Posts Tagged Family

Ghost Town

We went to Knott’s Berry Farm yesterday. My wife and I had taken the day off with plans to take Babito to daycare while we cleaned up and organized the garage. We decided to make it a family day instead and headed over to Knott’s Berry Farm.

We bought annual passes a few months back when we visited with out-of-town relatives. We couldn’t pass it up, since annual passes were only $75 each. There are a lot of kid-friendly attractions for toddlers. Camp Snoopy has many rides that Babito likes, plus he got to see his new favorite character, Snoopy.

snoopy

As a kid, I loved going to Knott’s Berry Farm. I liked it as much as I liked Disneyland. Now, Knott’s doesn’t seem as nice as it used to be. I think they’ve kind of messed up their theming, plopping rollercoasters everywhere throughout the park. Also, the maintenance doesn’t seem quite up to par with Disneyland, but what is, right?

One thing that Knott’s does have going for it is the quality of their employees. Without fail they were all friendly, polite, and went out of their way to be nice to Babito, and that’s appreciated. If you’ve ever been on the train ride, you know that train robbers walk through the train and “rob” it during the ride. They still do that, but the train robber was especially cognizant of Babito and made sure not to scare him. He actually stopped and talked to him and called him “little buddy.” When we got off the train, Babito said “That cowboy is a nice guy. He called me little buddy.”

Here’s the train robber:

train-robber

Overall, it’s still a really fun place to take your kids. Babito loved it. The crowds were non-existant. We walked onto every single ride we went on. I’m actually surprised that they are open every day year-round. I would be willing to bet that there were more employees there than guests. Check it out:

knotts1

knotts2

knotts3

Babito’s favorite was the log ride. We all went on it and my wife got soaked. Babito wanted to go again right away, so I took him again while my wife waited. (She was already wet, so why not go again, right?)

We arrived at 2:00pm and did everything we wanted to do before the park closed at 6:00pm. Of course, we didn’t ride any of the rollercoasters, but I looked and there were no lines for any of them either. I’d recommend going to Knott’s. It’s still a fun place. Go during the week before the summer and you should have a great time. It’s almost like having an entire amusement park to yourself!

And it was a whole lot more fun than cleaning out the garage.

Tags: , , ,

Priorities: Just Turn It Off

A conversation I had with the Babito last night at Carls Jr.

Scene: me typing on my blackberry

Babito: Daddy, talk to ME.

Me: One second, Honey.

Babito: Put that thing away. Let’s talk.

Me: Ok, I’m ready to talk to you now.

Babito: Just turn it off, Daddy

Tags: , , ,

New Year’s Resolutions

Since everyone else is doing it, and I hate to be left out, here are my New Year’s Resolutions for 2009:

  1. Create (and stick to) a budget:  My wife and I have been TERRIBLE about spending money this past year.  We’ve already resolved to sit down together and create a managable budget.  Taking into account that we both love to buy things for ourselves, we’ll create small discretionary spending categories for each other.  Our goal:  debt-free by 12/31/09!
  2. Teach Babito something new every day:  So far I’ve done pretty well with this one.  The Babito is a very fast learner and he seems to pick up on things very quickly.  He already knows his ABCs, how to count to twenty, the names of many different animals, his basic colors, words to a bunch of songs, etc.  My goal is to continue to help him (on a daily basis) learn something new.
  3. Write my Book: The goal is to finish at least a first draft of the book and to share it with some people to get their thoughts.  Anyone interested in reading any rough drafts as I finish chapters?  Let me know!
  4. Be a Better Blogger: I plan to post more in 2009 and to write more about my life.  Also, I definitely plan to be a better commenter.  I’m still reading your blogs, but hardly ever comment.  That will change in 2009, so get ready to get sick of my comments!

Did you set any resolutions for 2009?

Tags: , , ,

Christmas Traditions

Every family has their own special Christmas traditions, and every family does things a little differently around Christmastime.

For us, we’re pretty traditional.  We spend Christmas Eve with my family and then my wife’s family always comes to our house on Christmas Day.  My wife and I usually open our presents from each other on Christmas Eve night, after we get home from my family’s get-together.  We’ll be waiting for Christmas morning, of course, for Babito to open his.

We’ve told him all about Santa Claus, and how he’s watching him to see if he’s being a good boy.  Yes, we’re using the Santa Claus threat when he’s acting up, and he seems to understand the ramifications.  We’ve “called” Santa Claus several times to let him know Billy’s being bad.  I think we’ll need to limit that because it won’t be very effective come December 26th.  We’ll be leaving milk and cookies out for Santa Claus, and maybe some vegetables or something for his reindeer.  I’ll eat the cookies and Mommy can eat the vegetables before we go to bed.

We decorate the house by December 1st, and the decorations stay up until after New Year’s Day.  We make a special effort to make sure The Babito is aware of the reason for Christmas, the birth of Jesus.  I look forward to building many special traditions as The Babito gets old enough to understand.  He’s starting to this year.  He loves the decorated houses, and candy canes, and decorating the tree.  Unfortunately, he’s scared to death of Santa Claus.

What I’m always interested in hearing about is the traditions of other families.  What special annual traditions do you have?  Anything unusual or unique?

Please share them in the comments!

Tags: , , , ,