North Pole Express & the Zoo

My heart has felt a little heavy this Christmas since I recently had to to say goodbye to my grandpa. I flew to Kansas City last week for four days to attend Papaw's memorial service while Robert stayed home and took care of Abby. I'm at a loss for words to describe my time back home. Bittersweet fits best, perhaps? Aunts, uncles and cousins from all over the country traveled to Cameron, Missouri and it was so special to be have our large, extended family together again. I know Papaw would have been pleased. I'm very grateful I had a chance to honor him and say goodbye.

If you like, you can read his obituary by clicking: here. I didn't realize until I read it that he and Mamaw were married for 67 years. Incredible!

My parents and I flew into Tampa on Sunday evening and we packed as much fun into their short visit as we possibly could. First up? A train ride on the North Pole Express.

Cold and dreary weather? Nope. Christmas in Florida is sunny, bright and warm!

Abby is waving in both of these photos. She's been a fan of waving ever since the parade at Disney.

Lining up to board our car. It dates from the 1930s.

A 30 minute train ride took us to the North Pole. I should have taken pictures of the orange groves and then the thick, swampy jungle we passed through on the way. How did anyone ever settle this land?

The North Pole!

We spent an hour and a half at the North Pole. They had an area with fire pits where you could roast s'mores. There were also some crafts and Abby made this cute felt mouse:

They had big train tables set up and also little wooden train sets for the kids to play with. My mom had funnel cake for the first time. (It was overcooked, boo.)

Every child was promised the chance to see Santa but for the third time this year, Abby wanted nothing to do with that and I didn't want to force her. Maybe next year, little girl?

Overall, Abby's first train ride was a big success. I definitely plan on checking out the pumpkin patch train ride in the Fall.

The following day we had a birthday party to attend and then Robert's oldest brother's family came to visit. I really dropped the ball and didn't get a single picture from their visit. It's been 9 years since we've seen most of them. Tom and Laura and their youngest daughters, Kristina and Haley, recently moved from Draper, UT to Raleigh, NC and we're hoping to take a trip this Spring to visit them.   

We took Abby to the zoo on Christmas Eve. She was excited to wear a giraffe shirt just like Nana!

Pretty in pink.

Abby loves "mommy and baby!" anything so she was excited to see these sleepy rhinoceros.

We also had a lot of fun this visit checking out the Aviary.

This bigger bird made Abby a little nervous, though.

These birds made low, gurgly coos that sounded like bullfrogs.

Twice a day the zoo releases Macaws from a perch and they are trained to fly in a big circle around the fountains. The zoo staff tells you to keep your arms and hands in close to your body since the birds swoop by so closely. It's really beautiful and exciting and this time we followed the Macaws down along the path to each of their feeding stations.

Real men wear pink kitty cat backpacks. Ha!

It's sad to me that our tropical little girl has never seen a real snowman. Thanks to Frozen she calls them "Olaf" instead of "Frosty."

We caught up with the Macaws at their last feeding station. Doesn't it look like Fall in the background instead of December?

"No picture!"

Robert got some great pictures with the giraffes again this year. Remember last year?

2013

2014

I'll close this post with the following string of photos. While I tend to post mostly happy and cooperative pictures, I thought it might be fun for you to see something a little more "real." These sorts of things do happen from time to time, after all. Enjoy!

Not a bad shot. But then I asked Robert to try and get a better one...

 Abby was DONE.

Robert keeps shooting pictures. Oh, his sense of humor!

Mommy really starts to lose it here.

Tears!

Don't worry, no children were harmed in this photographic attempt. The tears ended quickly. Many happy Christmas morning photos in the next post -- stay tuned!