 hours of them; I was feeling a bit like a wet noodle.  Two a.m. followed us up the driveway to hear my bed’s beckon call.  It was a great day with the person I love the most, but when it was done I was equally appreciative.  Lesson learned:  I am no longer 21 and I can feel it my bones.  Luckily, it took until 2 in the morning to remind me.

Will and I took the kids up to Disney for a couple of days this week.  It’s always nice to get away from the day to day to mix things up a bit (Will might argue I leave the day to day a little too often).  Everyone was most excited for the Matterhorn since Annie is finally big enough to ride.  Can you believe she is tall enough?  Annie is only half an inch from being able to ride on everything.  She has become quite the roller coaster junkie.  Too bad they shut it down every year in February for maintenance.  It won’t be open again until March.  I guess we better schedule another visit.

We had a few mixed emotions through the day.  No, really it was only when I made them stop to take a picture.  The feelings are pretty apparent in the picture, wouldn’t you say?

The park was empty both days so we thoroughly enjoyed all of the rides.  We have another fun family adventure to add to the bank.

I was hoping Hudson would lose his tooth on Wednesday when we went to Disneyland, but we just weren’t that lucky(That is where he lost his other tooth.  We were just hoping for a fun tradition).  It popped out at dinner while eating soup?!  Will and I don’t really have that drive to yank the teeth out and loose teeth don’t seem to be bothersome to Hudson so they just fall out whenever.  Hudson is actually very trusting by letting me wiggle his teeth.  I remember never letting my dad near my mouth.  He would promise not to pull, but I think with all the wiggling of my teeth he couldn’t resist the final tug once I let him see my teeth.

The losing of this tooth has turned a new leaf for Hudson.  I’m not quite sure how temporary this leaf might be.  He now wants chores to earn money to add to it so he can buy something.  This has awakened the teacher in me just a bit.  My first thought was, “Yes, now we can focus more on paying tithing, saving for college, saving for a mission, identifying money and skip counting.”  My goal is having him always save at least 10% tithing, 10% college, 10% mission.  I’m hoping if he only ever gets 70% that it will be easier when he is older to sustain it.  I had some friends when I was little whose parents would triple any money earned that went straight to the bank.  I’m liking that idea too.  Maybe that will encourage more money to go into savings.  Anyway, this post wasn’t supposed to be about saving techniques, but about Hudson. That other top tooth is loose as well.  I see more fun headed our way.