Zoo Lights 2011

I saved the last 4 of my vacation days for December so that I wouldn't have to work a full week. Sitting in an office chair all day is getting increasingly difficult so I wanted to minimize the number of days in a row I would need to do that for my last month of work. That means, as of December, no more Monday's at work! The first Monday off was last week and we did something fun\special to mark the vacation time.

My mother in law's birthday happened the week before that so we wanted to take her to dinner. As they also live near the Stone Zoo, which has its annual Zoo Lights running, we combined the two into one evening. Now, Zoo Lights doesn't encompass the whole zoo. So, Mike, Dylan and I had a quick trip to the zoo before meeting up for our special dinner.

And I do mean quick. Dylan was leading our zoo tour that day and as soon as he saw one animal it was "let's go see another animal, Mama" or "let's go see another animal, Daddy"! We circled the whole place in record time. While we didn't do any long gazing at anything, we did see a couple of notable sights.

The snow leopard was front and center. He's usually a tough one to get to see.

The gibbons had a new baby and Momma was proudly showing him\her off.

After our whirlwind animal tour, we headed to my in-laws' house nearby where Emily, Mike's niece, was also there to join us for the evening. We had a lovely dinner at a nice restaurant in their town where Emily did a great job of entertaining Dylan so the adults were able to enjoy a somewhat leisurely meal. Then, it was on to the zoo!

Dylan, I think, is at the perfect age for holiday fun right now. He's understanding so much about the world and yet everything has an amazing newness to it that is fun to watch him enjoy. On the top of that list is Christmas lights! We knew he would be in for a treat at Zoo Lights!

The weather was mild for the season (unlike other years we've attended this event) which made it even easier to enjoy. In addition to the lights, Dylan really loved having his cousin Emily there to enjoy the experience with him. I mean, he liked have the adults there too but he's got a bit of a soft spot for Emily. She likes to play with him and he really enjoys her company.

In Back - Bumpa and Nana

Emily and Dylan - Hand in Hand

After doing a quick round of the small portion of the zoo you can walk around to look at animals (and lights of course), we stood in line to take our turn getting up close and personal with a reindeer. Dylan was far more interested in observing the creature than posing for the camera.

I think he was telling me that the reindeer's antlers were broken.
Broken is a big concept for him right now.

At least we got him to face the camera one time!

Emily joined in for a shot too.

Then it was on to Santa's Village. This is where they have a Santa you can take pictures with (of course) but also where the bulk of the entertainment is. There are lots of displays to look at and enjoy and a few rides as well. At the entrance to the village is where we had a family picture taken that ended up on our 2009 Christmas Card. We had to recreate the moment:

Santa's Village 2011

Santa's Village 2009

Then it was time to go visit Santa. While we were standing in line, I worked on coaching Dylan on how the whole experience would happen. He would sit on Santa's lap and Santa would ask him what he wanted for Christmas. So, I asked Dylan "what do you want for Christmas?" After a few moments of thought, he answered "presents!" I told him that's a great answer and that's what he should tell Santa.

Well, you never know how a kid this age is going to react to the jolly old fellow. Once we got to the front of the line, Dylan willingly let me set him in Santa's lap and then proceeded to point to everything surrounding him and paid no attention to Santa. As a good Santa should, he reeled him back in by asking him questions. One was "do you like cars and trucks?" Dylan said "yes." To help the conversation along, I prompted him to name some of the characters from the Cars movies. Then, Santa asked THE question "what do you want for Christmas?" Dylan answered "new Cars movie." Where that came from I'm not sure nor do I know if he knows about the Cars movie recently released on dvd. What I do know is what Santa will be leaving him under the tree on Christmas morning!

Even though Dylan did a great job engaging with St. Nick, he didn't cooperate at photo time. He was too busy pointing out things again - like the toy reindeer prop used to help get a smile. He said "Momma, that deer walking" (as it was) and then pointed to all of the scenes we would soon be looking at outside of the window. Somehow, the pictures they did snap of him gave the sense that he was a shocked deer in the headlights.

Closeup

Funnily enough, it was almost identical to the look he shot the camera last year when he truly was shocked and didn't know what to make of what was going on:

Santa Photo 2011

Closeup

What a funny guy! In any case, we're going to attempt for a smiling Santa picture this weekend when Dylan gets to see him again at my company's holiday party. I'll let you know how it goes.
After our photo op, it was on to the village! Dylan is the absolute perfect age for this place. He loved all the lights, decorations and stared in awe at all of the displays.

Santa's Castle

Then it was on to the rides! We got the 3 ticket pack and first up was the carousel. Dylan and Emily rode on side by side animals and I stood in the middle of them. Every time we went around, I told Dylan to give Nana a smile. He resisted for the first few revolutions but finally he couldn't resist and gave Nana a huge grin. After that, though he tried, he couldn't stop smiling!

After the carousel, Dylan and Emily rode the jeeps. He was grinning ear to ear the whole ride.

Instead of the other ride available, Dylan wanted to go back to the carousel. This time, they rode on horses.

Out of Santa's village, there were a couple of other rides - a train and a coin operated hippo. Because Dylan asked nicely to ride them and because we're suckers, we let him.

Look for the Santa hat. That's Dylan and Emily is next to him.

Coming around on our side.

Hungry, Hungry, Hippo!

At this point, it was past Dylan's bedtime and he was definitely exhausted. We'd seen what there was to be seen anyway so it was time to go. We had to practically push Dylan out of the gate as he was having such a great time and didn't want the night to end. We said our goodbyes to Nana, Bumpa and Emily and headed to the car. A then sad Dylan was asking for his yaya (his comfort lovey). Where was yaya? We couldn't find him! The last time I remembered seeing him was at the restaurant so I called there. Sure enough, yaya was waiting for us at the host's stand. Whew! With a little time added to our ride home to go back for Dylan's lovey, a disaster was averted. Apologies to yaya for getting left behind. However, in our defense, yaya goes almost everywhere with us and this is (almost) the first time he's gotten left behind. The other "almost" time was on our trip to Disney when yaya fell out of the car at the airport and we didn't notice. Luckily, someone draped him over the car handle in the parking lot so he didn't get buried in the snowstorm that occurred while we were gone. Oh the things that little lovey has seen!