Meeting Santa

December 11, 2012

This year was the first time that Luke officially met Santa. We didn't do it for some reason last year. And the year before, he was only 6 months old and he literally slept through the entire encounter. This year, with a decent understanding of who this jolly, bearded, gift-giving man was, he was excited!

That morning, Luke found this tin and said, "It's a drum!" Then, he left and came back with two swords to "play" it with. I love seeing kids use their imaginations!

 Luke brought Llama and Lightening McQueen along to meet Santa at Bass Pro Shop. Santa wasn't very talkative. Neither was Luke. But they were both happy to sit together and smile for a picture, before Luke moved on to all the awesome toys the store had out for the Christmas season! Seriously, he could have stayed in there all day playing! All week even!

We had a whole bunch of great friends with us, making the day even more fun! It was hilarious to see how many strollers we had in our group. The Bass Pro Shop employees jokingly cleared the way for our giant caravan when we walked through the store to visit the rest of the mall.

These boys were too cute with those shotguns.

Giant race track.

THIS was Luke's FAVORITE part! A remote control monster truck on rocky terrain that he could ram into the styrofoam-covered guard rails as many times as he wanted to!

The kids got to drive these race cars around the track too!

The store has the coolest fish tank full of all kinds of really big fish.

We walked around the rest of the mall in search of the food court and train. Luke couldn't resist "riding" a few of these along the way.

Lunch at the food court. Yum.

Luke excitedly showing off his new snowman sippy cup to his cousins.

We payed $8 to ride this train. Yeesh! It was a little over-priced. But Luke LOVED it! This boy is all about trains!

Our final stop was the mall play place. It was a loooong, fun-filled day!

Cutie-patootie baby Greg

Luke can't not sit on things like this when he sees them.

I came home to a wonderful surprise in the mail: a Winnie the Pooh Christmas card from my good friend and former roommate, Emily! I LOVE HER! And this card totally made my day!

She and my other roommate, Melissa used to say that I reminded them of Pooh Bear, hence the "I saw this and couldn't not get it for you!"