Our Visit with Santa

Friday night, we headed to Bass Pro to see Santa. I will confess that last year when Brian said that we should go to see Santa at Bass Pro, I was thinking, no way but we went and it was decorated so nice and the Santa was great. So, this year, I was very excited to head back there with Mallory and we got to go with Mallory's cousins, aunts, uncles and my parents came too!

 

 

It really was decorated so pretty

 

When we got there, they told us it will be an hour wait. It looked like the line wasn't moving so I was sure we would have to leave and come back but thankfully the line started moving and it wasn't a bad wait. I'm thankful that my parents took Mallory around to enteratin her while we waited.

 

They had lots of different things for the kids to do. Mallory loves to color and they had a place for all the kids to color Christmas pictures.

 

They also had trains to control and watch so Mallory loved being able to do both.

 

Then, it was time for us to see Santa. Mallory looked for Santa and she waived at him a couple of times. We were hopeful she would be as happy to see him up close as she was from afar.

 

 

She gave the Bass Pro elf a high five before getting to Santa.

 

First up to see Santa was her cousin Josiah.

 

Next up, cousin Emmaline

 

And then, it was Mallory's turn. Side note: I was not expecting a smily, happy child sitting in Santa's lap. I know that our child does not like to go to someone she doesn't know (which is good - stranger danger you know), but this reaction was more than I ever thought. And before that pic, I have to take a look back at last year:

 

 

Where did my baby go??? And now, this year:

 

 

Full on Screaming, Melt Down mode. Is it sad that I love these pictures??? And the Santa just kept smiling along as she cried. This is classic.

 

After those lovely photos, they let us get a cousin photo:

 

Mallory was still happy, as you can tell

 

And because she was crying, her cousin Josiah started crying. I'm so glad we got these group photos of the cousins. I think they are great!

 

Love these boys

 

Since the Santa pic didn't go well, I thought I would try to get at least one pic of Mallory in her cute dress standing by a Christmas tree. She loves our Christmas tree so I knew she would like to look at some others.

 

And I was correct, she loved it and was a happy camper after this.

 

We had a wonderful time with our family! 2012's Visit with Santa was definitely one we will never forget :)