I didn't get the greatest sleep last night, there were three of us in a double bed so it was not very roomy.
So I ended up getting up quite early, before everyone else.
The elves were here and up to their tricks.
They left some signs over the stove there and they kept falling behind the stove so I had to keep replacing them before the girls got up.
I have no idea how 67 became a thing but it did.
There were elves all over the place this morning.
They left the girls a nice note.
This place is so big and roomy and I love the big island.
We'd turned the heat down so low when we got here last night that it was kind of chilly in here this morning so I turned up the heat, grabbed a blanket, a coffee, a cozy spot on the couch and got to work on my blog.
I AM FINALLY CAUGHT UP!!!!
I've been working and working at it and I finally got all up to date on the blog this morning and that felt so great to get that out of the way.
I won't ever let myself get that far behind ever again.
Once everyone was up and at it, we all got ready and headed over to the mall.
Kody and Haylee headed there on their own to do some Christmas shopping then the rest of us all went together.
We did a little shopping - I was looking for tights for the girls but no luck.
Then we went to the food court for some lunch.
Freya had Chinese food - she loves chow mein noodles.
I had some Indian food, a biryani rice dish.
Jason had Edo and Eden just shared with both of us.
She really likes chicken so she had a lot of that.
We separated briefly so that Crystal could also do a bit of shopping and Jason and I took all the girls.
The girls did a virtual ride and we walked the mall but we didn't really need anything so we decided to head out.
We stopped at Dollar Tree so I could get some craft stuff then we just went and hung out at the house for the rest of the afternoon.
We bought tickets for Glow tonight and Santa will be there for pictures so we are going to get everything done at once.
Freya was so excited to put on her new outfit - it does look beautiful on her.
She got Grandma Crystal to curl her hair (she did a great job) and she wanted to see what it looked like in the back.
I think she felt like a princess in her dress.
Eden looked cute in her dress as well.
She was a little harder to coax to pose for pictures so this is what I got.
I don't imagine the headband will last long but at least she let me brush her hair and put some ponytails in it.
She was chilling watching "Papa phone"
More dress pictures.
I had to get one with her fancy gold shoes.
This cool moose was in the lobby of the Expo Center.
There was an elf greeting everyone as they came in and she was telling Freya how much she loved her dress.
This years theme was Enchanted Forest.
They had all these ornate gold frames hanging in front of the sign at the entry way for picture taking so we took advantage.
Our little beauty.
I headed right for the Santa photos and there was a line up so I offered to stand in the line and text everyone else when I was getting close to the front since I'm the one that wanted the Santa pictures.
These are some of the pictures they took while they were exploring.
The way they had this tree lit up looked so cool.
This kids always love these hanging lights.
Freya.
Eden was having fun.
I love these trees and the big giant insects looked really good.
Got lots of pictures of the girls with those.
Pretty in pink.
Eden really loves the lights so we had thought about taking her to the raceway to see all the lights there from the car but she can barely see out the window when she's in the car so we figured this way, she could run around inside and really see all the lights and I think we made the right call.
She loved it.
She could really get up close and personal with the lights here.
Eden.
Freya
Glow
I love this picture.
This one is great too.
Then I got them to come back to Santa because we were nearly at the front.
I tried putting Eden's headband on - this is what I got.
She is such a character.
She wouldn't leave it on her head but kept pulling it over her eyes so she looked like Data from Star Trek.
So we ditched the headband for the pictures.
They had a professional photographer taking pictures but you could also take pictures yourself.
So this was my picture.
Freya having a chat with Santa - he was a really good Santa and took the time to talk with each of the children that wanted to chat.
Awww.
I got the package where they printed out 3 pictures of my choice then they also send me all of the poses digitally.
I think this one was my favorite.
They all turned out good though.
Santa has such a big smile.
The fam jam.
The girls on Santa's lap.
Eden wasn't crying but she wasn't too sure what to think.
Mom and Dad had to stay close.
Jason took this one - it turned out pretty good.
