On Saturday, we went  to The Wharf to see our annual movie-in-a-movie-theatre.   The girls and I drove past there last Friday and I spotted the Rave theatre.  Gracie, of course, spotted the Ferris Wheel and in her usual memory-of-a-elephant way didn't stop talking about it until we pulled into the parking lot at 10:30 Saturday morning.  It really is a pretty ferris wheel - very, very big, but also pretty.


 

Gracie wanted to ride it before the movie but it wasn't running yet, so we headed on into the theatre to watch Wall-E.  (Okay, here's my social commentary for the day - if you've been thinking about starting an exercise program, go see Wall-E - it will get you up and moving, trust me!) 

Here are the girls in front of the 3-D poster.


Just for a point of reference, here's Gracie in front of the 3-D poster of the movie we saw last year:



Yes, I evidently have some kind of issue with bringing my camera to the movies and taking pictures of my kids in front of the posters.  And here's something funny - when I went back and looked at this picture, I realized that I posted the entry about it (click here if you want to take a walk down memory lane) on July 16th of last year and here I am exactly a year later talking about the exact same thing   I told you we only went to the movies once a year and here's why:

Gracie went to the bathroom 7 times during the movie.  Abigail went to the bathroom 3 times during the movie (I said went to the bathroom, I didn't say used the bathroom, but when your almost 2-year-old stands up in the middle of the aisle and screams, "POTTY!  UH WANH (I want) POTTY!" you're pretty much required to take her).  And somehow, Abigail developed some kind of toddler obsession about the 3-D Wall-E poster and started screaming "WAH YEE!  WAH YEE!  WAH YEE!"  about halfway through the movie.  Steve and I thought she was just excited about the movie and kept saying, like the dolts we can sometimes be, "Yes, Abigail, it's Wall-E".  It wasn't until I took her out to the bathroom the third time and she broke free of my hand and ran, at a breakneck speed, to the lobby, hollering, "WAH YEE!  WAH YEE! WAH YEE!"  that I finally realized what she wanted.  So, I let her look for a minute and then said, "Abigal, do you want to go see Wall-E and Gracie?"  What I meant  was did she want to go back into the movie and watch Wall-E with Gracie.  What Abigail understood was we were going to go back into the movie and GET Gracie and bring her back out to see the poster.  So, of course, she went with me willingly, ran down the aisle to her sister and screamed, "GWACIE!! UM ON (Come on)!!  UM ON GWACIE!  WAAAAAAAH YEEEEEEEE!!! WAAAAAAH YEEEEEE!".  Steve, since he didn't have the benefit of knowing what she was talking about, said, "Yes, Abigail!  It's Wall-E!"  I clued him in and he said, "Well Gracie needs to go to the bathroom again, anyway."  So, I took them both out, made a quick trip through the bathroom, and then a run through the lobby.  I was ready to admit defeat with my younger daughter, though, so I sent Gracie back in to the movie by herself, and spent the rest of the time chasing Abigail through the lobby and the bathroom (and just as a side note here:  if you think that your toddler isn't tall enough to unlock the bathroom stall door while you're using the bathroom and that she's not strong enough to pull open the main bathroom door that leads back to the lobby, well, you'd be wrong on both counts...all I can say is thank goodness she was giggling or I might never have found her!)

So, after that grand adventure, we all four walked out into the sunshine and saw that the ferris wheel was now turning.  No one was happier than Gracie! 



We went and got tickets for the four of us.  As we climbed into the ferris wheel car, Gracie was excited



...I was a touch nervous - I'm never really sure how the kids are going to react to things like this...Steve was more than a touch nervous - he's afraid of heights...and Abigail was completely freaked out. 



After we'd gone around once, I was pretty calm.  The view was beautiful, but I couldn't get a good picture because the whole ferris wheel car is glassed in with a kind of thick plexiglass - great for nervous mommies, but not so great for shutterbugs .  Gracie was still excited and Abigail was starting to enjoy herself.  Steve was still clutching the center pole.  You gotta love a man who is willing to put his fears aside to do something for his daughters.   By the end of the ride, Abigail was really enjoying it - she even relaxed the death grip on her daddy's leg and came and sat by me.  And Gracie, well, Gracie was not happy with the thought of the ride ending.



and she was equally upset when her daddy told her we wouldn't be riding it again that day, that she'd have to wait until the next time we came.  She lost her attitude though at the thought of lunch and we headed over to Johnny Rockets for lunch (public service announcement here: I don't think we'll be going back here - neither the food nor the service were very good - the may just be limited to the Johnny Rockets at the Wharf, but there are lot of good places around here to get a burger, and Johnny Rockets isn't one of them). 

I think the girls had a wonderful day and I know that I did!  I hope you all had a great weekend, too!