An unsuccessful Santa visit

I had heard Bass Pro does Christmas pretty well. The have Santa there, plus a lot of other fun stuff to do. So we looked it up and decided to go. It was a really nice set up, there were lots of things to do and the kids loved exploring the store. As you can see below....

Only $329 mom

Look at that hand on her hip

Getting some practice in

That's how you hold a gun right?

On the carousel 

Briggs and Nems on the Carousel 

 So when we went to get in line to see Santa, our excitement was given a reality check. The line wasn't terrible and seemed to be going quickly. However were were told by an employee that you have to have a time card to see Santa....  Huh? What? So apparently you have to get a card for a certain time to get into line. It was one o'clock when we got there. They were giving cards to get in line at 5 pm!!!!  There was no way we were hanging out for for hours....so we did this instead.

SHARK FOOD ANYONE?

look at that sad face

looking up to her older sister

Sisters

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas....

Soon after Thanksgiving we retrieved all of your Christmas decor from the attic. Of course, Seth had to make a "pre-decorating"  run for peppermint ice cream, who can decorate with out it? The kids had fun, eating ice cream, drinking eggnog, listing to Christmas music.... all the while being warmed by the flames of the fire.

The kids really liked putting clusters of ornaments on the tree. Even still I walk by and notice that they have gathered together again on one branch. Silly kids. 

Briggs had the honor of putting the star on the tree. He was scared. He cried while he did it, but he did it nonetheless. I love my family.

Nems wasn't sure what to think

Getting the tree out.

So happy

Getting ready...

Hmmm that's a lot of ornaments in one place

Our first present

So proud of all those balls in one spot

See the unhappiness? 

Then it was time to "try on" the old stockings

Nice socks Briggs

Thanksgiving 2012. Part 2

To continue our Thanksgiving fun ... we ate a lot. Everyone made something for thanksgiving day and let me tell ya, mmmmm it was good. I ate leftovers for days.  We went for walks, rode bikes and enjoyed the beautiful landscape. The weather was excellent as well.

We decided to do a little exploring on Friday and went to a little train station. When you have 18 people you are kind of limited on your activities, but we bought some tickets and went for a little ride. It was really cute to see all the kids faces. They loved it. I love to see my kids get excited when we do things like this. Plus it was fun to see all the adults squish into the tiny train :)

A portion of the food

Throwing leaves

Loaded on the train

Riding with Aunt Chandler

Great Grandma Francis and Grandma Cheri

Nems and I

Love this

Look at all those Whitworths

Uncle Luke and Emery

Seth, Nems and I

Ha!

We were trying to get the twins to smile at the same time. Unsuccessful.

Playing with Great Grandma's Cane

Seth and Emily

It was a really pretty ride

Too Cool

 After the train we unloaded and walked across the street to a little park. The kids had a blast running all around like loonies. After that fun ran its course, we loaded into the van to see if we could find another adventure. We did. We found a  "pond" that was on the side of the river, where you couldn't fish. Since we didn't want to disturb the fishermen with our crazy lot. It was fun. A rock skipping contest ensued and all the brothers (except Seth) tried their best to out skip one anther. It was good entertainment.

The Park

Briggs after a successful climb

Seth and the kids

Abby and Izzy throwing leaves 

 Atop a really old and really large tractor.

Checking out the water

Seth and Nems

Looking for good rocks

The river

Nemers

Briggs trying to skip rocks

Abby and Izzy having a go at it as well