Zoo Lights

Saturday, December 19th we went see the Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo. Danny and Megan Parker came with us along with their daughter Alena. It was great fun!

The boys love trains, so we had to get a picture with the lit up train. :) (Bennett left, Cooper right)

Megan and cute little Alena waiting in line to see Santa.

 The boys wrote letters to Santa while waiting in line.

Jason helped with their wish lists. In case you can't see, Cooper's letter says he wants an iPad. Bennett's says he wants an Xbox One. Umm... I doubt that. Thanks, Jason.

Cooper, Alena, and Bennett

The boys have never met Santa before because I am not a big fan of waiting in super long lines and paying a fortune for a single picture. Especially since I have seen far too many terrified children on Santa's lap. But since Santa was conveniently already at Zoo Lights, the line was relatively short, AND you could take your own pictures, I figured why not? I was very surprised to see the boys completely comfortable on Santa's lap. They did great! And of course they had to touch his beard. It was real.

Cooper had bad hat hair so he got to keep his hat on for the pictures. ;)

Even Tessa liked Santa! I thought for sure she was going to cry. But she just snuggled right up to him. It was adorable.

And then she had to check out his beard too.

Bennett thought I needed to take a picture of him in front of every glowing animal.

The boys went on a carousel for the first time.  Apparently there were a lot of firsts last night.

Bennett chose a gorilla to ride. The pole was so cold that he didn't want to touch it anymore than he needed to, so he just hung on with his finger tips most of the ride. Then I decided he need to put his gloves back on.

Cooper rode with Jason on a bench. Apparently he was too scared to ride an animal.

The boys going under the light tunnel. Cooper and Bennett kept saying how "bootiful!" it was.

We did see some live animals too. It was the zoo after all.

I was carrying Tessa in the Baby Bjorn most of the time. But when she got tired and wiggly I decided to try out the stroller.  She was nice and toasty with a big puffy coat and two blankets on her. She eventually fell asleep.

The kids checking out more lights.

We rode the carousel for a second time on our way out of the zoo. Both boys raced to the peacock bench. Made it easy for me since Jason sat this ride out with Tessa in the stroller. I didn't have to try to balance two boys on moving animals.

It was a fun night with great friends.