Our weekend at the Gaylord -- Yuck!

Last year we went to the Gaylord National hotel to do a breakfast with Santa, and the year before Jill and I went and saw an ice sculpture exhibit.  The kids were old enough and we thought we'd have a fun weekend and sleep over a night and see the exhibit and do brunch the next morning.  In theory this was going to be fun.  In actuality - it was a mess.  It wasn't us - it was the hotel!  We had timed entry tickets for the exhibit and wound up waiting 3 hours in line past our time to get in.  Needless to say we were hungry afterward and the restaurants were backed up and our reservation was long past.  After much yelling we got seated only to wait an hour to be served.  Once in our room, loud music above us kept us up all night.  The next morning the breakfast was fine but we had all had it by then.  So much for a good time!

A big Santa train ride

We headed up to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving and as a surprise we got to take a train ride with Santa.

As if that weren't special enough Evan got a huge surprise.  Grandma's friend Paul arranged for him and I to ride in the locomotive of the diesel engine with the engineer!  What a thrill it was to see Evan watching a real train being driven.

Family turkey project

At school this year Evan had to decorate a turkey with the family.  After Jill painstakingly selected and procured the decorations we all had a great time dressing up the gobbler.  Here's the result.

Fall

I know it's just fall, but we really didn't have it in Seattle so every time I see the kids get excited about a leaf pile I want to share it, so here it is.

Alexis's Fourth Birthday

Alexis turned four and what better way to celebrate than to invite "her girls" over for a princess tea party! There was a scavenger hunt too and Evan was in charge of reading the clues to the little princesses. When they successfully completed the quest they got princess jewelry boxes to decorate and crowns. Then it was time for tea, sandwiches and a birthday cupcake.