Christmas Town

We continued our annual tradition of going to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, only we got to go twice this year! Our tradition has been with Mark's family but my family had never been and they really wanted to check it out this year, so my parents surprised us all with tickets and we enjoyed the day there as a family the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The day was chilly but not too cold while the sun was out. 

My sisters and my brother and his girl riding the scrambler. I love amusement park rides but it's a big no no when you're 7 months pregnant, so I enjoyed watching everyone else ride this time!

My parents are the cutest. :)

We got to see 2 shows that day. They have a great show called "Gloria" with classic Christmas Hymns portraying the birth of Christ. Love that they have a show that celebrates the true meaning of this season. We also caught a show in the "Festhaus" with dancing and fun songs like Jingle Bells, I'll Be Home for Christmas, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and so on.

Everyone enjoying the show!

When we went in it was still light out, but after we watched the show and ate we came back out to this big tree lighting up the darkness with its lights dancing to music

Reaghan was very timid about riding rides. She whimpered and had me in a head lock the whole time I rode the carousel with her... *sigh* I didn't make her ride any rides after that but after we had watched the shows there were a few more kiddie rides in the area. While the others we riding a roller coaster, I took her over to see the kiddie swings and asked if she wanted to try them. She said "No thanks, they're too hard to try." haha so then we walked over to the airplanes and I asked her if she wanted to try those and she said yes! I put that child on the airplane so fast, buckled her up and booked it out of there before she could change her mind! haha I stood by the fence and I could tell she was a little unsure about why I had walked away but she was digging the airplane - until it started moving! Poor girl cried the whole ride, I felt bad! But she was really proud of herself after it was all over and said she liked it even though "I cried a 'yittle' bit." 

I'm glad she gave something a try!

This tree had every. single. branch wrapped. It lit up the whole pathway around it.

So of course we got a picture. 

One of the prettiest sites is this water ride strung with lights falling down like a waterfall.

 It's amazing in person.

Iphones + night + glare from thousands of Christmas light bulbs = blurry pictures. But I still love it.

We ended the night with the skyride to check out the lights from above. 

Mark, Reag and I rode in one together and it was fun to show her all of the lights. She was nervous about getting on this "ride" too but thankfully realized it wasn't that scary. ; )

The classically beautiful "London" area as we left the park.

5 days later we got to go again with Mark's family!!

We were excited to go through it with them and get to drink some more delicious hot chocolate!

Our niece Brooklyn is her very best friend.

She doesn't play or interact with any other kids the way she does with her cousin

It's always fun to see them experience things together

I was hoping Brooklyn would help be a little more brave with the rides but when we hit up the Sesame Street area while it was still light out, she was completely content to wave to Brooklyn from the sidelines.

Brooklyn, however, was fearless! She absolutely loved all of the rides!

Reaghan did end up riding a new ride this time that I was able to go on with her. She hid her face in my lap for the first 10 seconds or so but the was able to look up and wave to everyone and ended up really liking it!

She did better on the Carousel this time but cried again when she rode the airplanes. I wasn't going to make her ride them if she didn't want to but she remembered that she was so brave on the airplanes before so she said she wanted to ride them with Brooklyn this time. Again, she was fine until the ride started. Maybe one day she'll enjoy rides!

My favorites.

So glad I have this guy to take blurry selfies with. <3

This visit was a lot colder than the first time we went so I was really grateful that a friend from work let me borrow her maternity coat so I could actually wear something that I could zip up!

Reag doesn't look thrilled in this picture buuttt we really enjoyed our night!

It's a great way to get yourself in the "Christmas Mood", soak up all the lights and get those Christmas songs stuck in your head!

I'm so thankful for all of our fun Christmas traditions we've begun to establish, even if it makes for a really busy month of December!

**Also, incase you're wondering - Reaghan stayed dry through both visits to Christmas town and did a great job telling me when she had to go potty or going when I asked her to. I did put a pullup on her just incase we were far from a potty when she had to go, but she kept it dry the whole time! I feel like because we didn't use pullups in the beginning at all, she doesn't see them as something she can go in and instead as special underwear that we just use for trips! So proud of our little potty trained 2 year old!**