I wish this one wasn't so dark because I like it too - I think Haylee might have taken this picture.
Haylee and Zepplyn also did one together for Crystal.
I had to wait in another line just to purchase the pictures so I told everyone to go on ahead and I'd catch up with them.
I didn't really know where they'd gone when I finished up so I took a walk through the Enchanted Forest on my own looking for them.
This stack of presents was pretty.
Some singing trees, the lights moved along with the so it looked like they were animated and the trees were actually singing.
I loved these trees - I was trying to figure out how they made them, I wouldn't mind having a few for my front yard.
I've seen the giant moose and deer before and they never fail to impress.
The lit up tunnel.
It is really fun to walk through.
Wouldn't this be fun to have over a walkway at home or even our driveway?
They had some new style of trees - gorgeous too.
The stations for stamp collection (there is always a scavenger hunt) were these adorable mushrooms.
A giant lit up acorn you could stand inside of for pictures.
There was a talking tree.
More trees - I am a tree girl so I can always appreciate a nice tree.
The fox was new.
There were two of them.
I thought they were so cute and they were huge.
Another lit up structure you could go inside, this time a mushroom.
A mushroom and a giant snail.
There were a bunch of mushrooms.
The tree forest the girls had been in earlier for pictures.
There were even fairies.
The wings on this butterfly moved.
Another butterfly - this one was giant.
It was hard to get a picture of this tree to capture how pretty it was.
Here it is again, it was in the middle of the route the little train did.
Giant moose.
I love how they did this tree.
This owl was impressive too - I don't know how they did the lights on it but it looked amazing.
I went through the whole forest and didn't find the family.
So I went over to the food trucks and they were all there eating.
There were 4 different food trucks there and they all just had poutine mainly.
I bought Dubai strawberries which was a cup of fresh strawberries with chocolate and pistachio sauce drizzled over it and some of the really skinny coconut.
It was good but not worth the 16.80 it cost me.
Freya loved them too and ended up eating all of them on me (I was happy to let her since she liked them so much).
They had this big LOVE sign that Haylee wanted to take pictures in - there was a couple in there taking pictures so we were waiting for them to finish up.
The lady was leaned against the edge kind of and Eden just went right in there and kind of pushed in behind her to get by.
It was kind of funny - they were just about done so they didn't mind, they laughed at her.
Posing like sissy.
Family picture.
Even though they aren't looking this way, I really like this picture.
Kody took Eden on the train.
Off on a train ride.
And they are back!
She liked it, we all went on it again later on.
Jason had pre-purchased some tickets for a virtual sleigh ride so we did that next.
Only 4 could go at a time and that's how many tickets he got so that worked out perfect.
They had a screen to the side that showed the same video the riders were seeing so Jason had Eden over there watching it.
Virtual sleigh ride at Glow.
It's not the same as watching it with the virtual headset but it's still pretty neat to watch what they are watching.
She is Papa's girl for sure.
I got a picture of Kody taking a picture - ha ha.
Freya wanted to go on the round swings.
Jason got some really great shots of her on them.
She wanted Kody to come on with her so he did.
Then we went on the scavenger hunt.
If you get all your stamps and turn the card in at the end you get a free ornament.
Checking out the giant snail..
Eden was loving all of the lights.
Checking out the talking tree.
She figured out how to make it talk.
Talking tree.
She saw this reindeer and went right up to it then asked it if it was Daddy.
Ha ha ha.
We all cracked up.
Jason's so good at getting motion pictures.
I love this one of Freya running through the tunnel of lights.
Eden checking out the giant stack of presents.
The retro deer was super cute and Freya looked so sweet sitting by it.
Just laying around taking it all in.
I think this means they were done and it's time to go.
We were there for around 2 hours and I think that was the perfect amount of time.
We really enjoyed it this year - I think we decided we are going to make it an annual event.
We headed straight back to the house and ordered pizza for supper when we got there.
Then we watched a Christmas movie (My Secret Santa) and called it a night.
That's all for today, until next time, be happy.
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