Santa's Village

Santa's Village was on the itinerary for Tuesday.  It poured rain all Monday night, so much so that flash flood warnings were in effect.  We ate breakfast at the hotel again Tuesday morning.  This time we decided to order from the menu instead of partaking in the complimentary breakfast.  I had the breakfast sandwich, which was quite tasty.  I also ate some of Emily's chocolate chip pancakes, which were delicious.

The weather looked a bit vulnerable as we headed off on the drive to Jefferson.



I'm not sure if the weather had anything to do with it but Santa's Village was quite empty.  We never had to wait very long for anything, which was a nice surprise. It didn't pour again until right as we were leaving but there were a few showers here and there.



Anna's not in the sleigh because she was mad at Grammy about something.  What, I don't know exactly.  She didn't have a good day and it's a bit of a tale that I don't want to tell right now in this post.  God, sometimes I just feel so bad for what she has to live with.

The girls all adore babies and little kids.  Anna is especially kind and gentle with their little cousin, Evelyn.  She just loved holding her hand and helping her walk along.





The things I do for my kids.  And some photos.  So the girls and their cousin, Clive, were finally tall enough to ride the swings.  My brother-in-law sat in a swing next to Clive for a few rides and then deemed him mature enough to ride alone.  Anna was eating when I arrived with Allie and Emily.  Don was still on the swings with Clive at that point and being the helicopter parent that I am, I was a bit nervous as to how they would react so I decided to ride in a swing behind them in case I needed to tell the operator to stop.

They were fine, of course, but I felt like puking.



I love that picture, by the way.  LOVE it.



So then Anna joined us and because she was having a bad day, I definitely wanted to ride next to her.  Allie and Emily were absolutely fine on their own.  Don gave me the heads up that the inside swings aren't as bad as the outside ones so that's where I put Anna.  That left me with an outside swing.  My stomach felt queasy for the rest of the day.



The ferris wheel freaks me out a bit but I love the photo opportunities so I always ride it.  Unfortunately, because of the weather, the views weren't what they usually are.  You can compare with the photos I've taken on our previous trips here and here.  It looks like I always wear the same shoes too.  (ha ha)











We couldn't leave without meeting Santa.  Anna didn't want anything to do with the big guy.  You may think that it's odd to be encompassed with Christmas in July but it really isn't.  I wonder what it's like to go in December.  Although, I don't know if I could take the cold temperatures.



Our group of 14 ate dinner together again that night.  This time we opted for the Red Fox, which was delicious as always.  They are also very kid friendly (they have kid waiting areas) and big enough to easily accommodate larger groups such as ours.