Holiday Express

On Sunday, we drove to Raleigh to visit Pullen Park and the Holiday Express.  This is a great park and this event is a neat little thing to do for Christmas so we were really excited!  There were Christmas lights every where, a HUGE carausal to ride, a train going around and Santa was there too! 

A few families from the play group were there, but everyone was kind of running around at their own pace so we hung out with Brad's family (Hi, Sally!), which suited the boys (and parents!) just fine! 

The park does not offer a lot of parking near the park, so we had to park at a remote lot down the road and a bus picked us up and transported us over.

It was C-O-L-D outside!  The event started at 4 and we didn't get there until around 5, so the temperature was dropping as the sun went down.  I wasn't really worried about Cal getting cold because he was going to be running around with Brad.  Andy, on the other hand, was going to be hanging out in the stroller for the evening.  We bundled everyone up tight and they were both happy as could be!  Andy did not make one peep the entire time we were there-- just sat in the stroller all wrapped up smiling at everyone. 

When we first arrived, Cal could hear the train blowing its horn and it was almost more than he could take.  I tried to film his reaction to the horn, but he started saying this:

Before we left the house, I asked Eddie if he saw Cal's hat in the car.  He said yes, we we left.  Well, there is a little lesson in communication there-- I mean his tobogon (dear lord, how do you spell that??) hat and Eddie thought I meant baseball hat.  We panicked since it was so cold out, so we put Andy's hat on Cal and improvised for Andy's head:

Turns out I had Cal's hat hidden in the bottom of the stroller, so he was happy and Andy didn't have to have a blanket wrapped around his noggin!

waiting for the bus to pick us up!

I'm in love

he did this the whole night

 Once we ran in to Brad and his family, the boys took off running...and didn't stop the entire time we were there-- they were so cute together in their red jackets!

 There was a little band playing Christmas music so the boys sat (for all of 3 seconds) to watch:

After running around, we headed over to visit with Santa.  The boys took a picture together, which I think it sooooooo sweet- love it! And then they did individual pictures.  A mother in front of us in line asked if they were twins... they really looked alike in their red coats and hats!

don't they just look like trouble? also- I think Cal is holding Santa's thumb- so cute!

 Cal was in mid-visit with Santa, telling him what he wanted for Christmas, when the train blew its horn.  Cal screamed CHOO CHOO! while sitting there- hahaha

We had a great time and enjoyed the evening out with the fam and friends.  It was a great way to get us in the holiday spirit!