Howarth Park on Christmas Eve

There was a break in the rain, so we headed off to Howarth Park early Christmas Eve morning. Howarth Park is an amazing place but usually overcrowded and pure chaos.  But not Christmas Eve morning! I think there was maybe 3 other kids there so we got to run everywhere, play on the swings without waiting, and enjoy playing outside. Grey and Daddy had so much fun climbing, running, and riding on all the toys. Maybe Daddy had even more fun than Grey!

Rainy Weekend

Daddy decided to use his Christmas present early and headed to Tahoe this weekend. Before he left though we decided he should open another one of his gifts to make sure he was safe, his helmet! As soon as Grey saw it, he wanted his helmet too!

 Daddy was so nice to send us this picture...

 So we sent these to him showing him that we decided to wear our helmet all weekend long too!

 Except when we played in the leaves

 Or splashed in the puddles!

Even though it was rainy and wet, we still had lots of fun. Besides puddle jumping, we went to Starbucks to people watch and eat bagels for breakfast, we played with play-doh, and made some more sugar cookies! It was fun but we missed daddy alot!!

Polar Express

We drove through the wind and the rain to go take a ride on the polar express! On Friday, Grey and Andrew took Michelle, Gma (Andrew's Grandma), Grammie, and me to Willits to catch the Polar Express train (aka Skunk Train). The elves helped us board the train, a musician sang with us, they treated us to hot chocolate and cookies...and after about 45 minutes we made a fast stop at the north pole to pick up Santa! Santa and Mrs. Claus came aboard and rode back with us to the train station, stopping and visiting with each of the little kids(and big kids too!).  It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again next year!

 The whole gang (we got many compliments on our jammies!)

The musician was one of the best parts of the train ride, he was awesome!

 All aboard!

 Grey loved riding on the train, I could hardly get him to look at the camera!

He loved his cookie!

And then we made a special stop at the north pole!

Here comes Santa! The best part of some of these pictures are the people in the background-Mrs. Claus was not very photogenic...

This guy loved talking to Grey ....

 

Grey wasn't too sure about Santa

 

I told you the big kids got to talk to Santa, too! :)

Grey really had fun!

Safari West

On Sunday, we joined the Wings' for an open house at Safari West. A couple times a year, they open it up to Sonoma County residence to do a mini-tour at a MUCH discounted price. It was really amazing to see all the animals up close and personal, I wish they would have done a longer ride instead of a longer walking tour because Grey and Andrew were just about done towards the end of it and we actually slipped out a little early because the boys just wanted to splash in the mud puddles and Grey wanted to throw sticks for the cheetahs (the tour guide was not too happy about that one!)

All aboard!!

The giraffe decided to come check out our ride

This is the closest I have ever been to a giraffe!

The rhinos were amazing-Grey thought they were pretty cool splashing through the mud

The driver took a moment to take pictures of anyone who had a camera :)

Check out those horns!

 

The walking tour started with a look at the flamingos..Grey was trying to figure out how to climb over the fence and play in the water

 

We then headed to the aviary where we got to meet an African Diker...the cutest little animal ever. This one was named Ruby and really liked people. I tried to convince Zippy to put her under his shirt and walk out with her, I think she would have made a perfect pet!

 

But he said no...

Now doesn't this crane look so sweet and innocent?

Michelle told us horror stories before we even got into the aviary about they used to swarm her and peck at her when she volunteered here. I thought she was exaggerating.  Seriously, look at how nice he was posing for a picture with Zippy and Grey.

That was until I watched it chases another little boy and start pecking at him...and then he later bit Andrew's hand-had two whole fingers in his mouth.  Michelle played it off as kisses so Andrew didn't get upset but we get the heck out of there after that! 

It was right around the cheetahs that we decided we better end our tour here, we looked at a couple of monkeys but then headed out before the boys had a total full blown melt down. The walking tour wasn't really geared towards 2 year olds!

We had lots of fun and I would love to do the longer tour in the jeeps when Grey is a little older. It was amazing to see all the animals so close and right here in our own backyard!

Playing in Healdsburg

After we had breakfast with Santa last weekend, we walked around downtown Healdsburg before heading out to Truett Hurst Winery to pick up our wine shipment. The leaves were beautiful and Grey loved playing in them!

We headed to the winery where they said that there were salmon jumping in the creek that runs behind the winery...we headed down there and didn't see any...even with our cool fish finder glasses!

This place is probably our favorite winery right now. The wine is good but there is so much entertainment for Grey. He loves to go play by the creek, check out the goats and sheep, and wonder through their amazing gardens. It was a beautiful day so we played by the creek for awhile!

I think I am starting to look pregnant :)

 

Grey though ZJ might want to play with a stick too!

It was a wonderful weekend, I love this time of year in between the rain storms. I am getting excited for Christmas, too!!! Less than two weeks away!